Photo:
R Castle - 30585 at Bishops Stortford

In 1963 the London Railway Preservation Society, which was the progenitor of the Quainton Railway Society, was engaged in the major project of raising the sum of £500 to save a Metropolitan Railway Class F 0-6-2T. Any thought of purchasing another locomotive was quite out of the question and nobody realised this more clearly than Richard Castle, the Secretary of the LRPS. So it was that, as a private individual, he wrote to British Railways at Waterloo in April 1963 enquiring whether a Beattie well tank would be available for sale.

The reply he received seemed encouraging and included brief details of the condition of Nos. 30585 and 30586. From this information it appeared that No. 30585 was considered by BR to be the better of the two but the price asked, £750, was obviously going to be the most immediate problem to solve! Nevertheless, the application was made just in time because a'scrap note' had already been made. On receipt of Mr Castle's letter this was cancelled. The next step was taken to 17th May 1963 at a Committee meeting of the LRPS held in the upstairs buffet at Liverpool Street station! The late Mr Noel Draycott supported Richard Castle's suggestion that the Society should try to purchase a second engine whilst still raising funds for the first one. Not all the committee members considered the plan very sensible and the project was criticised on the grounds that 'quite enough steam engines were being preserved already.' The justification for this view was strengthened by the fact that so few pre-1923 grouping carriages had been saved compared with the number of locomotives. It was thought that any available funds should be used to purchase three or four historic coaches rather than one more locomotive.

However, the Committee finally agreed that the project should go ahead and it was recorded in the minutes that 'This is to be organised by the Secretary in the way he considers best and that it should be independent of other LRPS activities and have a separate bank account.'

The project was encouraged by the receipt of a letter from a man who had been disappointed by the rejection of No. 30585 by the Bluebell Railway and he sent £25 to the fund to back his enthusiasm. He also suggested that the names of subscribers should be recorded on a brass plate mounted on the locomotive and the Committee endorsed the idea.

An appeal leaflet was produced and sent to all LRPS members, to magazines and to individuals who might be potential supporters of the scheme. No time limit had been imposed by BR for completing the purchase although advice of any limit had been requested. During the summer and early autumn of 1963 a small trickle of cash came into 'The Beattie Locomotive Fund' and on 14th October it stood at £47.4.7d. Then came a bombshell from the newly formed Scrap Sales Department of BR. The full purchase price of £750 had to be paid within one month!

A plea for more time was sent and resulted in an extension to 31st December. Frantic correspondence followed with known supporters and more money swelled the fund to £130.6.1d on 17th December. On that day the miracle happened! In the post were two cheques, one for £300 and the other for £320 in payment for loans which had been the subject of previous letters. The fund grew by £620 in one day! 30585 was saved!

The cheque to BR for £750 was posted on 30th December 1963 before a boiler inspection had been carried out. It seemed too risky to withhold payment after the time limit had expired! Fortunately the examination by the insurance engineer in mid January at Nine Elms was satisfactory and it was possible to instruct BR to deliver the locomotive to the Hockerill Cold Store Sidings at Bishops Stortford. At that time the LRPS had the temporary use of a siding at the depot to accommodate rolling stock. In the picture the LCDR and GNR carriages can be seen behind the well tank.

On 18th March 1964, No. 30585 left Nine Elms and was towed via Feltham to Temple Mills yard in a freight train. It arrived at Bishops Stortford on 20th March, the same day as the Society's Metropolitan 0-4-4T, L44, arrived in steam at Luton from Neasden.

While at Bishops Stortford no serious preservation work was carried out although some attention was given to the engine to prevent further deterioration in storage. It was known that anything more ambitious would have to wait until the locomotive moved to a permanent home but nobody then realised that the well tank would slumber there for more than five years before the home was found. It was a further important landmark in the story of our Beattie tank when, on Friday 9th May 1969, it was loaded onto a road vehicle and taken to its permanent resting, place at Quainton Road.

Reference:
The Centenary of the Beattie Well Tank at Quainton, Quainton Railway Society, 1974

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 1974 and so does not reflect events in the 40+ years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added as deemed necessary.  The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.