4079 Pendennis Castle

Heck of a portrait. Heck of a subject. https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=669368

 

So near, yet so far!

 

I was reminded recently that October marked 25 years since it last steamed. Although it isn't exactly of the highest quality, there's some good footage of it here, from 1989:



(You may wish to skip past the parts featuring A. N. Other engine... There's a good section on 4079 starting at 54:45)

 

Hi all I am the bearer of good news. As this will be in the latest edition of Steam Railway, I am not breaking the bounds of any official announcement from the GWS
4079 Pendennis Castle has passed her steam test, as yet date unknown however it was quite recent
https://www.therailwayhub.co.uk/385...4k9oZIyeh5MXzjVXmvs-gqNMRJ38NlObOdeiwaY1j3_4Q

 

Has it been decided whether Pendennis Castle will go main line? On the one hand, with gauging preventing main line operation of Didcot's 2-cylinder locos, it would be good for the Castle to venture out, but on the other hand several other castles can now or will soon be able to.

 

I can't find the original reference, but seem to recall GWS announcing some time ago that they were abandoning all plans for mainline running as they hadn't got either the finances or the staff to meet that level of commitment.

 

Can't be bothered to look back when the formal test was completed, but the first fire in her belly was 3rd October.

Indeed, whilst it would be lovely I imagine the costs of all the electrical gubbins, plus a support coach, plus getting a support crew together is just too much I suspect.

 

It's a shame given her pedigree but with all the regulations these days, going main line isn't for the faint-hearted. I can't say I blame Didcot for deciding it's just not worth all the extra effort. as things stand. Still, at least we'll still be able to enjoy the spectacle of a Castle on the main line in the years to come in the shape(s) of 5029, 5043, 5080 and 7029. Also, from what I have read, the plan is for Pendennis partly to earn her keep with visits to heritage lines. I doubt if there will be any shortage of takers.

 

Who knows if she'll grace the main line again but I thought you might like to see her last appearence there:-

Here at Banbury on the return from Didcot to Tyseley on 29/5/77, immediately before she was shipped to Western Australia

Peter

 

I've read reference to Didcot wanting to take it mainline when it returned from The Land Of Men At Work but 2000 was a massively different scene for mainline steam.

 

Are the GWSR or Severn Valley red rated? I have been waiting a long time to ride behind 4079

 

Yes, KEII has visited both, (GWSR twice) and that's double red. I have zero inside information so I can say with a clean conscience I'm feeling hopeful we'll see a Castle on GWSR metals in the next few years.

 

I see Pendennis still has the same smokebox door in the recent and 1977 pictures... Are the dents above the dart where the BR-Era numberplate was bolted through? Nice bit of history if that's the case...

Richard.

 

5029, 5051, 5080 and 7029 have all run on SVR metals, though not since 2009.

Patrick

 

The Great Western Envoy, I still have my ticket for that train.

 

Interesting to remember how much more relaxed we were as a population in 1977. No high-viz. No high-intensity headlamps. Guys dangling their legs off the platform edge. Today I think you would need safety barriers and a method statement for some of those trousers

 

You would have safety barriers but would they be needed? We all survived back then

 

Those guys you refer to are not dangling their legs off a platform edge as such - it is a dock platform with a stop block just hidden behind the loco's smokebox. But your point is noted, some things were more relaxed back then. But then again steam operation on the main line was far more tightly controlled and forbidden across so much of the network so not everything was better back then.

Peter

 

I think the Envoy was the only time I saw 4079 out and about.
You only have to look at the first coach to realise how different things were.
Where did those 43 years go ?

 

Pendennis even earlier, a picture I took on the Swindon scrap line in 1964. Note nameplates still attached, in those days it was possible to buy a nameplate direct from the works. I think they just weighed them and charged the price of the brass.
The second picture is after its reincarnation, taken at Chester in 1967