Furness lakes and lune presentation

RCTS FURNESS, LAKES & LUNE BRANCH

Bahamas, the Story of a Locomotive by Peter Skellon

Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Peter Skellon of the Bahamas Society presented an illustrated talk on the history and the restoration of Jubilee Class locomotive, 45596 Bahamas.

The Jubilee and Patriot Class locomotives had been developed from the Claughton Class to modernise the LMS fleet. When William Stanier became the Chief Engineer he introduced the taper boiler resulting in the arrival of Silver Jubilee and 50 locomotives were ordered to be built at North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow. Bahamas entered traffic in 1935 at Crewe and was subsequently allocated to Preston and then Birmingham in 1936. It also received its name in 1936 after pressure from rail enthusiasts encouraged the Class to be named after Commonwealth countries.

Initially the Jubilee Class was unpopular with railmen due to poor steaming but a heavy repair which saw a domed boiler introduced improved performance. Later experiments took place to trial double chimneys with varying results but no definitive improvements to performances. More problems with the class emerged in the 1950’s that led to a possible downgrade in the Class rating. However attention at the Rolling Test Centre at Rugby on 45722 – Defiance resulted in modifications that led to a 30% improvement in performance so Class 6 status was retained.

In the 1940’s Bahamas was allocated to Grimethorpe Depot in Sheffield and then it moved to Edge Hill in the late 1950’s. Later it found itself at Carlisle Upperby and then moved to it’s final shed at Stockport in 1962 where it remained until withdrawal in 1966. During its career it operated with 7 different tenders.

It was withdrawn from Stockport Edgeley shed in 1966 and a campaign was organised to save and preserve it led by the Manchester Evening News and Robinson’s Brewery of Stockport. This led to the formation of the Bahamas Society and a loan of £3000 was obtained from Geoffrey Potter which enabled the Society to purchase Bahamas in September 1967. It received an immediate overhaul which was completed in March 1968 and then was moved to the Dinting Railway Centre. This saw the locomotive be outshopped in red. By 1972 it had been approved to operate on the mainline and commenced several Railtours. 2022 will see the 50th anniversary of the Society. Its last steaming before overhaul took place at Dinting commencing in 1973. This took 8 years to complete at a cost of £16,000 and it was finally approved for mainline work in 1988. During the following 6 years it hauled 37 Railtours. In 1990 Bahamas was moved to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway after the closure of Dinting. By now it needed further restoration and only by the award of £750,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund was this achieved. In 2012 it was exhibited at the Railfest in York and was then placed at Tyseley for the locomotive restoration whilst the tender remained at Ingrow on the KWVR. The restored locomotive and tender were unveiled in 2018 and it undertook its first Railtour on the Settle & Carlisle line in February 2019 which sold out so quickly a 2nd run was organised later in the month. Following these trips Self Cleaning equipment was installed to improve performance.

In 2021 Bahamas undertook 11 Railtours in 4 months as well as a 10-day visit to the Nene Valley Railway.  All the events were staffed by a group of volunteers and Bahamas was shortlisted for the Heritage Railway Awards.