GWR 4-6-0 Hall
4965 Rood Ashton Hall
Built : Swindon 1929
Identity Change : March 1962
Withdrawn : December 1963
Restored & Mainline Certified : 1998
Mainline Certificate ended : November 2008
Mainline Re-Certified : October 2009
GWR 4-6-0 Hall
4983 Albert Hall
Built : Swindon 1931
Withdrawn : March 1962
Scrapped : April 1962
Images : click on an image to enlarge
Reproduced from 'Steam In Trust' Winter 1998
You may find it difficult to believe, but we have an impostor in our midst. No, our Education Officer is not an escaped Nazi war criminal, but over the past 18 months we have become absolutely convinced that one of our engines is most definitely not what we thought it was when we bought it! The time is now right to reveal to you that “Albert Hall” isn’t 4983 at all, but is in reality 4965 “Rood Ashton Hall”.
The story commences in 1929 when 4965 was built at Swindon as one of the first batch of 80 Halls that were built. These eventually formed part of a class of 330 engines, 4983 being constructed at Swindon in January 1931. The two engines led very separate lives, never apparently being allocated together at any shed or even being on works together, if the engine record cards are to be believed.
The count-down to the exchange of identities appears to start in January 1961 when 4983 was taken on to Swindon works for a general repair. After 77 days on shops 4983 was outshopped on 13/4/61 newly fitted with boiler number 2800. The engine seems to have quickly run into trouble for it was back at Swindon on 3/7/61 for what turned out to be almost uniquely shown on the engine record card as a “continuation of HG repair”.
What transpired is not recorded, and enquiries with contacts at Swindon have failed to turn up any explanation. What is certain is that 4983 spent the not inconsiderable time of a further 78 days stopped for this attention, finally being outshopped on 19/9/61.
Six months later the engine was in trouble again with a further visit to Swindon for what is shown as a light casual repair starting on 12/3/62. There is nothing terribly unusual in this apart from the fact that this repair took 74 days to complete, a period that can only be considered somewhat excessive for a Light Casual! The completion of this repair is benchmarked photographically by the fitting for the only time in 4983’s existence with a 4000 gallon Hawksworth type tender.
This is the point in the story where the sting takes place, for the engine record card for 4965 blandly states “condemned 26/3/62, cut up 21/4/62”. It is probable that 4965 had been taken on to Swindon for repairs, but what is noticeable for this period is the very short time between condemnation and cut up dates.
It is possible that the true facts will never be properly known, but from various significant pieces of evidence it is clear that during the late days of March 1962 someone at Swindon decided to mix up the pieces of two engines (both obviously defective) in order to make one good one. We can only suspect that the logic of the situation was that there was some costly defect to the frames of 4983; it is known that a number of engines had suffered cylinder damage due to loose and incorrectly fitted pistons around this period and we can only surmise that this is a possibility.
It is also likely that 4965 had been taken on to Swindon for a classified repair and that some expensive work on the boiler had been found to be necessary. In the circumstances, it would appear totally logical to take boiler 2800 which had given less than 9 months service from a major repair and to refit it to a set of frames which were in reasonable order. Whilst the normal practice was to allocate the engine’s number to the frame, we suspect that in this instance the Board of Trade regulations governing the overhaul of boilers and classification of repairs may have influenced the situation. Changing the boiler from one engine to another would have required the declaration of a heavy general repair, and this would require further work to be undertaken on a boiler that probably didn’t require the work to be done. The answer was obvious - change the number!
Once this skullduggery had taken place it would have been a simple matter to despatch the remnants of the two engines to the scrapyard at ‘C’ shop and to show 4965 as condemned and cut up, as all of the clerical work would have been retrospective and simply recorded by a trusting clerk remote from the “economical with the truth” staff on the shop floor at Swindon.
This act would have remained totally undetected for eternity had it not been for the fact that the impostor 4983 was withdrawn in December 1963, and eventually sent to the infamous Barry scrapyard. During October 1970 “4983” was bought by 7029 Clun Castle Limited for preservation and moved to Tyseley on its own wheels (how times change!).
The subsequent rise and fall of the engine’s fortunes over the intervening 27 years is best not discussed, however it does act as a barometer for Tyseley’s fortunes. Over the last 2 years work has finally started on the engine in earnest, and it is during this period that detailed examination of the components has finally revealed the truth.
Many of the components which are more or less permanently fitted to the frame such as hornblocks, hornstays, spring hanger brackets, rock shaft brackets, back cylinder covers and many other items all bore stampings proclaiming 4965 and nothing else! Other items which were rarely removed also show clear 4965 stampings; these included footplate brackets which also had the part numbers from the original drawings stamped on, and the buffer beam and front gussets which had to be removed to repair scrapyard collision damage thus giving up the evidence. Added to this body of evidence, refurbishment of the motion revealed that everything apart from the eccentric rods was either stamped 4965, or had the 4965 stampings cut through with a chisel and restamped 4983. Other items such as the reverser had been overstamped with 83 on top of the original 65.
All these items aroused our interest to the point where we were actively looking for all the detail we could find to substantiate the findings. It became apparent that the frames contained bolt holes where the equalising beam brackets had been fitted to the first 80 engines, but 4983 was supposed to be one of the later batch which didn’t have them; further evidence for 4965. Study of photographs produced further evidence to support the theory; photographs of 4983 at Swindon just prior to the 1962 repair when it still had a Collett tender reveal two distinct differences to the frame that was purchased as 4983. The first point was that the cab contained an extra row of rivet heads which weren’t present in the engine we bought, and also the distinctive rolling marks in the footplate angles which usually state “Earl of Dudley Steel” or “Appleby Frodingham” definitely weren’t in the same position as ours. Study of photographs of 4965 revealed that the rolling marks corresponded exactly with those on our engine. Many other details add to our conviction that what we have is certainly not 4983 but is 4965.
In accordance with correct railway accountancy practices the number belongs to the frame, so we have an arguable duty to right the wrong done to 4965 all those years ago, and we also happen to think that “Rood Ashton Hall” is an appealing name. Having said this keep a close watch for the reappearance of “Albert Hall”, we have known the bits as such for too many years to let it disappear without a fight.
All this subterfuge does put a question mark over the accuracy of accepted records. This is one instance that, but for preservation, would have gone totally undetected, and it raises the question of how many more instances escaped detection. This is a typical example of how industry really worked on the shop floor, people just getting on and doing the job efficiently, supervision that was empowered to do its job, and adjusting the paperwork to a form that satisfied the accountants and the powers that be after the event. As such I find it totally believable that someone in Wiltshire back in March 1962 made the decision to mix up the bits of two engines safe in the knowledge that the railway was far too busy with dieselisation to worry about a little bit of subterfuge, they had after all turned out a repaired engine whose number didn’t really matter as long as it worked, and anyway the evidence was going to be on the scrap pile shortly, so they were perfectly safe - if only they knew!
