3 foot gauge Hudswell Clarke "Handy Man"

Hi all, I thought I would start a thread on here about a restoration I am involved with. I volunteer at the National Railway Museum and have become part of a group restoring a 3 foot gauge Hudswell Clarke loco known as "Handy Man". we have a small collection of information on her in the NRM archives but there is not much at all and we'd all be interested to hear any extra information of any sort that you might happen to know, also any photos of her before her arrival at the NRM would be much appreciated. Here's one of her just before I joined the group, a lot of work has been done since.
Thanks, Stuart.

 

Notes from an illustrated article written by Bob Harris in the Llanfair Railway Journal 190 (2009) - copies still available from the W&L....

Hudswell Clarke, leeds 573 in 1900. The oldest Hudswell Clarke loco extant
10"x16" cylinders, 2ft 9.5" diameter wheels.
Inside stephensons link driving directly onto the slide bars
Original Boiler pressure is unknown
Wrought iron boiler and a copper inner firebox (still carries original boiler)
Delivered new to Burton Ironstone ltd in October 1900 and worked at their pits at Burton Latimer.
Went to Cranford Ironstone Co. in 1919 and presumed to have been stored, this system was originally metre gauge, but there is no evidence that Handyman was regauged dispite rumours. Bob went on to explain how this was impossible.
In 1936 it was transfered to Scaldwell pits. During this time it recieved a utilitarian stove pipe chimney, a rather rough patched welded smoke box and a flat smoke box door, rather ill fitting.
A very curious device was a water lifter on the tank, though not plumbed in for years. Also, wheel watering gear on the tank piped up to the wheel flanges.
It was painted a rather faded green on the tank and cab, red connecting and coupling rods, no name on the tank and no evidence of it ever being fitted with a nameplate.
It is believed her original livery was grey with the name painted in red letters on the side tank. Note that Bob always called her "Handyman" not "Handy Man".
At Scaldwell Handyman was the spare loco, the Pecketts were prefered by the crews.

Handyman was saved at the 11th hour from the scrapman in Spring 1964, who was on site cutting up the peckett Lamport. It was bought by three W&LLR volunteers: Gerald Rainbow, David Plant (sadly died in 2009 - a wonderfull character, as well as the W&L he was involved in many heritage projects including the Black Country Museum where he was a chain maker and a trolleybus driver, the Locksmiths Museum and the Agecroft Museum in Bromsgrove) and Bob Harris (fireman of the W&L Re-opening train in 1963 and who was employed by the Ffestiniog Railway Boston Lodge works 1964-1978 where he became something of a legend - there is a humourous song about him and Allan Garraway to the tune of "There's a hole in my bucket" that is still sung by FR volunteers today. He now lives in Winnipeg, Canada).

Purchase price was 120 to 140 pounds.
Handyman was moved to Cyfronydd (W&L) and stored under a tarpaulin on an isolated section of track.
Boiler was inspected by a Mr. Childs of Shrewsbury at Cyfronydd in 1964 - said boiler was not too bad and recommend a pressure of 100 psi (subject to a hydraulic test, which was not done)
The inspector made holes in the inner firebox (pre NDT days) and the thickness was found to be satisfactory. These were plugged with screwed copper rivets.
Worksplates and non-ferrous items removed and kept by Gerald at his house in Crewe for safe keeping.
In 1971 the locomotive moved from the W&L to the WHR(64) base at the MOD depot at Kinnerley on the former Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway. When the WHR moved from Kinnerley to Porthmadog the loco went instead to Butterley.
Bob, David and Gerald sold the loco to Alan Keef in 2004 (with stored items) but remained at Butterley untill 2008 when it was presumably sold onto the NRM.

-------------------------

Regarding pictures Ivo Peters filmed her running at Scaldwell which can be found on "The Ivo Peters' Collection Vol 06".

I suggest you join the W&L egroup on yahoo - there are some people there who have pictures of her at Cyfronydd.

Kind regards,
Gareth

P.S. I have always been a bit uncomfortable reading about the Scaldwell system - the name of a nearby village is "Hanging Houghton"!

 

That's brilliant, thank you, I would have never of thought there was footage of her running. Will have to see if I can find it, will also have to try and get hold of that article in full too.

 

I've just found Ivo peter's volume 6 on youtube and have watched the section on Scaldwell, there is a mention of Handyman but sadly no footage unless it is under another section.

 

My apologise Stuart - wrong film - got too many DVDs/Videos. At least you had not bought it.

She was actually on John Tennents DVD "The Last of The Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways" - but having just checked it she wasn't in steam but was being shunted around by one of the Pecketts for the Birmingham Locomotive Society cameras.

http://www.tennentstrainsofhalesowen.co.uk/tennents.html
55 minutes of narrow gauge in colour - it is great value for a tenner.

 

Handyman moved to Alan Keef Ltd, Herefords, 7/1/2005. To NRM 28/7/2008.

 

Firstly Stuart, well done with taking on the care of "Handyman"; as you can see from Gareth's wonderfully informative reply, Handyman has spent a considerable amount of time, semi forgotten in store, particularly during the preservation phase.

