HISTORY OF 35025 BROCKLEBANK LINE

In shining malachite green livery 35025 entered traffic at Bournemouth (71 B) shed on the Southern Region of the newly formed British Railways in November 1948. One of the final ten to be introduced, it was built to the novel air smoothed chain driven valve gear design of Mr Oliver Bullied, former and last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway, to haul the heaviest passenger trains from London's Waterloo station to destinations such as Southampton and Bournemouth and the prestigious Atlantic Coast Express. Because of this association with the south coast ports these Merchant Navy Pacific's, as the class was called, were all named after the major shipping lines of the day so on 20th September 1949, by now in British Railways express blue livery, 35025 was named Brocklebank Line at Waterloo by Col. H. E. Bates, chairman of Brocklebank Line Shipping Company. 35025's links with the company have remained to this day as members of the Brocklebank family are active members of the Association. 35025 spent time at a number of SR sheds including Stewarts Lane, Exmouth Junction and Nine Elms and during an allocation to Exmouth Junction in June 1952 received its final livery of BR Brunswick green. Beginning in 1956 the whole class was rebuilt by BR to facilitate easier maintenance and to eliminate problems with the original valve gear. Thus it was whilst allocated to Bournemouth in December 1956 35025 gained three sets of Walschaerts valve gear and lost it's air smoothed casing. This latter modification completely altered the appearance of the whole class. Drivers opinions on the merits of the engines following this rebuild were mixed but the Merchant Navy's remained the front line express locomotive of the Southern Region for many years, finally succumbing to BR's headlong rush into dieselisation in the 1960's. Although one of the last ten of the thirty strong class to be built Brocklebank Line was one of the first six to go being withdrawn from Exmouth Junction shed in September 1964 at the end of the summer timetable. During these years thousands of redundant steam locomotives were cut up for scrap by BR or by private contractors and in November 1964 35025 was sold to Woodhams scrap yard at Barry Dock, South Wales arriving there in February 1965. The story of Woodhams yard has passed into railway history. Cutting up a steam locomotive required a careful technique in order to retrieve the material safely and economically and so, because it was simpler to cut up the surplus wagons flooding off the railways as the lorry took over as the national carrier of goods, Dai Woodham left his fleet of around 250 locomotives intact to slowly corrode away in the salt laden sea air on the side of the old docks. It was from this yard that the vast majority of today's restored steam locomotives rose (Like so many phoenix' from the flames). In 1980 Dai Woodham announced he would cut up all locomotives without reservations on them, 35025 being one such. In July 1980 the flow of scrap wagons and track panels had dried up and three locomotives were earmarked for scrapping. "9F" 92085, GWR Prairie tank 4156 and our own 35025. The first two were duly dispatched, then the workforce stopped for their two week summer holiday. Fortunately for us by the time the workers returned more wagons had arrived and 35025 was reprieved for a second time. The threat however of further disposals focused the minds of all involved in attempting to rescue the locomotives in the yard. Organisations such as the Barry Steam Locomotive Action Group (BSLAG), Barry Rescue and the Bullied locomotive owning groups then forming. Keith Marshall of Oadby, Leicestershire, was already involved in several groups attempting to save Bullied Pacific's from Barry when he was approached to start up a group to rescue 35025. Throughout the early 1980's Keith contacted like minded enthusiasts and placed small adverts in the embryo "Steam Railway" magazine. Progress was slow but by 1985 enough money had been raised to enable the locomotive to be purchased from Dai Woodham. This was effected in November 1985 for £8,500 however before the locomotive could be moved a professional asbestos de-contamination firm had to be engaged at a cost of £910. Keith now looked around for a restoration base for "Brocklebank Line" without a great deal of success. Initial hopes of a place at Pitsford on the "Northampton Steam Railway" were dashed when the landowner failed to agree the original terms. Focus then shifted to the "Great Central Railway" and Keith was pleased when the go ahead was obtained. So it was that in November 1985 35025 was purchased by the Southern 8P Preservation Group, forerunner of the 35025 Brocklebank Line Association, and, following professional removal of harmful asbestos lagging, travelled to Quorn and Woodhouse Station on the Great Central Railway arriving there in February 1985. It remained at Quorn for a year with very little happening while Keith made strenuous efforts to get an engineering team together. In late 1986 Keith's medical situation dictated that he had to take back seat and step down from his position as chairman of the association. One of the early 35025 Group shareholders, John Young stepped in as temporary chairman. It was at a crisis meeting held in the booking office at Loughborough GCR station in November 1987 that the nucleus of the present management team was formed. Brian Seddon as Chairman, Michael Wood as Secretary and Richard Derry as Treasurer. That structure continued for a number of years and was gradually expanded into what we have today. (In 1994 Richard Derry stepped down as Treasurer to take up the role of Editor of our magazine "Brocklebank Express" and was replaced by Alan Gomme another of our share holders.) After twenty one years unprotected in the dock land scrap yard (it only ran on BR for sixteen years!) 35025 was in a sorry state. The smoke-box door had been buckled in a scrap yard shunting accident, most of the cab, running plate and other sheet metalwork was totally corroded away and most the valve and running gear had been legally `removed' prior to purchase by other preservation groups for their locomotives. Only the boiler, frames and wheels remained. The Association had been fortunate to purchase the original tender tank but there was no chassis to put it on. So the Association set to work. Due to the dedicated efforts of both the Engineering and the Fund-raising teams a substantial amount has been achieved. The boiler has been lifted off the frames by crane and the frames jacked off the wheels. The front bogie and the rear pony truck have been stripped down, cleaned, overhauled, repainted and now await re-assembly. All twelve wheel and axle sets have returned to Loughborough following tyre profiling and journal machining and are ready for re-installation into the thoroughly refurbished frames. This will take place once the newly fabricated drag box has been fitted, the former having corroded away beyond safe use and reasonable repair. The main axle-box horn guides have been re-metalled and refitted. The cylinders and valve chests await machining by professional contractors once the last of the cover studs have been removed. A completely new cab has been fabricated by a Coventry based engineering company and presently displays two liveries! Throughout all of this activity our Sales stand has shouldered the major burden of providing much of the funding to keep the project moving. Although regularly on duty at Rothley the team travel to other suitable venues far and near to keep the bank account healthy and as funds allow orders are placed for the many components and services essential to a restoration project of this magnitude. The costs of these purchases are minimised by working closely with other Bulleid Societies in order to join together and place larger orders on the suppliers thus reducing unit costs. With the large sums of money involved and the attendant professionalism required the Society is considering forming a limited company in the near future but it is too early to comment further. There is still much to do. The boiler and tender chassis remain as major projects. The super-heater elements have been removed from the boiler and soon the wet and dry headers will be removed. A set of Class 40 diesel wheels and axle boxes have been obtained and the Engineering team is carefully studying the original tender chassis drawings to see how the frames will have to be modified during fabrication to accept these components. Much has been achieved and in common with all other locomotive restoration projects this is not merely playing with trains, it is a major engineering project being attempted by dedicated and skilled volunteers. In order to steam again, as it surely will, 35025 needs a continuing input of money and muscle. It is estimated that £250,000 of money and 10 years of muscle is required. Are you willing to provide either one or the other? Or both! If you are then please complete one of the readily available application forms and become involved in the restoration of one of the most successful classes of express passenger locomotives to run in this country. All members receive regular copies of our own magazine Brocklebank Express and shareholders receive an official certificate to record their holding. An additional shareholders benefit package is currently under review and this and all other aspects of the Societies progress will be discussed at one of our meetings which all members and shareholders are encouraged to attend and express their opinions. There is a great deal going on within the 35025 Brocklebank Line Association providing opportunities for enthusiasts to positively contribute according to their abilities. Why not join us? We look forward to hearing from you.

Movements of 35025 around the Great Central Railway.

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