11th March 2019 · ‘Ex BR Shunting Locomotives at Home and Abroad’

Presenter: John Wade

Many thanks to Brian for making the long journey to Sheffield to provide an excellent evening’s entertainment of nostalgia covering an area not too familiar to the branch members and with very interesting slides and expert commentary..

A smaller than usual audience welcomed John Wade on Monday 11th March for his presentation on “Ex BR Shunters at Home and Abroad”.

A keen collector of shunting locomotives, John showed his interest by showing examples of all the types of the shunters which had passed into private ownership. Only missing were the classes 12, 13 and the early former company locomotives, compensated by a shot of an LNER J94 steam locomotive.

The coal board had acquired many locomotives from BR mainly of classes 03,04, 08 and 14, and these were shown at many of the former UK collieries largely in run down condition in the 1980s, before and after the miners’ strike. The privately owned locomotives were either kept in the BR livery or re-liveried in the company image, some of which showed pride of ownership. Several locomotives gained extra fittings such as lighting, air reservoirs etc. to suit their new operating requirements. A considerable number of the locomotives spent longer in private ownership than their time with BR, particularly the class 14s. Fortunately their time in private ownership allowed many to pass into preservation as BR would have scrapped them at the end of their useful life with BR.

All the slides were accompanied by John’s expert knowledge on the classes and their movements after leaving BR. Some locomotives passed through several owners before ending up in preservation. What became apparent was the loss of so much of our industrial infrastructure.

Our many thanks to John for his many trips around the country which provided the audience with his slide presentation and knowledge on the subject of the humble but essential shunting locomotive.