GWR 4073 Class 4079 Pendennis Castle

4079 ''Pendennis Castle'' is a GWR 4073 Class steam locomotive, preserved at the Didcot Railway Centre.

Operations

The seventh of the first lot of 10 Castles built in 1923/24 by the Great Western Railway (GWR), No. 4079 ''Pendennis Castle'' was completed at Swindon Works on 4 March 1924. It was allocated to Old Oak Common locomotive depot. It was named after Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, Cornwall.

The locomotive became famous in 1925 when the GWR lent it to the London and North Eastern Railway as part of trials against the LNER's then new A1 Pacific Class, a famous example being LNER 4472 ''Flying Scotsman''. Running from King's Cross to Grantham, and King's Cross to Doncaster, it made the ascent from King's Cross to Finsbury Park regularly in less than six minutes, a feat that the Pacifics were unable to match. ''Pendennis Castle'' was also shown to be more economical in both coal and water on the test runs, its superiority in burning unfamiliar Yorkshire coal being measured at 3.7lb per mile.

Before returning to the GWR, the locomotive attended the second British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park between May and October 1925, displayed next to ''Flying Scotsman'', with a notice proclaiming it to be the most powerful passenger express locomotive in Britain.

Back at Old Oak Common, it continued to run the routes to South Wales and the West Country until after the GWR was nationalised in 1948 to become part of British Railways. In August 1950, it was allocated to Gloucester shed, in March 1959 to Bristol Bath Road, and its last shed allocation was Bristol Saint Philip's Marsh. It was withdrawn in May 1964.

On 9 May 1964, it worked a London Paddington to Taunton service, where upon arrival at Westbury it was discovered that it had melted its firebars from the heat of its fire, blamed on the provision of unusually high-calorific-value, carefully screened coal which caused the fire to burn white-hot as the speed exceeded 90 mph. This special coal had been sourced in a well-meaning gesture by British Railways in the knowledge that the Castle would be deliberately pushed as close to 100 mph as possible on its last scheduled service. As there was no standby Castle at Westbury and the closest Castle was in Taunton GWR 6999 ''Capel Dewi Hall'' took its train onto Taunton where 7025 ''Sudeley Castle'' took over for the journey to Plymouth.

Preservation

Early preserved years

Acquired from British Railways in 1964 by Mike Higson, it was moved to Southall Railway Centre and appeared at one of the Great Western Society's first open days in 1965. After then being purchased by a partnership of the Honourable John Gretton and Sir Bill McAlpine, the locomotive was moved in 1967 to the former GWR depot at Didcot, taking up residence in the disused lifting shop. As the Great Western Society assembled and moved its collection there, the Castle made rare excursions at Didcot, and made its next public appearance in 1971.

In 1972, it moved to Market Overton, Rutland. After that project failed, and having been welded to the track by disillusioned project members, it moved to Steamtown, Carnforth where McAlpine held controlling-ownership. Being built to the larger GWR loading gauge, it was unable to run on the former LMS tracks, and with tension growing between the owners, it was agreed to sell it.

Western Australia

In 1977, ''Pendennis Castle'' was sold to Hamersley Iron, one of the largest iron ore producers in Australia, which intended to run it on its ore-carrying Hamersley railway in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company-backed Pilbara Railways Historical Society wanted a steam locomotive, and chairman Russell Madigan had promised them one, possibly ''Flying Scotsman.''

When purchased by Hamersley Iron, ''Pendennis Castle'' was in need of considerable boiler repairs, which delayed its departure for Australia. On 29 May 1977, it made its farewell run at the head of the ''Great Western Envoy'' from Birmingham to Didcot and return. The following day, it headed to Avonmouth Docks, where it was loaded aboard the cargo vessel ''Mishref'', and departed for Sydney on 2 June 1977.

The ''Mishref'' arrived in Sydney on 12 July 1977, and the locomotive was unloaded in Darling Harbour. It was then towed to the Eveleigh Carriage Workshops, where it was stored pending delivery to its ultimate destination, Dampier, Western Australia.

On 26 March 1978, ''Pendennis Castle'' was towed via the Main North line to Newcastle, New South Wales in light steam, and, together with three new GE C36-7 diesel locomotives, was loaded aboard the ''Iron Baron''. On 29 April 1978, the locomotive was unloaded at Dampier. One week later, Hamersley Iron's Manager, Operations, Ian Burston, handed it over to the Pilbara Railways Historical Society.

On 12 October 1978, ''Pendennis Castle'' and two former New South Wales Government Railways S type passenger cars were named ''Rio Fe'' ("River of Iron") by Lady Turner, wife of Sir Mark Turner, chairman of Rio Tinto, one of the major investors in Hamersley Iron. A brass plaque bearing the name ''Rio Fe'' was fitted above the locomotive's smokebox door. ''Pendennis Castle's'' first passenger carrying journey in Western Australia was a return trip from Dampier to Dugite on 7 November 1978, with the locomotive hauling two passenger cars.

Modified in 1980, ''Pendennis Castle'' was used for various other excursion trains on the company's ore-carrying railways. After further modifications, it was moved by road to Perth, where it had a historic reunion with ''Flying Scotsman'' on 17 September 1989. It operated as far as Esperance on the Westrail network.

During the 1990s, after various difficulties and with the expiry of the boiler certificate, it made its final run on 14 October 1994. Hamersley Iron were not prepared to pay a repair bill of 240,000 Australian Dollars, and repairs were becoming uneconomical after fully electronic signalling was installed, which would have required the locomotive to run behind a GE Dash 9. This resulted in the locomotive being stored for several years.Pendennis returns ''Steam Railway'' issue 523 September 2021 pages 7-13

Return to the UK

In 1999, Hamersley Iron's parent, Rio Tinto, decided to find a secure home for the locomotive, an idea conceived and executed by Adrian Lumley-Smith who at the time was on secondment from the UK to Hamersley Iron. An agreement was reached with the Great Western Society for the locomotive to be donated. It was moved by road from Dampier to Perth, before being shipped to Avonmouth Docks on 24 April 2000, and ultimately the Didcot Railway Centre. It became only the second locomotive after ''Flying Scotsman'' to circumnavigate the globe, having come to Australia via the Suez Canal and returning to England via the Panama Canal.Pendennis Castle Back in Steam after 27 years ''Heritage Railway'' issue 284 September 2021 pages 52-57

Restoration was started in 2005 with the original intention that a return to main line service would take place in 2008, but the work was protracted. It was announced in an issue of ''Steam Railway'' magazine that plans to run ''Pendennis Castle'' on an excursion trip with preserved sister 7029 ''Clun Castle'' to commemorate the end of steam and the end of the Castle Class on the Western Region in March 1967 would not go ahead as 4079 would not be restored in time for the anniversary in 2017. It was later announced that following Didcot's decision to withdraw from running on the mainline, on completion 4079 would only be run at Didcot and on heritage railways.Didcot Quits the Main Line ''Steam Railway'' issue 500 December 2019 page 12

It was steamed for the first time in August 2021. It was relaunched at Didcot Railway Centre on the 2nd April 2022, also present was Great Western Railway's Class 57 number 57604, which shared a name.

References

Further reading

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External links

Australian Steam:
– includes images of ''Pendennis Castle'' in the Pilbara
RailWA:
– images of 1989 reunion

{{GWR Castle Class

4079
Individual locomotives of Great Britain
4079
Railway locomotives introduced in 1924
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain