A Personal History of the Kelsby Light Railway by Sir Jacob Bradleigh

[RedGemAlchemist]

Come on now. The W1 was a mistake and everyone knows it.

[sem34090]

     I rather like it, but then I am an interloper... Hmm. Perhaps better with its Bugatti/A4 styling? Though by that point it looks like a steroid-using A4, much like the similarly revised P2s. Cor blimey, imagine a marine-boilered Light Pacific... Hefty.

I remember when I was small, I saw a video of the W1 and immediately ran away - it actually terrified me!!! Nowadays though, it has an appeal to me because it's weird...

And you're no interloper, certainly not here.

The light pacifics are fine as they are, thank you very much! 

[sem34090]

Given you find that so funny, Alex, I think that I had better make my point further by asking if you think I'd be better looking and heftier with a water-tube boiler fitted?! Hmm?! If my username's anything to go by, then that is what you are suggesting, Madam...

 

It's really hard to act all stroppy and irritated online, especially when you aren't actually stroppy and irritated...

Edited November 15, 2018 by sem34090

[RedGemAlchemist]

No.13 CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

Built in 1926 as part of the usually (famously) reliable SECR N Class, Christian Soldier, formerly and currently 31404, arrived on the KLR from Guildford in early 1964 having been purchased by Edward I upon its withdrawal, which had been exacerbated by issues with its rear frames, to prevent it from being scrapped. Quite why he decided to rescue this particular N Class, or for that matter why he rescued a Southern locomotive when usually he focused his efforts on the Eastern Region and industrials is unknown, but whatever the reason he got it for an extremely low price due to its existing issues, which upon arrival he had his team attempt to patch up before adding it to the roster as part of Berkham sheds' residents.

Unfortunately things went downhill very fast. Its first test run was wobbly and uneven despite the repairs, and in practice it bmanaged all of two runs before its rear frames failed totally, causing a derailment that injured 27 people and killed 1. That was only the start of its troubles.

It was returned to Berkham Works where the locomotive was patched up and tried in a test run that it promptly failed in spectacular fashion. The footage of the fateful test run, which occurred on 9 October 1964, is quite famous and easily found online. In it, the locomotive rolls slowly out of the works shed and gets all of about fifteen yards before the frames fail totally and the boiler becomes totally separated from the running boards and almost from the locomotive entirely, rolling to one side as the entire locomotive falls over. This catastrophic accident resulted in the injury of both its driver and fireman.

Edward I forbade any further working on the locomotive, instead deciding to try and fix it himself. Its number was removed, being given to the newly restored Jubilee Black Shuck, and it was removed from the books until further notice. He refers to it in his autobiography as "The single most infuriating thing I've ever worked on." Eventually, he gave up. The shambolic mess that was Christian Soldier was deemed a total failure, shunted to the back of Berkham Works, dismantled and forgotten about until 1975, when it was sold to the Mid Hants Railway for use as spare parts for their own N, 31874. When work on that completed in 1978 attention turned to restoring Christian Soldier, by now returned to its original number of 31404 but retaining the name bestowed upon it by Edward I, originally because of sheer forgetfulness and later out of respect following his death.

MHR politics being what they are though, very little work happened on the locomotive until it was sold to Blackstone Railway Museum in 1981. It took them another 32 years however before they were able to restore Christian Soldier to working order due to many of its parts being missing having been used to repair 31874, and more importantly a lack of parts to replace its irreparable frames. Eventually they had to make new ones entirely. However the locomotive is now somehow back in steam and running surprisingly well...usually. Last I heard it was out of commission yet again. Seems the new frames have succumbed to the same issue the originals did, only thanksfully not so catastrophically this time and this time nobody was seriously injured when it happened.

They say that every family has a black sheep, and it seems Christian Soldier is that for the N Class. Its incredibly unfortunate history is recounted in its shed bay at Blackstone on an information board that recounts its long series of misfortune, including a photo of its mangled state after the test run in 1964. It has also been given a new name by the Museum in note of this; the locomotive is now named Edward's Curse.

Edited February 7, 2019 by RedGemAlchemist