Fowler 2-6-4T 42325

I read last week in the Daily Mail newspaper that Fowler 2-6-4T 42325 was buried near Cricklewood under Scratchwood sidings which are now under the M1 service area in 1962 after filming a crash sequence for a Dirk Bogarde film called The Password is Courage. Apparently the loco is still buried there. Could there ever be a possibility of being able to dig up this loco?

 

42325 was certainly used in the making of that film and it was derailed somewhere on the site of Scratchwood sidings. I have seen the film and the derailment sequence is not very spectacular. The engine with a few wagons behind it just seemed to roll gently off the end of a siding and fell over on one side without serious damage.

The story that the loco was left buried on the site started a few years after the event. Whether there was any truth in it has since been put in doubt by research into the fate of withdrawn BR locomotives. The general opinion seems to be that on completion of the filming at Scratchwood 42325 was broken up on site by a local scrap merchant. If that was what actually happened then the most that can be hoped for is that a few parts might have been left behind.

Before spending any time and effort investigating that possibility the precise location of the derailment in relation to the present day M1 Scratchwood services would first need to be established. One for the Time Team perhaps?

 

This has just been discussed here.
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