64-472: The Barry 10 was a collection of unsold scrapyard steam locomotives that were removed from Woodham Brothers in 1990 when Dai Woodham retired. They were then taken on by the Vale of Glamorgan Council . For the next 20 years, the locomotives were stored in scrapyard condition, although several were bought. All the remaining locomotives were rusting hulks, stored, and not publicly viewable. The Barry Ten were under
128-619: A 24-hour security guard team, and a total ban was placed on weekend working parties. As the number of locomotives dropped below 100, the number of wagons coming for scrap also slowed, making it more likely that Woodham's would return to scrapping steam locomotives. Following a meeting of interested parties on 10 February 1979 the Barry Steam Locomotive Action Group was formed with the aim of putting potential purchasers and Woodham Brothers together, as well as funders and financial contributors. BSLAG undertook basic surveys of
192-401: A bustling railway town . Built to the north of the main town centre, the works had need for locally accessible housing and services for the workers. The development of the railway village was on the lines of similar Victorian era socially-encompassing lifestyle concepts, such as that at Bournville , but architect/builder Rigby's were given license to create a commercially viable development by
256-500: A complete kit of bits, on the condition that the donor locomotive was not reserved and that no substantial damage was incurred in removing the parts. However, this policy combined with ease of access to the extensive yards resulted in petty pilfering and trophy/memorabilia collection in the early years, to mass criminal activity. Although Woodham's had allowed weekend working parties to access reserved locomotives, by 1981 illegal removal of valuable scrap had got so bad that Woodham's employed
320-446: A holding siding, inspected by British Rail, and then attached to a special train direct to the purchaser's site. However, after some minor incidents involving overheated axle boxes due to a lack of lubrication, BR banned movement by rail from 1976, and all locomotives were thereafter transported out by road to the M4 motorway . The movement of locomotives to the holding sidings for inspection
384-527: A levy was made. Woodham's set the price for each locomotive at its exact scrap value (each type had an exact metal content breakdown from BR, so this was simply taken and multiplied by that day's scrap rate for each metal component), plus the BR levy; with the sale price completed by the addition of Value Added Tax , initially set at 10% but raised to 15% in 1979. For most of the time that locomotives were being 'rescued' from Barry, it became accepted commercial practice by
448-582: A lodging house but became a Wesleyan chapel in 1867, the GWR Museum in 1962 and then The Platform (Swindon Music Service) in 2000. The Armoury, built in 1862, became the GWR Hospital in 1871 and the Central Community Centre in 1960. The GWR Park, adjacent to St Mark's Church, was acquired in 1844. The Octagonal Market started in 1892 and was demolished in 1977. A house and shop built in the 1840s became
512-525: A public house in the 1850s and is now the Glue Pot public house. The terraced two-storey cottages were built on two blocks of four parallel streets, not dissimilar in appearance to passing trains. Each road was named after the destinations of trains that passed nearby: Bristol, Bath, Taunton, London, Oxford and Reading among them. Built in the nearby open area, named Emlyn Square after GWR director Viscount Emlyn (later known as John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor ),
576-479: A result, from 1957 the works produced 38 "Warship" class D800s and 30 Western class D1000s . However, early diesel production followed previous steam locomotive construction strategy, resulting in numerous classes with short production runs and a resultant high maintenance cost in traffic. With the Beeching Axe strategy of reshaping BR towards inter-city traffic, the need for many of these diesel-powered classes
640-534: A role which later expanded to all scrap railwayana in light of the Beeching axe . However, it also brought about an end to steam locomotive production, with the works producing BR's last steam locomotive 92220 Evening Star , by which time the works only employed 5,000. Much of the original design and specification for the first Mark 2 carriages and bogies was carried out by the Engineering drawing office at Swindon in
704-466: A tender to scrap locomotives, and in 1959 Dai Woodham went to Swindon Works for a week to learn how to scrap steam locomotives: "It was a completely different job from what we were used to." On 25 March 1959, the first batch of engines was despatched from Swindon to Barry: GWR 2-6-0's numbers 5312/60/92/97 and a single 2-6-2T Prairie tank, 3170 a week later. However, on delivery of both scrap rail and rolling stock, Woodham's found that commercially it