There are several photos of Handyman to be found in various publications, first stop would be to look up Eric Tonk's Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands, within the volumes for Northampton and Kettering there are pictures of Handyman in "his" shed at Cranford and on a traction engine hauled trailer en-route to Scaldwell after overhaul by Blackwell & Son in Northampton. Also, there is a photo of Handyman working at Scaldwell by Ivo Peters in the Ian Allan album, Industrial Steam published in the early 1970's.

3'-00" gauge industrial locos have been well and truly sidelined in the preservation era, probably because there is nowhere to run them apart from Ireland and the Isle of Man. "Nancy" has departed for use in Ireland, but the rest of the ironstone 3 foot locos have languished. IIRC "Kettering Furnaces No 8" was being restored for steaming some years ago in Market Harborough, but that has gone quiet for a long time, "Scaldwell" has been cared for as a static at Amberley, "Handyman" is now, thankfully in the care of Stuart and his team at the NRM, but as for "Lord Granby", it's current condition in store at Armley Mills is worse than sorry and will bring tears to your eyes, is there any hope for this loco after over 50 years in "preservation"?

Cheers

Alan

 

Here's "Lord Granby" looking absolutely wretched. http://bestieboy.smugmug.com/Trains/Leeds-Industrial-Museum/20979891_gwDsfS#!i=1799393290&k=HVj3dT5

It's a shame that restoration of the 3' line at Fort William seems to be out of the question.

 

Having had a quick scan through my copies of the Eric Tonks books mentioned above, there is also a picture of Handyman at Burton Latimer, with the original chimney, in there. I never realised that Handyman had been restored at what was for many years my home depot - namely Ransome Road in Northampton. Shows how much attention I have payed to these books recently. If you would like, I could scan the relevant pages of the books and send them to you, assuming they are not photos you already hold.

John

 

Funny enough I noticed a few months ago than a boiler and smokebox has appeared in a private yard on the eastern side of the Midland Mainline, just south of Market Harborough - in size and appearance it would appear to be part of "Kettering Furness No.8" - looks to be recently painted with Aluminium coloured paint, so something maybe in progress.

Gareth

 

3'-00" gauge industrial locos have been well and truly sidelined in the preservation era, probably because there is nowhere to run them apart from Ireland and the Isle of Man. "Nancy" has departed for use in Ireland, but the rest of the ironstone 3 foot locos have languished. IIRC "Kettering Furnaces No 8" was being restored for steaming some years ago in Market Harborough, but that has gone quiet for a long time, "Scaldwell" has been cared for as a static at Amberley, "Handyman" is now, thankfully in the care of Stuart and his team at the NRM, but as for "Lord Granby", it's current condition in store at Armley Mills is worse than sorry and will bring tears to your eyes, is there any hope for this loco after over 50 years in "preservation"?

Cheers

Alan[/quote]

There is of course also Kettering Furnaces Number 3.
Not active but at least under cover and very well looked after at the Penrhyn Castle museum.

Chris

 

Kettering 8 progresses slowly but well, to the highest standard, knowing the two guys doing it.

There is also a bright future for Lord Granby, as it has recently been dismantled and stripped of heritage insulation. When I can tell you more, I will.

 

Marvellous news about Lord Granby.

 

You could always bring it down to the southwold railway when its built - currently going through planning application to rebuild wenhaston station, and needing LOTS of support. See http://www.southwoldrailway.co.uk/wenhaston/index.php for details

 

That really is wonderful news about Lord Granby Anthony, thanks for sharing. From inquiries that I made in Leeds a couple of years ago, it seems that the heritage insulation on the loco was an issue then, glad that it is being resolved.

There are a great deal of locos/artifacts at Armley Mills crying out for some TLC; lest you think that I'm moaning, what has been achieved there with slender resources is commendable, plus the loaning of locos - "Barber" and the 2'-00" gauge Fowler - for restoration shows that they are looking out for the long term care of the very large collection of locos that were acquired for preservation, hopefully, this policy can continue so that some of the remaining locos can be conserved/restored.

Looking forward to more positive news on Lord Granby when it arises.

Thanks also to Chris for reminding us of Kettering Furnaces No3 and to Gareth for his observations at Market Harborough.

Cheers

Alan

 

Thanks everyone for all the information, I will try and hunt down some of these books and articles if they're not already in the NRM archives. I will take a print of this thread when I next go to the NRM so the rest of the group can see it too. By the way I realised I hadn't made it clear in the first post that this restoration is cosmetic only it's planned to plinth her somewhere around the museum along with a 3ft tipping truck.

Thanks again, Stuart.

 

Hi Stuart,

I think that was understood regarding the restoration of Handyman, any timescale for this, also, is the wagon an iron ore wooden tippler?

Cheers

Alan

 

It's a wooden tippler wagon, I'm unsure of it's origins but it looks very similar to the type seen on footage of Scaldwell. As for time scale I really don't know it's a volunteer project, 6 of us work on it every tuesday evening, it is hoped we will be able to lift the saddle tank soon which will be a huge step towards getting it done. I will do my best to post photos when this happens. Also for any people on this thread who are any where near York, Handyman is in the workshops now so is easily visible if anyone would like to see the loco for themselves, it's right next to the Flying Scotsman at the moment.

 

Thanks for that Stuart, all the best to you and your team with the restoration, it's a very worthwhile project.

Cheers

Alan