Today we’re looking at a well-loved little tank engine on the Isle of Wight,
and it’s not one of the Terriers. W24 Calbourne is the last surviving Adams O2,
and the flagship for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. This started out as a video on the
railway itself, and I’d like to note that Chris Eden-Green has done a sole-SLIPS on Calbourne
already which you can watch in the description. But whilst I was researching the early
preservation days I felt some of the stories about the loco and the preservation society deserved a
video to themselves. 2021 was the 50th anniversary of the railway, and in January 2022 they recreated
one of the most chaotic founding days for any heritage attraction, quite literally
running away from the scrap merchants. This is affectionately referred to as ‘The Big Move’.
William Adams got about. He designed rolling stock for several railway companies and even
helped survey routes for potential lines on the Isle of Wight. One of his coaches designed for the
North London Railway was later sold second hand to the Isle of Wight, where it has been lovingly
preserved today. As the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the London and South Western in 1878, he
essentially became the Stroudley of Nine Elms, because the railway was struggling
to cope. London’s suburbs were rapidly growing and Beattie’s designs couldn’t keep up. It was
clear that bigger, yet still compact engines were required. Adams rolled up his sleeves and expanded
Nine Elms works by kicking out the carriage and wagon department to Eastleigh. Heading into the
1880s he designed a range of engines, several incorporating his patented Adams radial bogie,
not to be confused with the Adams axle, which was made by someone else.
He was one of those designers that found something that worked and stuck with it,
so most of his creations are 4-coupled engines. The T1s came about in 1888 and were just over
35ft in length. If these were a Nintendo Switch, then the O2s that came the following year were
the Nintendo Lite, because at just over 30ft they were just more compact versions of the same thing.
Whilst this meant they had less space for coal and water, they had an impressive acceleration
and were popular with crews. Calbourne was unnamed when first built in December 1891,
just numbered as 209 as part of the penultimate batch of 60 classmates.
It was dressed out in Adams’ new sage green with white and black lining. During Drummond’s
reign in 1895-1912 he deepened the green and added burgundy borders to the lining. Drummond’s
perhaps more famous M7s were shamelessly just improved versions of Adam’ tank engines.
209 worked firstly at Fratton and later at Exeter, then at Eastleigh from the first
world war onwards. Meanwhile across the water, in 1903 the Isle of Wight Central railway was
hoping to get some new stock, which for them meant buying 2nd hand from one of the mainland railways.
Sound familiar? They asked pretty-please if Drummond would sell Calbourne and a few other O2s,
which he accepted only if they gave advanced payment. The Central weren’t up for this so
the sale never happened, but of course they’d have their way eventually, because Calbourne
lives there now. When the Island’s railways got merged into the new Southern Railway in 1923, they
asked again if they could at least borrow two O2s just to see if they liked them.
In the summertime, when the weather is fine, like Queen Victoria, tourists-
This is stupid.
Tourists liked visiting Ryde.
Trains across the Island’s 5 major lines were packed, and the O2s quick acceleration and
light weight made them perfect, so eventually 23 were sent over by ferry. No.209 was part of the
first batch after the 2 already trialled there, arriving 26th April 1925, forever its new home.
Now painted in Southern Olive livery, some of the O2s were fitted with push-pull gear
so they didn’t have to run round trains, but the Island’s Terriers were able to work the quieter
branches fine on their own and the equipment was removed by the 30s. All of the class were
fitted with Westinghouse pumps though, because the Island works with air brakes rather than vacuum,
giving them a characteristic panting sound and very sharp brakes. Like the Terriers,
they also received extended bunkers, taking their coal capacity from 1 ½ to 3 ¼ tonnes. Alongside
new distinctive Hooter whistles, at last the engines were gifted names after surrounding
towns and villages. Calbourne was based at Ryde St Johns and worked the line to Ventnor,
but during the war was moved to Newport to work to Cowes. Bullied’s bright Malachite green came
at the wrong time, as in the 2nd world war the locos were put into Southern black, and later BR
black, both with British Railways written in full and later just the emblems. In the early 60s it
was planned to replace some of the O2s with Ivatt 2MTs, but line closures meant that they never
had the chance. The O2s became the last steam engines to work the island’s shortening network.
You see, whilst trains were packed with tourists during the summer,
in the winter the cold hit hard and passengers were scarce. Eventually only the Ryde-Shanklin
section remained, which is the electric line that remains today. Although they’d survived longer
than their classmates on the mainland, eventually most of the Island O2s were scrapped too.
A project called Vectrail was set up with the intention of electrifying the Cowes-Ryde line
with overhead wires, but I’ll save that story for when I eventually do make a Guide Rail on
the railway. For now lets focus on what happened to Calbourne, and the one that got away.
Steam services were gone for good on New Years Eve 1966. Teenagers Ron Strutt,
Ian Whitlam, David Perry and a few other friends called a meeting in London to see if they could
buy a train to make a static display to remember the island’s railway connection. Against all odds,
2 engines still remained. W24 Calbourne and W31 Chale were kept to run engineering trains whilst
the Eastern line was being electrified, but by 1969 were left covered in tarpaulins at Ryde.