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#1733094538610768-523: Is GWR 4900 Class No. 5972 Olton Hall , which was rescued in 1981, restored to working order in 1998, and became a pop culture icon in the 2000s for being a part of the Harry Potter films . Several books have been published about the area, its history, and Dai Woodham's work in railway preservation. 51°23′45″N 3°16′42″W / 51.39583°N 3.27833°W / 51.39583; -3.27833 Swindon Works Swindon Works
832-636: The Barry Ten , were taken on by the Vale of Glamorgan Council and stored in 'scrapyard' condition. All under the care of the Barry Tourist Railway , eight locomotives are still in Barry only a few hundred yards away from where they were removed, while two are under restoration at different locations around the country. GWR 4575 Class No. 5553 was the last steam engine to leave Woodham Brothers, in January 1990 for
896-531: The British Transport Docks Board , over the former marshalling yards of the almost redundant Barry Docks, close to what were the locomotives works of the former Barry Railway Company close to Barry Island . This allowed them to store large quantities of rolling stock that they had bought from British Railways, before they were scrapped. The 1958 decision resulted in Woodham Brothers winning
960-489: The Class 14 diesel-hydraulic locomotives. Locomotive repairs and carriage and wagon work continued, though the original carriage and wagon workshop was sold. After the works became part of BR's integrated British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) , it won less and less maintenance business against the internal competition of Crewe and Derby Works . With the town of Swindon expanding and needing land close to its centre for development,
1024-504: The Marquess of Ailesbury , who owned the land, objected. The Marquess had previously objected to part of the Kennet and Avon Canal running through his estate (see Bruce Tunnel ). With the railway needing to run near to a canal at this point, and as it was cheaper to transport coal for trains along canals at this time, Swindon was the next logical choice for the works, 20 miles (32 km) north of
1088-632: The Museum of the Great Western Railway , dedicated to the works and the GWR. The engineers' office is now the headquarters of English Heritage , with most of the remaining buildings redeveloped as part of the Designer Outlet Village . The rest of the site's extensive railway yard was redeveloped on a mixed-use basis, some for housing and some for commercial buildings including purpose-built storage for
1152-836: The West Somerset Railway . The last member of the Barry 10 GWR 2800 Class No. 2861 left the yard in May 2013 for the Llangollen Railway . A total of 213 locomotives were 'rescued' from Woodham's yard and many have been restored from 1968 to 1990. By March 2019, 151 ex-Barry locomotives had been restored to working order (the 149th, 150th, and 151st, being BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T No. 80097, GWR 6959 Class No. 6989 Wightwick Hall , and BR Standard Class 9F No. 92134 respectively ), although many of these have since been withdrawn for overhaul and are out of use or awaiting further work. In
1216-608: The GWR needed a central repair works, so in 1840 Gooch identified a site at Swindon because it was at the junction with the Golden Valley line and also a "convenient division of the Great Western line for engine working". With Brunel's support, Gooch made his proposal to the GWR directors, who, on 25 February 1841, authorised the establishment of the works at Swindon. Construction started immediately and they became operational on 2 January 1843. There are several stories relating to how
1280-589: The GWR's most powerful and largest locomotive, the King class , was introduced to become the "flagship" of the GWR fleet. The Kings had been developed from the Castle Class which, along with the Halls , were the foundation of the GWR's reputation and image. This was the heyday of Swindon Works, when 14,000 people were employed and the main locomotive fabrication workshop, the A Shop was, at 11.25 acres (45,500 m ), one of
1344-589: The GWR. The completed village provided to the town medical and educational facilities that had been sorely lacking, together with the large St Mark's Church and the Bakers Arms public house , all completed before 1850. The GWR Medical Fund Baths and Dispensary were built in 1891-92, becoming the NHS Health Centre and Milton Road Baths in 1947 and the Health Hydro in 1986. The Barracks were built in 1853-55 as
