Swanage Railway News Gallery

Swanage Railway News Gallery - Page 23

S15 Class E828 Harry A. Frith on Working Holiday 1998 at Swanage

Report and B&W photographs by APM Wright, colour photographs by K&P Morgan

July 18th 1998

Swanage Railway goes back to the glorious days of the Southern Railway in the 1920s and 1930s with the Government's Health and Safety Railways Inspectorate giving permission for S15 class 4-6-0 E828 Harry A. Frith to run on the relaid Purbeck Line for the summer.

Harry A. Frith at Swanage Station 10/7/98

A CLASSIC steam locomotive that was one of the most advanced freight designs of its time - and took more than a decade to restore after being rescued from the Barry Scrapyard - has started a working summer holiday on the Swanage Railway's relaid Purbeck Line.

Built in July, 1927 for Ł10,500, the mighty 137 ton ex-Southern Railway S15 class 4-6-0 E828 Harry A. Frith is on loan from the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society based at the Eastleigh locomotive and carriage works north of Southampton.

The Government's Health and Safety Executive Railways Inspectorate has given permission for E828 - which has a 20 tonne axle loading - to run on the Purbeck Line until the end of this year.

Swanage Railway Operations Manager Paul McDonald, an ex-BR locomotive cleaner and fireman at Bournemouth Central from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, is delighted to have E828 - a bread and butter engine of the Southern Railway - earning its living on the relaid Purbeck Line.

"It's brilliant to finally have E828 here and the E828 people are delighted. We're the first preserved railway it has been based on and worked on for a season. It's also the first time it has regularly worked for its living because until now it has done odd days on railtours," said Paul.

Harry A. Frith at Norden Station 18/7/98

"At Swanage it's being used for bread and butter work, day in and day out. The E828 people love it because the locomotive spent last year in a shed at Eastleigh. Now it's stretching its legs and hauling trains between Swanage and Norden Park and Ride that have to keep to a tight public service timetable. Engines like E828 need to be used every day," added Paul.

Southern Railway S15 Class 4-6-0 No. E828 Harry A. Frith factfile:

One of a class of 25 freight locomotives designed for the Southern Railway and built at Eastleigh Locomotive Works in July, 1927 - the place where it was restored 50 years later between 1981 and 1992.

One of the most advanced freight engines of its time, the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement locomotive cost Ł10,500 to build - the same amount it cost to buy as scrap 54 years later - and was one of the last of its class.

It was designed by Robed Urie and improved by his successor, Southern Railway chief mechanical engineer Richard Maunsell, to cater for increased demand for freight trains in the south western section of the Southern Railway.

Its BR number after 1948 and nationalisation was 30828. She worked between Salisbury and Exeter as well as London, Bournemouth, Weymouth and Southampton, and as far as Banbury and Oxford.

Throughout its career, E828 was based at Salisbury and was used to haul summer Saturday passenger trains during busy periods. It notched up a total mileage of 1.2 million miles: more than six trips to the moon or 50 times round the world.

After being withdrawn by BR in 1964, E828 was sent to Woodham's Scrapyard at Barry in South Wales where it languished for 16 years and nine months.

E828 is owned by the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society, a limited company with more than 160 members. It was saved for Ł10,500 - the amount it was built for in 1927 - in March, 1981.

Restored as a tribute to Eastleigh's long railway history and its locomotive and carriage works, E828 has taken some 3,000 days or 36,000 hours. Many parts were missing and had to be made from new.

E828 is named after Harry A. Frith who died of cancer in August, 1996. He was a long-time erecting shop foreman at Eastleigh Works and the force behind the S15 restoration project from 1980.

E828 was restored at the Eastleigh railway engineering works (it now has its own engine shed) but in the open and on a short siding next to the Eastleigh to Fareham line under the watchful eye of engineers from BR at Derby.