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 Post subject: The Return of Cheltenham
PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 1:12 pm 

Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:07 pm
Posts: 1192
Location: Leicester, MA.
Built for the Southern Railway as a V-Class 4-4-0, Cheltenham has returned to steam. On May 7, after a multi-year overhaul, Cheltenham, Southern Railway No. 945, was steamed after the overhaul was completed and ran test runs within the Eastleigh Works Yard. The restoration was coordinated by Knight's Rail Service and a team from the Mid Hants Railway. Cheltenham was last steamed around 30 years ago. With the overhaul completed, Cheltenham will be fully repainted into Southern colors in time for Railfest at the National Railway Museum. There were 40 V-Class
4-4-0s built. They were the most powerful 4-4-0 in Europe, and the last 4-4-0 designed in the UK. They were nicknamed "Schools", as all 40 were named for well know schools throughout England. They were essentially cut down versions of the Lord Nelson class of 4-6-0s, but incorperated features from the King Arthur class of 4-6-0s which included the round-top firebox. Two other examples are preserved, No. 926 Repton (which served a tour of duty operating in Canada) and No. 928 Stowe. Here's the article from Heritage Railway Magazine.
http://heritagerailway.co.uk/news/chelt ... t-railfest

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 Post subject: Re: The Return of Cheltenham
PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 2:34 pm 

Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:12 am
Posts: 822
Location: cheyenne
Truly beautiful and powerful locomotives loved by their drivers, built for my 'Hastings Line' with its restricted tunnel clearances. Nice to have 3 still around.

Mike Pannell


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 Post subject: Re: The Return of Cheltenham
PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 3:23 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11482
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
I should point out that 926 Repton spent a few years in the custody (ownership?) of Steamtown in Vermont after its Canadian (Sydney & Louisbourg) stint, came down with Steamtown to Scranton, and was steamed up for 1-2 weekends (which I still kick myself for missing out on, but those were pre-Internet days) before being repatriated (along with ex-London & South Western 0-4-4T 30053) to the U.K. for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1989.

Some online sources say that this loco was owned by a Clifford Brown in Alexandria, Va. I'm wondering if this is, yet again, one of those cases of a non-profit storing a private asset, as discussed elsewhere here. Are any of the old SF folks able to chime in on the precise status of this loco's ownership in North America?

Photo gallery: http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/ste ... s/pix.html


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 Post subject: Re: The Return of Cheltenham
PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2012 4:21 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2004 12:13 pm
Posts: 417
Location: Baltimore. MD
Sandy,

Repton was purchased direct from BR by Nelson Blount, and I believe it was the last steam locomotive to be overhauled at the former Southern Railway Eastleigh shops in 1966. Repton ran more than a few weekends, it ran most of a season in Scranton when the 2317 and 1246 were both down, mostly assisted by a Diesel. It was purchased from SF by Clifford Brown, an ex RAF pilot, after he flunked his physical and could no longer fly his twin-engine airplane. He sold it, used the proceeds to buy the loco and send it back to the North Yorkshire Moors. I helped strip the airbrakes and the knuckle couplers before tieing it to the flatcar for the trip to Baltimore Harbo(u)r. The proceeds from Repton helped pay my salary in my final year at Steamtown. I had a reunion with my old friend (the "Grasshopper" in Steamtown-speak) last Saturday in Grosmont, UK. It is awaiting its turn in the shed for the Brit equivalent of a 1472.

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File comment: Repton at NYMRy 05/05/2012
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Note the extended coal boards on the tender. They were added by the Cape Breton Steam Railway to increase coal capacity, but I was amazed the Brits retained it and even faired in the weld line. The young man who let me "inside the fence" acknowleged that they found the extended coal capacity useful, and decided to retain the feature; of the Schools, only Repton has this.

Photo of Cheltenham in the NRM my first trip to the UK, two years ago.

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File comment: Cheltenham at NRM, Spring 2010
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Steve


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