'Joem' and 'Sir Berkeley' to star at 2012 Easter Steam Gala!
The North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group's unique J72 Class 0-6-0T No. 69023 'Joem' and the Vintage Carriages Trust
0-6-0 Saddle Tank 'Sir Berkeley' will be the two steam locos visiting Ludborough for the LWR's Easter Gala on the 7th-9th April. 'Joem' will be facing south while at the LWR, giving some great photo opportunities.
Advance Tickets for the Easter Gala can be ordered by downloading the website order form.
Joem
Built in Darlington in 1951, 69023 is the only surviving example of the North Eastern Railway E1/J72 class of locomotive, a remarkable design that was constructed over a period of 54 years, by 3 different railway companies.
Designed by Wilson Worsdell for the N.E.R. and introduced in December 1898, the first 20 engines were built at North Road Works, Darlington by 1899. Sir Vincent Raven, who succeeded Worsdell, had 20 more built in 1914 with very slight modifications to the original design, then a further 10 were built in 1920 and another 25 by Armstrong Whitworth at Newcastle in 1922/3. Sir Nigel Gresley, for the newly formed L.N.E.R. re-classed the engines as J72’s and then built 10 at Doncaster in 1925. And then remarkably 54 years after they were first introduced British Railways built a further batch at Darlington, 20 in 1949 and 8 in 1951, bringing the class total to 113.
By 1964 all but two of the class had been scrapped, the exceptions being 69005 and 69023, which were taken into Departmental Stock as No. 58 and No. 59 initially at Gateshead but latterly at North Blyth and Heaton, where they were used for de-icing. Both were withdrawn by BR near the end of steam in the Northeast, No. 69005 was scrapped but 69023 became the only survivor when it was purchased by Mr. R. Ainsworth for preservation and named ‘Joem’.
The locomotive was purchased by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG) in 1983 and was used at heritage railways around the region until being taken out of service in 1996. The locomotive was then put into storage until 2005, when the dedicated volunteers at NELPG were able to begin work on its restoration.
On February 7, 2010, the locomotive was moved around NELPG’s Hopetown Carriage Works, Darlington, under its own steam for the first time in 15 years. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the skilled team of NELPG volunteers have finally restored this unique engine to its former glory – 59 years after it was first built.
Sir Berkeley
This locomotive, MW 1210, was built by Manning Wardle & Company at their Boyne Engine Works in Leeds. It was supplied new to Logan & Hemingway, a firm of engineering contractors who during the latter half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century worked mainly on railway (and allied) constructions. They were steady customers of Manning Wardle, working the engines hard, selling the older locomotives when business waned and re-stocking with new as contracts required.
Number 30, on L & H's books, was put to work building the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (later to be the Great Central Railway) and was noted on the excavation of the Nottingham GCR/GNR joint station site (eventually named Nottingham Victoria). It is then known to have worked on the Wath Concentration Sidings (1905-07) and the Doncaster Avoiding Line (1908-09) in Yorkshire (both contracts for the GCR), then (still on GCR contracts) in Lincolnshire during 1910-15, first at Frodingham Viaduct in-filling, then at the Keadby Deviation Line construction. No. 10 was next used at the Thoresby Colliery (Nottinghamshire) branch line construction in 1925-26, the Crofton Tunnel Widening at Barnt Green (Worcestershire) for the LMS in 1926-27, then back to Thoresby Colliery in August 1927 for a couple of months before working on the Hattersley Widening between Mottram and Godley Junction (east of Manchester) for the LNER. In 1930 No. 10 went south to the Wiltshire/Somerset border for its last railway contract, the GWR Westbury and Frome Cut-Offs.
In 1935 Logan & Hemingway went into liquidation and MW 1210 was sold to the Cranford Ironstone Company of Kettering (Northamptonshire) where it received the nameplates Sir Berkeley from a scrapped Manning Wardle engine owned by the Midland Ironstone Company at Crosby (near Scunthorpe). To the Cranford workforce however, it was always known as "Paddy Logan".
Sir Berkeley's work at Cranford consisted of hauling four (six with banking assistance) loaded ore wagons from the quarry face to the storage sidings, or from the storage sidings up an incline to the LMS interchange sidings. Between 1943 and 1947 it was loaned to the Pilton Quarry in Rutland where a steep incline down to a dead-end siding at the quarry face exposed the limitations of Manning Wardle's handbrake, even though fitted to act on all wheels in accordance with Logan & Hemingway's standard requirements for all their Manning Wardle engines. During the early 1950s Sir Berkeley underwent a complete renovation, during which the original weatherboard was replaced by an open-backed cab, a Wakefield mechanical lubricator was fitted, a new sheet-steel sandbox was fitted on the right hand side and the original wooden dumb-buffers were removed. The motion was completely dismantled, bearing surfaces were re-metalled, pistons re-ringed and when the whole was re-assembled the valve events were re-timed for optimum efficiency.
At the end of 1957 Cranford Ironstone acquired a Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST to replace Sir Berkeley which then became redundant, except for occasional duties as a stand-in for any engine that was undergoing a boiler washout, or some other maintenance operation. Transferred to the associated Byfield Quarries in 1959, it worked for a year alongside MW 1235 (a class K of 1893) but the condition of the latter deteriorated rapidly and it was cannibalised to provide spares for Sir Berkeley. In 1960 Sir Berkeley was yet again made redundant and with its days as a commercially useful engine over it languished in a siding for a couple of years before being formally retired in 1963. MW 1210 was bought in 1964 by Roger Crombleholme, just in time to save it from being scrapped, and was eventually brought to the Worth Valley Railway where its original weatherboard was refitted, having been discovered at Cranford. Restored to service it took part in the BBC Television production of 'The Railway Children'.
After expiry of its boiler certificate the Vintage Carriages Trust bought the engine and firstly kept it as a static exhibit but in the course of time restoration to working order took place. Since then Sir Berkeley has travelled extensively within this country and abroad, having been in use at British Steel Scunthorpe, the East Anglian Railway Museum, the Dutch National Railway Museum and the Middleton Railway at Leeds, which is its present location. The engine was repainted in early 1998 to a light apple green livery, reminiscent of the Cranford Ironstone Quarry livery.
Sir Berkeley's ten-year boiler certification expired in 2001. A new boiler was built in 2006 by Israel Newton of Bradford, thanks to a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and donations from hundreds of individuals. Sir Berkeley returned to service at the Middleton Railway on Saturday April 14th 2007.