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#17330945386101408-521: The autumn of 1965 was the last year that mass-scrapping of steam locomotives occurred at Woodham Brothers. Dai Woodham continued to purchase steam locomotives until the end of steam, bringing total purchases by August 1968 to 297 locomotives, including four Austerity saddle tanks acquired from the Longmoor Military Railway , of which 217 then remained at the Barry scrapyard. The scrapyard continued to purchase withdrawn steam locomotives until
1472-438: The capacity of the locomotive works was considerable, as a result of the 1958 acceleration the amount of storage and technical scrapping capability of the works became stretched. The British Railways Board decided to out-source via tender to selected scrap merchants the work of scrapping the steam locomotives. By the mid-1950s, Woodham Brothers was trading mainly as a scrap metal merchants, producing high quality scrap metal for
1536-443: The company for preservation groups to pay a deposit for a particular locomotive, which was then protected/reserved until the group could pay for the locomotive in full and arrange transport. Initially, locomotives were both mostly complete and able to move easily, although British Rail only allowed them to be towed by one of their own diesels, accompanied by a brake van to act as extra braking. Purchased locomotives were hence moved to
1600-414: The country". In the 1960s, Swindon Borough Council applied to demolish much of the village, but poet and railway enthusiast John Betjeman led a successful campaign to preserve it. Today much of the village is a conservation area, and many structures within it are listed buildings. One of the last houses to be built, 34 Faringdon Road, originally 1 Faringdon Street, has been restored to the condition it
1664-419: The decision was made to close the works. The final day of operation was 26 March 1986. Between 2000 and 2006, the rolling chassis of GWR No. 7200 was restored in the former iron foundry (J Shop), making it the final Great Western steam locomotive to receive attention at the works. The redevelopment of the works took account of the listed building status of the original core infrastructure. One building houses
1728-401: The developing railway preservation movement. Established in 1892 as Woodham & Sons by Albert Woodham, the company was based at Thomson Street, Barry. The company bought old rope, dunnage wood and scrap metal from the ships, boats and marine businesses which used the newly created Barry Docks, which it then resold or scrapped. Albert retired in 1947, when his youngest son, Dai ,
1792-456: The earlier types of diesels ahead of the remaining steam locomotive stock. British Rail Class 21 No. D6122 was the last of its class to survive, arriving in August 1968 and cut up by Woodhams in 1980 because no one wanted to buy it. After Dai Woodham announced that he was going to retire, a concerted effort was made to clear the remaining hulks. One result of this was that ten locomotives, known as
1856-559: The early 1960s. The B4 bogie used on this carriage provided more reliable high speed running than that under the previous generation Mark 1 carriage and heralded the higher running speeds brought in with the start of InterCity services and the West Coast Main Line electrification. The future of the works had been defined by the GWR's post-WW2 choice to develop its new diesel-powered experimental locomotives using diesel-hydraulic transmission systems rather than diesel-electric. As
1920-518: The early 1970s, Dai Woodham started building what are now called the Romily Units at the Woodham Road site on No.2 Dock, Barry Docks, for the purpose of giving local business-people access to cheap industrial units. By 1987 he had managed to build up the site to contain 23 industrial units to rent, ranging in size from to 2,488 to 4,145 sq ft (231.1 to 385.1 m ), with access to the docks,
1984-460: The end of steam with the last ones to enter the yard including LMS 8Fs No. 48151 and No. 48305, LNER B1 No. 61264 , BR Class 4 Moguls No. 76077/79/ 84 , and BR 9F No. 92212. All of them eventually left the scrapyard. The rows of redundant steam locomotives were a picturesque sight for holidaymakers travelling to Barry Island, and became a centre for pilgrimage for steam enthusiasts from the emerging steam railway preservation movement. While there
Barry Ten - Misplaced Pages Continue
2048-469: The first 4-6-2 "Pacific" entered service, the only tender engine of that type in Britain until 1922 . It was later rebuilt as a 4-6-0 . From 1914 the works turned to aiding the war effort, producing twelve howitzers by the end of the year. Charles Collett , Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1921 to 1941, greatly improved the works' boiler making and its facilities for working heavy gauge sheet metal. In 1927