Well-known wildlife artist David Shepherd was convinced by well-known publisher Ian Allen to
support a society trying to preserve steam engines. This came through as an anonymous
donation to this new group known as the Wight locomotive society to buy one of the 2 engines.
Calbourne had miraculously been given a new boiler before helping with the electrification scheme and
so it was this one that they bought, but they continued to raise funds to save Chale as well.
They bought 5 compartment coaches and the remains of an old Ryde pier tram too,
and were allowed to store them at Newport in the centre of the island
until British Railways managed to sell off the land. Calbourne couldn’t be steamed but
it also couldn’t be kept at Ryde, so they needed to get it across to meet its train.
In August 1969, by sheer luck, Terry Hastings saw a lorry parked nearby,
which was temporarily on the island on a job at a power plant. The group phoned the haulage company
at once and asked if they could use the lorry before it went back on the ferry, and so it was.
At Newport, once the meeting point for most of the island’s network, the group continued to save
funds to buy as many remaining railway artefacts as they could, but sadly were too late to buy
Chale, who was eventually scrapped. Instead they soldiered on getting Calbourne back to steam once
more, and bought more wagons, track, buffers, and anything they needed to run a railway. They
were hoping to share the track with the Vectrail group, but when that idea
fell through they bought the short line from Haven Street to Wootton themselves.
At their own pace, everything was progressing well. Then one day the clock started.
On Monday 18th January, BR sent the society a notice saying that they’d managed to sell the land
that Newport station was on, and they needed them gone from the site by the 25th because the scrap
merchants were coming in to demolish it all. A week’s warning sounds fine, but by this point the
group had collected so many items that it would be impossible to move it all to Haven Street by road.
There was the old line there though, which hadn’t been used for 4 years
and was in a very dilapidated state. Worse still, there was a postal strike on at the time, meaning
there was delay in telling all of the society members that they were being evicted. Calbourne
was quickly prepared so that they could haul all of their collection to their new headquarters by
steam, and the skeletal remains of the Ryde pier tram was sent up to Cowes to collect rail chairs
and other useful items. The route to Haven Street was overgrown but generally in usable condition,
but there were two obstacles. The first was a drawbridge outside Newport station which had
been left open for boats to pass. They feared that the parts to make it close would have been stolen,
but thankfully everything was in place.
As for whether the viaduct was still safe to take heavy trains across, they just had to pray.
The 2nd hazard was at Wootton, where loose clay had caused severe landslips across the track,
which was partly why the station was closed in the first place. The team set to work digging
out the mud and making general repairs to the rest of the route. Then, just 24hours
before the big moving day, the rain came and the track was partly suspended in the air.
Using the remains of some old wagons and ballast scooped along the way, they manically packed the
track and cleared the way once more, but nobody really knew whether it would hold. Sunday 24th
1971 saw crowds of locals out to wave the last trains on their way, as very few enthusiasts
on the mainland realised what was going on. The plan was for Calbourne to take 2 passenger trains
and 2 goods, whilst the tram scuttled back and forth taking barrels of water and tools to assist,
phoning at each end to make sure there wasn’t a head-on collision. There were no facilities
at Haven Street at all, and at Newport the water supply had been turned off by BR, so they
watered Calbourne by blocking the drains by the trackside and pumping the water into the tanks.
Calbourne set off over the drawbridge with the first 5 coaches and stopped at Whippingham
station, which used to be used by visitors to the Royal family when staying at Osbourne house.
Ceremonial photos taken with a bag containing a letter that was to be sent to the Queen,
with regards from the last train to call at the royal station. They reached the landslip and
creaked their way over, with the track thankfully holding, then went back to fetch the next train.
Back and forth they went taking trucks loaded with supplies and coaches filled with volunteers.
That evening, at the strike of the town hall clock, Calbourne left with a chorus of whistles
into the night. They’d left a 6-wheeled crane until last as it was the heaviest item. If it
caused the track to collapse at Wootton at least they’d have all of the other stock safely home.
Under the light of lanterns they once more traversed the temporary track, Calbourne’s wheels
covered in mud from the journey. It was the tram that was the last train to leave Newport station,
and after breaking down on the way it limped its way home by 10:30pm. The crew joined the
rest at The White Hart to celebrate to the sound of railway-themed tunes on the piano. On that day,
the Isle of Wight Steam Railway was formed. From here the group started from the ground
upwards, digging a pit in the running line so that they could mend Calbourne.
The engine has been overhauled in 1975, 1992, 2010 and 2020, where it returned in time to celebrate
the railway’s 50th anniversary. It’s been a very reliable runner and is a firm favourite with
younger visitors. It has only visited the mainland twice since being sent to the island in 1925,
once in 2012 to visit 3 railways and once in 2019 to visit the Bluebell’s LSWR themed
branchline gala. Being fitted with air brakes, it’s not compatible with vacuum
stock so when visiting elsewhere has to have an engine with it to take passenger trains.
The Ryde pier tram was also restored for the 50th anniversary too, and now looks a lot more complete
compared to the frames that it once was. Both ran in January 2022 to recreate The Big Move and now
can be found running between Smallbrook Junction and Wootton. There’s much more to talk about with
this little line, but that’ll have to wait until another time. Join again next month when we look
at somewhere else you can visit, or become a patron to watch the next Guide Rail early.