Nearly twenty years ago, in 2007, the Sunderland Echo ran a feature on the cosmetic restoration of 1873-built Head Wrightson locomotive (works number 33), which had been Londonderry Railway and later Seaham Harbour Dock Company No.17.  The locomotive’s ownership had recently been transferred to the museum and the cosmetic restoration had involved having new boiler cladding manufactured as well as a complete repaint of the locomotive and application of the last livery carried during its working life at Seaham.

Below: No.17 with the cab fitted – this was almost certainly manufactured at Seaham, reflecting a number of ‘house’ features seen on other locomotives originating from the Londonderry Railway/Seaham Harbour Engine Works.

Below: Now sans tank, but with original buffer beam.  I have always been intrigued by the large chunk of cast iron footplate missing in this view – this was replaced later, but must have been caused by a fairly substantial impact/collision.

Below: By the mid 1950s the locomotive has the replacement buffer beam fitted, but retains the boiler cladding (later removed – it ran with bare asbestos cement insulation in its final years).  Of note is the presence of SHDC No.18, a well-known locomotive within the Beamish collection.

The same newspaper feature covered the five-year construction of a 7.25 inch gauge model of the locomotive by model engineer Maurice Turnbull.  He had surveyed No.17 whilst it was on display at North Road, Darlington (now Hopetown), enabling him to construct a phenomenally detailed working replica of the locomotive, in what works out on this gauge, as 1:8 scale.

I had made contact with Maurice after becoming aware of his project, and he brought the nearly-completed model to Beamish where we were able to compare notes and discuss the locomotive.  We lost contact and sadly in the intervening years, Maurice passed away.  The model of No.17 recently came up for sale through Station Road Steam, so we have been able to purchase it for Beamish, where it will form an important record of No.17, in particular if the full-sized locomotive is ever restored to working condition.  My current view is that we would restore the Londonderry Railway features (including cab) and also extend the frames back to their full-length and restore the original design of buffer beam (it met with some form of collision in the 1950s which resulted in the rear of the frames being cut back and a new and rather crude buffer beam being fitted).  Maurice’s model will therefore act as a three-dimensional record of the locomotive in the condition in which it finished its working life at Seaham and was cosmetically restored in Head Wrightson’s own works at Thornaby.

Below:  After withdrawal from operation at Seaham, No.17 was acquired by Head Wrightson, who cosmetically restored it for display at their Thornaby works.  In 1975 it was displayed at the Stockton & Darlington Railway 150th event in Shildon before moving to the new North Road Station museum in Darlington where it was displayed until c2003.  It was then placed in storage within the Regional Museum Store at Beamish.  I had started at Beamish in 2004 and was actively working towards the return to steam of Head Wrightson No.1 (the red one!).  I was keen to see if No.17 could be added to the collection, and quite a long process of tracing the original owners of the locomotive was required (Head Wrightson had loaned it to Darlington for display at North Road, but subsequently had ceased to trade and their interests were eventually acquired by a company specialising in off-shore engineering) before transfer was formalised in 2005.  This enabled some funding from the Renaissance in the Regions ‘Hub’ to be directed at No.17, which included the fitting of replica boiler cladding and a full repaint.

Below:  Work in progress – the boiler was sent to Alton Engineering who manufactured the cladding, whilst the frames were prepared at Beamish for a contract repaint.  Note the other project in hand at the time (2006) behind – Coffee Pot No.1.

Below:  In November 2007 No.17 made one of several visits back to Seaham, on this occasion being placed on the east wall of North Dock.

A detailed history of the locomotive (and other Head Wrightson ‘Coffee Pots’ can be found here:

SHDC No.17 – A history and review…

These photographs of the model built by Maurice show the stunning level of detail he incorporated.  His intention was to fire the locomotive using gas, rather than coal, and a number of jobs remained outstanding including manufacture of eccentric straps and rods.  The model has only been partially painted.  I may explore options to complete Maurice’s work, but one item of work we may carry out is to paint the water tank in the definitive Seaham Harbour livery of the period – to add to the model’s value as a reference piece for No.17 during the 1950s/60s.

Below: Maurice Turnbull with No.17 on the occasion of his visit to Beamish to show us progress on his model (I think this was 2007 – the date stamp on the photographs has been corrupted).

Below: The very fine model of No.17 in 1:8 scale.

Below: A selection of images, courtesy of Station Road Steam, showing some of the details of this very fine model.

Below: The model after delivery to Beamish – now secured in perpetuity alongside the full-size locomotive, as part of the museum collection.