2112-412: The gradients from Swindon to Bristol were much more arduous than the relatively easy route between London and Swindon. Drawing water for the engines from the canals was also considered, and an agreement to this effect was completed in 1843. Gooch recorded at the time: I was called to report upon the best situation to build these works and, on full consideration, I reported in favour of Swindon, it being
2176-529: The junction with the Cheltenham branch and also a convenient division of the Great Western Line for the engine working. Mr. Brunel and I went to look at the ground, then only green fields, and he agreed with me as to its being the best place. Once the plan was set for the railway to come to Swindon, it was at first intended to bring it closely along the foot of Swindon Hill, so as to be as close as possible to
2240-429: The largest covered areas in the world. During World War II , Swindon was again involved with military hardware, producing various types of gun mountings. Loco wheel-turning lathes were also ideally suited for making turret rings for tanks . The works also built landing craft and parts for midget submarines. At the nationalisation of British Railways (BR) in 1948, the works were still producing 60 new locomotives in
2304-587: The management and ownership of Cambrian Transport , who publicly announced, on 4 May 2010, various plans for the different engines (see below). Woodham Brothers Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks , in Barry , South Wales . It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard (hence its colloquial name of Barry Scrapyard ), where 297 withdrawn British Railways steam locomotives were sent, from which 213 were rescued for
2368-516: The movement of the affected locomotive to continue. During this period, Woodham's also began scrapping locomotive tenders with the intention of then re-selling the rolling tender frames to other users. The majority of these frames were purchased by the Duport Steelworks at Briton Ferry for conversion to ingot carriers. From the start of locomotive preservation, owners were allowed to remove components from similar types of locomotives to make up
2432-409: The new railway. Brunel's general specifications gave the locomotive makers a free hand in design, although subject to certain constraints such as piston speed and axle load, resulting in a diverse range of locomotives of mixed quality. In 1837, Brunel recruited Daniel Gooch and gave him the job of rectifying the heavy repair burden of the GWR's mixed bag of purchased locomotives. It became clear that
2496-524: The newly nationalised steel industry. Dai Woodham, as a result of the British Rail decision, negotiated a contract in 1957 to scrap metal mainly from the Western Region , covering like other scrap merchants the easily handled railway line and rolling stock; the more complex steam locomotives were to be handled solely by the railway works. As none of the many South Wales-based scrap merchants knew how long
2560-524: The original route. The line was laid in 1840, but the location of the works was still undecided. Tracks were laid at Didcot in 1839 (chosen as Lord Wantage did not want the railway passing close to Abingdon ) and for some time this seemed a more likely site. Gooch noted that the nearby Wilts & Berks Canal gave Swindon a direct connection with the Somerset Coalfield . He also realised that engines needed to be changed at Swindon or close by, as
2624-434: The railway and the M4 motorway . The main Woodham Brothers business continues to be these industrial units . On their 2008 debut album, London band Silvery released "Warship Class", a song about a childhood trip to the scrapyard in search of the remaining British Rail Class 41 (Warship Class) locomotive - D601 - 'Ark Royal'. One of the engines rescued, and arguably the most famous one of them all, from Barry Scrapyard
Barry Ten - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-472: The railway came to pass through Swindon. A well-circulated myth states that Brunel and Gooch were surveying a vale north of Swindon Hill and Brunel either threw a stone or dropped a sandwich and declared that spot to be the centre of the works. However, Swindon's midway point between GWR terminals and the topography of land near the town were more likely factors. The GWR mainline was originally planned to cut through Savernake Forest near Marlborough , but
2752-428: The remaining locomotives, listing types and conditions and acting as a media liaison point. However, during the summer of 1980 BR were unable to offer any quantity of redundant wagons to Woodham's for scrap. Rather than lay off staff, Dai Woodham authorized the scrapping of two steam locomotives, BR Standard Class 9F No. 92085, and GWR 5101 Class No. 4156. By August, more former steel coal wagons had been delivered to
