The 6989 "Wightwick Hall" Restoration Group.

Dedicated to putting 6989 back in steam.

Taken at Paddington 26 Sep 61 by R.J.Blenkinsop. 6989 in charge of the 11:15 Worcester service. The history of 6989 “Wightwick Hall” (Revised Dec 07) In 1944 F. W. Hawksworth of the Great Western Railway introduced an improved version of the Hall class 4-6-0 introduced by his predecessor, C. B. Collett. The locomotive was classified as 6959 Modified Hall Class 5MT 4-6-0. Changes to the 5900 Hall engines were; plate frame 'one piece' mainframes (the originals were made in two sections joined together behind the cylinders), plate frame bogie, separately cast cylinders and a larger 3-row super-heater and header regulator. New flush-sided tenders were paired with the engines, although these soon became swapped round as visits to the works for repair took place. 6989 ran with at least 10 different tenders and we have pictures of her in service with both Hawksworth flat sided and Collett flare sided types. The Hall class was a development of G. J. Churchyard’s 1907 Saint class, so the original design was now on its third iteration. In all 71 Modified Halls were built between 1944 and 1950, of which 5 are in preservation. 7927 “Willington Hall” was used as a donor for "Betton Grange" and "County of Glamorgan". The rest of the Modified Halls were cut up and scrapped. “Wightwick Hall”, was built at Swindon under Swindon Works Lot Number 366 and was completed on 25th March 1948. She entered service the same month with British Railways Western Region based out of Hereford, to replace one of the Saints that was withdrawn. She was the second last steam locomotive to be commissioned by the Great Western Railway Company before British Railways took over under nationalisation. She cost £9,686 to build, including the tender. She was out shopped in lined G.W.R. brunswick green livery with “British Railways” in G.W.R. style letters on the tender. This is confirmed by Angus Brymer, who was a cleaner at Hereford where she was assigned ex- Swindon. The following account sheds some light as to why she was not in B.R. mixed traffic black livery, as might have been expected. ((1) Around February 1948 B.R. gave instructions to Swindon that by the end of that week no more green paint was to be made in the Swindon Paint Factory. Five hundred gallons of brunswick green was hurriedly made to beat the deadline and stored in unlabelled 5-gallon drums. Hence, when B.R. (WR) engines needed repainting and the drums were opened, they were found to be green and not the expected black. Having opened the drums they had to be used!) We have a picture taken in September 1956 by Dick Blenkinsop at Leamington Spa, where he confirms she was in B.R. black. ((2) According to observations recorded at Swindon Shed in September 55, class 6959 engines were being turned out post overhaul in brunswick green, whereas non modified halls were being repainted black). Most of the pictures we have of her show her sporting a smoke box number and shed plate, but we have one taken at Birmingham Snow Hill without these and showing the number painted on the buffer beam in Great Western style. Our conclusion is that she left Swindon Works in green, was repainted black at the heavy general overhaul in October 1950 and back to green at the intermediate repair in September 1956. We have a photograph of her on Swindon Shed in brunswick green that we believe was taken after the heavy general repair of 6 March 1961. We do not know during what period she used the buffer beam number livery, other than to surmise it would have been during one of her green liveried periods. ”Wightwick Hall” covered 640,645 miles in 16 years of service. She operated in an area mainly bounded by Cardiff, Weston Super Mare, Banbury and London, working in the fast freight and express passenger role. She spent 10 years working out of Hereford, 4 years out of Worcester and finally 2 out of Gloucester Horton Road. We have sightings of her in most of these areas. Her career was not without drama. When based at Hereford she was working the 11:55 Hereford to Paddington train on 4th June 1956 when she went over a 15mph speed restriction at 45mph with no apparent ill effects! The crew probably did not get off so lightly. During November and December of 1959, when allocated to Worcester shed, 6989 alternated with sister engine 6984 “Owsden Hall” on the “Cambrian Coast Express” between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. “Owsden Hall” is also preserved and is under restoration at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway. We are informed by Geoff Peverill, who was a loco fitter at Worcester that 6989 substituted on top runs for failed Castles on several occasions. This is endorsed by David Taylor of Bromyard who uncovered a published article (3) relating the occasion in May 1961 when she did a very fast run from Oxford to Paddington of 58 minutes - including a speed restriction running into Paddington. 