Chasewater Railway Museum Bits & Pieces 84 – S100
Another new arrival at Chasewater
Chasewater News 23 March 1978- Part 3
The second new arrival at Chasewater Railway was a six-coupled side tank built by Hudswell Clarke & Co. of Leeds, works no.1822 of 1949 and is known as S100. It is an interesting locomotive, the design dating back to 1909 when Hudswell Clarke supplied a six-coupled side tank with 15” x 22” outside cylinders to the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway. This loco was the BPGVR’s no. 8 and was named ‘Pioneer’. Over the next ten years Hudswells provided BPGVR with another eight similar locos, though they differed in certain details of design.
S100 was one of an order placed by the National Coal Board following Nationalisation, being ex-works on 29-4-1949, works no.1822. She was delivered to Whitwood Colliery near Castleford, as ‘Whitwood No.1’ and was later joined by two sister locos, replacing some ageing Robert Stephenson 0-6-0STs sold out of service by the North Eastern Railway in the early 1900s. For a period in 1955, she was sent on loan to the adjacent Walter Haigh Colliery, as she was again in July 1956, this time not returning to Whitwood, being observed at Allerton Bywater Colliery in 1957. Later in the year she was at Prince of Wales Colliery, Pontefract. In 1958 she was back at Allerton Bywater being completely overhauled at the adjacent workshops in 1959. Following this she was sent in 1960 to Peckfield Colliery, Micklefield, where she was to spend the rest of her working life under Coal Board ownership. In 1965 she was sent to Hunslet’s of Leeds for the fitting of a new steel firebox, mechanical stoker, new blast pipe arrangement and thorough overhaul.
Returning to Peckfield she was used intensively, being the only serviceable loco for much of the time.
By December 1968 she was at Allerton Bywater central workshops, following re-tubing at Peckfield, for a complete overhaul, being out-shopped the following October in red livery and carrying the number S-100, S standing for steam locomotive. S100 was sent back to Peckfield and worked alongside an Austerity and latterly ‘Primrose No.2’, a Hunslet 16” saddle tank, now preserved on the Yorkshire Dales Railway at Embsay.
http://www.embsayboltonabbeyrailway.org.uk
On arrival
A new Hunslet 388hp diesel which arrived in the summer of 1972 spelt the end of steam at Peckfield and in July 1973 she was tendered for disposal by the NCB and was bought by one Mr. K. Rose, ostensibly for scrap, but was soon resold to Mr. R. Walmsley, a member of the Society at Embsay. The loco was steamed several times at Embsay and in September 1975 she was resold to Tony Sale of Aldridge. By November of that year she was withdrawn from service and was in need of a complete major overhaul. Being of sensible disposition Tony decided to move S100 nearer home in order to effect the necessary repairs and Chasewater was the logical choice for S100’s new home.
Barry Bull bought a share in the loco and already work on the overhaul has started, with removal of the cab roof and se-scaling of the firebox, followed by a start on removing the boiler tubes.
S100 was moved to Chasewater on the 18th February by Messrs. Brackmills of Northampton, following several weekend visits to Embsay to prepare the loco for movement.
Despite press reports to the contrary the loco was unloaded fairly easily, the low-loader crew only being at Chasewater for 1½ hours, something of a record.
Thanks are due to Keith Rose, Charles Adams, Steve Fenwick and Martin Cleaver for their hospitality whilst the loco was awaiting movement and also to the lorry crew for their enthusiasm.
S100’s dimensions are as follows:-
Cylinders 16” x 24” Coal capacity 22.5 cwt
Wheel Dia 3’ 9” Water capacity 1,200 gallons
Length 27’ 6” Boiler Pressure 160 lbs
Width 8’ 9” Heating surface 645 sq ft – tubes
Weight 33 tons empty 73 sq ft fire box
Weight 42 tons loaded 718 sq ft total
Tractive Effort @ 85% boiler pressure – 18,570lbs
It is interesting to note that the left hand tank on S100 is off Whitwood No.4, being bought in 1976 to replace the original tank which was somewhat rotten.
Work on S100 is expected to take three to five years and will include firebox repairs, a complete re-tubing (tubes have already been acquired), overhaul of motion, wheel turning, re-plating of bunker and fitting of vacuum brakes.
By the time that S100 sees service at Chasewater there should hopefully be a longer stretch of line for it to run upon and it should be ideally suited to work here and give many years of trouble free service.
(As with Peckett 917, this was in 1978 and S100 still hasn’t steamed at Chasewater – although a good deal of progress has been made in the last few years.)
Chasewater Railway Museum 