2816-445: The responsibility of improving the passenger stock, resulting in 1878 of a separate carriage and wagon works being built on land north of the station. The first Royal Saloon was built in 1874 and converted to standard gauge in 1899. 1875 saw the opening of the boiler and tender making shops, eventually used to also produce parts for locomotives, and marine engines for the GWR's fleet of ships and barges. The first GWR through corridor train
2880-478: The steam locomotive fleet initially involved the replacement of steam shunting and branch line locomotives with diesel-electric traction, and the movement of the replaced small steam locomotives to the major railway works for scrapping. In 1958 the British Transport Commission reappraised the speed of the programme, and the decision was taken to accelerate the disposal of the steam fleet. Although
2944-449: The town without entailing the excessive engineering works of building on the hill. However, the Goddard family ( lords of the manor of Swindon) objected to having it near their property, so it was laid a couple of miles further north. With many of the early structures built and adorned by stone extracted from the construction of Box Tunnel , the first building – the locomotive repair shed –
3008-522: The turn of the century, the works were employing an estimated three-quarters of Swindon's entire workforce. George Churchward's tenure, first as Assistant Chief Superintendent in 1897, then Locomotive Superintendent in 1902, produced heavier locomotives, firstly the 4-4-0 City class , then the County class . Later in 1906, "North Star", originally 4-4-2 , was rebuilt as the first four-cylinder 4-6-0 . More four-cylindered 4-6-0 engines were built, and in 1908
3072-400: The work from scrapping the short-wheelbase coal wagons from the former South Wales coalfield would last, they all chose to scrap these first. Each lot of metal was bought at an auction as a piece of rolling stock or infrastructure, with each lot having a priority for scrapping as detailed by British Railways. Woodham's premises which were based at Barry Docks, agreed an extended lease with
3136-452: The work was concentrated at Swindon. Like most early railways, the GWR was built with gentle gradients and the minimum of curves, which meant that it was able to operate fast, lightweight 'single-wheelers', 2-2-2 and 4-2-2 . However, from 1849 Gooch also built 4-4-0 saddle tanks for the hillier routes in Devon . The Works transformed Swindon from a small 2,500-population market town into
3200-422: The work when the volume of rolling stock and railway line abated. From mid-1964, Woodham Brothers won additional contracts to scrap Southern Region stock, and as a result expanded their Barry Docks yard leases to cover more of the former marshalling yards. In 1965, 65 locomotives had arrived at the scrapyard, of which 28 were scrapped, but the additional volume of Southern rail, wagons and brake vans meant that
3264-400: The works were employing over 2,000 men and were producing about one locomotive a week, with the first standard-gauge engine built in 1855. A rolling mill for manufacturing rails was installed in 1861, attracting workers from South Wales. Although some rolling stock was built at Wolverhampton (producing 800 standard-gauge locomotives up to 1908), Worcester and Saltney near Chester , most of
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#17330945386103328-642: The yard was Midland Railway 3835 Class No. 43924 in September 1968. The engine was taken on by the 4F Locomotive Society, and the engine now resides at the Worth Valley Railway . However, this did not stop the engines from being scrapped as a whole, as in 1972, 4MT Mogul No. 76080 was cut up and the following year, 2884 class No. 3817 was cut up as well. Under the terms of the contract from British Rail, Woodhams could not sell complete locomotives onwards that had been sold to them for scrap, unless payment of
3392-621: The yard, making 4156 and 92085 the last locomotives to be broken up at Barry. While most steam locomotives made it out of Barry Scrapyard, some were scrapped from 1958 to 1980 and all of the diesel engines, 4 in total, that entered the yard were scrapped, despite some attempts to preserve them. GWR 1400 Class No. 1428 was believed to have been sold to Woodham Bros., but in fact it was actually sold to J. O. Williams of Barry and cut up at their yard. Woodham Brothers continued dealing as scrap metal merchants, and continued scrapping locomotives on behalf of British Railways. These included some of
