Push & Pull

Spring 2008

The news of the 40th Anniversary Gala main line steam shuttles to Skipton, Hellifield and Ribblehead are the highlights of an extraordinary issue – more pages, more colour, more features and reports than ever before. Julian Jones, co-ordinator of the event, gives details of visiting locos, re-enactments and theatrical productions, and events which form part of the celebrations commemorating the landmark reopening of our Railway in 1968.

News in Talking Points of new paid employee in Haworth Loco Depot, Andy Tarran; of the summer visit of former railbus driver Basil Hancock and his wife Ann, from Australia, whose wedding day photo on the footplate of 4F 0-6-0 No. 43924 at Oxenhope, more than 25 years ago, is one of the great iconic photographs of our Railway – and of the debt we owe to the generosity of the Mid Hants Railway and the flood-stricken Severn Valley Railway for the success of our February Steam Gala. The same section too reports on contact with one of the last wartime drivers of S160 2-8-0-‘s – the type represented by “Big Jim” now under restoration at Haworth. Les Jacoby from Texas drove them in Korea under combat conditions. A Belgian enthusiast, Etienne Labar form Namur, put us in touch in his search for more information on WD and S160 locos – and is seeking information on the identity of an Austerity involved in a terrible wartime crash which killed 80 and injured many more.

Trevor England reports in his Inside Track column that a memorial is planned to the late Ralph Povey, without whom and fellow founder, the late Bob Cryer, the Railway would not be here today. Trevor also reports on Bradford Council’s help in clearing up after graffiti attacks at Oxenhope and on suggestions that the Railway should be operating a community or commuter service

Other departmental reports, illustrated with more colour than ever, include:

Carriage and Wagon

L&YR Preservation Society/Trust

SALES Notes

The Santa Committee (“Thank Goodness it’s Spring again”)

Locmotive Notes

The Archives – with more on excursions from Keighley and the branch

Standard 4 Society – reviving to bolster their locos’ restoration

Vintage Carriages Trust – which stages an exhibition in the Museum of Rail Transport on the 40 Years of the KWVLR

Bahamas Locmotive Society

The KWVR Trust, planning further fund raising

Stations Committee

Membership – continuing to increase with 4409 members on the books

And Civil Maintenance – with a full colour page on the training visit of the Grant Rail ballast regulator to the branch.

A magnificent full colour centre page spread on the Winter Steam Gala shows exactly why this was such an enjoyable occasion – double headed Ivatt tanks, a visiting K1 and yet again, the “Dub Dee” 2-8-0 stealing the show.

The Worth Valley a Midland branch? Well everyone says so. But concluding his four part series on the history of the Railway, David Pearson makes the point that one time, it was very nearly the Great Northern which took over. David has mapped in fascinating detail the intrigue, back stabbing and machinations of the early directors and their struggle to build a railway through the Worth Valley to give their mills an outlet to the world.

Looking forward to the Diesel Weekend on Friday to Sunday, 6 – 8 June, Tim Moody says it should be possible to team up two of the Class 20’s which once powered the popular Jolly Fisherman services to Skegness – our resident No. 20 031 and the visiting 20 110 from the South Devon Railway. Yet again, Tim says, the generosity and support of Direct Rail Services will enable locos to move to Keighley for the event and one of their locos No. 37 087 will be named Keighley & Worth Valley Railway 40th Anniversary 1968 – 2008 in the course of the event.

Matt Dives of the  Spa Valley Railway reports on progress in restoring to working order two former KWVR locos – former BR Austerity 0-6-0ST No.. 68077 which is on long term loan to the Kent line and the former Corby steelworks ‘Ugly’ No. 57, purchased by them as a rather rusty kit of parts, found in a Shropshire field.

How the Railway learned whether or not its timetable would work back in 1968 is explained in Chris Bates’ article “The 1968 Timetable Trials – what the R.O. said”. Seems there were serious attempts to derail one of the trains and the experiment ended the prospect of regularly running the smallest locos. Forty years on, the pattern of operation proved at Easter 1968 is still discernable.

As the Railway prepares to operate its own steam mainline services to Hellifield, it’s particularly topical for Jack Proctor to write about the many excursions the Railway operated 30 years ago – chartering trains to and from the branch and publicising them by parading locomotives in steam on low loading lorries in towns from which those trains would pick up! A Members’ Supplement to Push and Pull of 30 years ago showed no fewer 10 excursions booked to come to the line, four of them chartered by the Railway.

Just why the new Guided Tours are proving so popular is evident from David Pearson’s article “Open Sesame” looking at the Guided Tours “opening up those nooks, crannies and tantalising sidings”. Kieran Pilsworth’s emotive photographs make the perfect accompaniment.

And more on Big Jim: our USATC S160. “One of the Great Locomotives of the Age of Steam” writes Chris Bates in an article on the wartime history of these locomotives, which have operated freight everywhere from Keighley to Kowloon.  With the help of Belgian expert Etienne Labar’s photographs and paperwork collected by Tony Green, one of those instrumental in extracting the loco from Poland in 1975, it’s a detailed explanation of the history and technicalities of an engine which, while always a favourite of the public, has not always been so with some of the Railway’s working volunteers.

With Book Reviews, Readers’ Letters, Jim Shipley’s look back to issues of 40 and 20 years ago and Tabitha’s photographic quiz, this is certainly the biggest and best issue in Push and Pull’s 43 year history.

Front Cover of magazine

Re-opening Day scenes, 1968 (KWVLR Archives/Bernard Lumb Collection)

New full time employee Andy Tarran – a man who very obviously loves his work.

Wedding belles – Basil and Anne Hancock with No. 43924 in the early ‘80s.

One of the world’s last surviving military drivers of S160’s – Les Jacoby

When the Nazis fled France in WW2, USATC S1602-8-0s identical to our No. 5820 were drafted in – as this view of Paris Batignolles Shed shows.

The liberated Belgians saw the S160s as very part much of the heroic Allied effort to free their country as exemplified by this stylised drawing from a Belgian enthusiasts’ magazine.

February Steam Gala WD Mytholmes and Double Ivatts

KWVLR-owned Austerity 0-6-0ST undergoing overhaul at Tunbridge Wells (Matt Dives, Spa Valley)

Among the many planned attractions, recreating Class 20 haulage on the Jolly Fisherman – the last of the service seen at Skegness in 1992 (Colin Robey)

Painted back to 1968 condition for the 40th Anniversary Exhibition at the Museum of Rail Travel, Ingrow: No. 72 (Kieran Pilsworth)

Two of the many remarkable scenes from the Gala – the WD 2-8-0 No. 90733 on Mytholmes Viaduct and double-headed Ivatt tanks (Kieran Pilsworth)