6989 regularly worked the “Cathedrals Express”. We were able to borrow the original wooden pattern for “the Cathedrals Express” headboard and had a new one cast. This went missing for a number of years, but thanks to some detective work by Dusty Miller, it is now firmly back in our possession. We have also located the "Cambrian Coast Express” headboard pattern and hope to borrow it to make a copy. She often worked into Wembley on football or hockey specials. We have a picture of her at Neasden Junction on the occasion of the Schoolboy International held at Wembley on 30th March 1957. During the same month 6989 was pressed into service on the “Cornishman”, filling in for a failed castle. During the dying days of steam in September 1962, 6989 was taken off a goods train to replace the failed D1000 on a Birmingham to Paddington express. Eventually, the shed was unable to keep her gainfully employed and she was withdrawn in June 1964. She was sold to Woodham Brothers Scrap Yard in Barry South Wales on 17th July 1964. 6989 made her last journey on BR metals as part of a special train from Gloucester to Barry on 6th August 1964 in company with 6960 "Raveningham Hall", 7F No 53809 and Class 48xxxx No 48431. She then spent 13 years 5 months languishing in the salt air of Barry, before being rescued by the Quainton Railway Society. She was the 88th engine to leave Barry to go into preservation. Mike Lawrence Low Loaders moved her to Quainton. Mike recollects she was the 5th of over 80 engines he liberated from Barry. The “Wightwick Hall” Appeal Fund was launched in 1975 and by 1977 had raised the money to buy the engine and a Collett pattern tender that was last coupled with 7927 “Willington Hall”. The tender arrived at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre on 24th July 1977. “Wightwick Hall” finally arrived at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Quainton on 9th January 1978. (4)(5) The locomotive is named after Wighwick Hall, which is located near Wolverhampton. The 17th century part of Wightwick Manor was for a period known as Wightwick Hall, but as it was expanded by the Mander family it was renamed Wightwick Manor; thereby allowing the building that was built in the 1890s for Sir Alfred Hickman, MP and industrialist, to adopt the name Wightwick Hall. The Hall became a Special Needs school in 1956 and remains so today. Reference sources: (1) Bill Peto Great Western Society Limited. (2) Trains Illustrated, Vol8, No11, page 483, November 1955. (3) Steam Days 1995. (4) Around Tettenhall and Codsall, by Mary Mills. (5) David Bennett. Technical Details: Engine: Swindon Works Lot Number 366. Class Modified Hall. Wheel arrangement 4-6-0. Driving wheel diameter 6 feet. Wheel base 27 feet 1 inch. Weight 75 tons 16 hundredweight. Number of cylinders 2. Valve gear – Stephenson (piston valves). Cylinder dimensions 18.5 inches diameter, 30 inches stroke. Boiler Type 1, serial number now 9296. As new 9241. Boilers 9236, 9281, 9264 and 9269 also fitted at various times. Boiler pressure 225 pounds per square inch (at 85% boiler pressure). Heating surface 2,104 square feet. Fire grate area 27.1 square feet. Ash Pan – 3 hopper. Tractive effort 27,275 pounds. Tender: Coal capacity 6 tons. Water capacity 4,000 gallons. Weight 46 tons 14 hundredweight. Tender No as new 4048. Tender No on disposal 2938. Current tender last coupled with Willington Hall. Tender and Engine: Engine and tender overall weight 121 tons 7 hundredweight. Engine and tender overall length 63 feet. This picture was taken by David Sallery in May 1966. It is the earliest one we have found of her at Barry. The engine still has the safety valve and clack covers in place. By the time we bought her these had been borrowed! You can see more Barry engines on David's website www.penmorfa.com/Barry 8th January 1978 - 6989 is loaded at Barry for the journey to Quainton. Note the new 0-6-0 wheel configuration (or is it -4-6-0?).The bogie had to be removed to fit on the trailer. Photo R Foley. Circa 1977. This polaroid shot of the engine at Barry was taken on one of the many visits before she was recovered. Taken Easter 1977 by Keith Till - Keith has generously donated copyright of this picture to us. October 2006 the restoration working party. Photo left to right. Paul Emerton, Jeff Jackson; Andrew Jones, Rod Wallis, Mike Perry, Chris Tayler and Charlie Jones. Document search David Taylor of Bromyard has been clearing his large collection of magazines spanning many years. He is diligently checking them for references to, or pictures of, 6989 before he disposes of them. Thanks David. If anyone else feels so inclined we will be delighted to hear from you.