3456-448: The year, falling to 42 in 1954. From 1948 to 1956, the works made 452 steam engines to GWR designs, partly in parallel with producing 200 BR standard classes from 1951 until 1960. The decision in 1960 to move BR's main motive power from steam to diesel brought the works both new lines of employment and an end to an old one. The works became the southern UK's regional hub for the storage and scrapping of steam locomotives and rolling stock,
3520-568: Was demobbed from the British Army after World War II . Dai renamed the business Woodham Brothers Ltd in 1953, creating four lines of business under four separate companies, which between them employed 200 people: Woodham Brothers, Woodham Transport, Woodham Marine and Woodham Metals. As a result of the 1955 Modernisation Plan the decision was made by the British Railways Board in the late 1950s to: The strategy chosen to replace
3584-469: Was also an issue, due to the deteriorating condition of the track in Woodham's yard. With the need to occasionally move locomotives in order to retrieve another which had been purchased for preservation, derailments would sometimes occur due to the poor state of the track. As Woodham's lacked the necessary equipment to re-rail the locomotives, it was easier to simply cut part of the derailed wheelset away, allowing
3648-438: Was built in 1891, with electric lighting introduced in 1900. In 1892, the GWR completed the process of converting their lines to standard gauge. 13 miles (21 km) of new broad gauge sidings were laid to accommodate the influx of rolling stock, so that by 21/22 May 1892 195 locomotives, 748 carriages and 3,400 wagons and vans were stored for conversion to the new gauge. Those that could not be converted were scrapped on site. By
3712-519: Was completed in 1841 using contract labour, with the necessary machinery installed within it by 1842. Initially only employing 200 men, repairs began in 1843, with the first new locomotive, the "Premier", built in 1846 in under two weeks and renamed "Great Western". This was followed by six more, with the Iron Dukes , including The Lord of the Isles , considered the fastest broad-gauge engine of its day. By 1851,
3776-401: Was easier to both comply with the contract terms and conditions and turn a profit if they concentrated on the easier to scrap rail profile and rolling stock. There was also at least ten times the volume of wagons, which took up more space and reduced Woodham's capacity to bid on more contracts. Hence it was agreed internally to leave the more difficult locomotives until later, perhaps picking up
3840-399: Was in around 1900 as a living museum. Gooch followed a policy of taking in-house any railway engineering discipline that could be enabled to scale. Hence in addition to locomotive building, from 1850 standardised goods wagons were produced, and in 1867 Swindon was made the central workshop for the construction of carriages and wagons. In 1864, when Joseph Armstrong took over, he took on
3904-613: Was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon , Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986. In 1835, Parliament approved the construction of the Great Western Main Line between London and Bristol by the Great Western Railway (GWR). Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel . From 1836, Brunel had been buying locomotives from various makers for
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#17330945386103968-458: Was removed. A decision was also made to specify all new classes of locomotive with diesel-electric transmission, making the works' specialist diesel-hydraulic knowledge redundant. As a result, with scrapping rolling stock keeping employment levels at the works high, a decision was made to cease building new locomotives at Swindon, and to reassign the works to become a heavy repair facility. Building of locomotives finished in 1965 with construction of
4032-458: Was still a significant number of steam locomotives in the yard, railway preservationists began buying the better examples from the late 1960s in order to restore them to working order. The first locomotive to be the subject of a rescue appeal was GWR 4300 Class 5322, which eventually did leave Barry in March 1969, becoming the third locomotive to leave, but the first to be bought and actually moved from
4096-625: Was the Mechanics Institute , paid for via subscription by the workers. Designed and constructed by Edward Roberts, it was completed in 1855, contained the UK's first lending library and provided health services to workers; it was enlarged in 1892–93. Nye Bevan , mastermind of the National Health Service , later said "There was a complete health service in Swindon. All we had to do was expand it to
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