4253 Restoration

4253 has been bought by the THE 4253 LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY LIMITED

They are currently selling shares in the loco if anyone is interested, (£250) per share.
This is downloadable at http://www.4253.co.uk/support.php

Future Role on Kent and East Sussex Railway

The plan is to rebuild the loco to support the future reopening of KESR to Robertsbridge, when larger motive power with more capacity will be required. A characteristic of the 42xx class was their large boilers, which were accommodated by designing narrow side tanks.
Due to the class's heavy water consumption and limited tank capacity they were nicknamed 'Water Carts', and had to make frequent stops for water. In its new planned role on the KESR this is not seen to be a problem for 4253, which should be able to take a full five car train the length of the line with little difficulty.
Many of the lines in South Wales had sharp curves in them, due to this the locomotives were constructed with side play in the trailing driving wheels, this in turn meant jointed coupling rods with horizontal as well as vertical gradient joints. The coupling rods had spherical joints between the third and last pair of driving wheels giving some amount of side play and these arrangements allows the locomotive to negotiate curves down to 2 chains, or 66 feet, in radius

Accordingly, as an eight-coupled engine it is anticipated that 4253 will negotiate any of the curves on the KESR with remarkable ease. Although a heavy locomotive,she is well within the KESR constraints, weight being spread over five wheel sets making the load per axle little more than that of the present KESR class 5( internal designation) fleet

 

Locomtive now dismantled and the rebuild is under way

See 4253 website for details and latest photos: :rockon: Rebuilding 4253.

 

4253 now fully dismantled and rebuild has started
There is a websiste with latest developments and pics.
See: Rebuilding 4253.
Shares for sale in thia loco... see website !

 

Fantastic progress on an excellent locomotive! Great to see one of the "Rippingale Scrapyard" locos coming back to life again. Excellent website too; from the photographic evidence these people are not messing about! I don't know about white, but 4253 was partially painted in red oxide after arriving at Blaenavon and, in certain monochrome photos, this looked a very ghostly shade!

 

This group have made excellent progress with this Western mega coal tank. Well done guys-you're a credit to the preservation movement. It will certainly make light work of operating the Robertsbridge extension if this type of loco is employed on the line. The Hunslet 18" heroes are getting a little tired-all heading for their fourth ticket in preservation-and could do with some Welsh Muscle to assist them. I see that they are already fabricating a new bunker and looking closely at reproducing the side tanks. This is the first time that Rolvenden have taken on a Barry wreck-they are certainly going for it -keep up the good work lads. Those shares are moving quickly apparently-sounds like a good investment to me!

 

The progress so far certainly has been rapid, its now completly stripped down, wheels out, boiler off at least now the group can assess the condition its parts, and according to the chairman of the group,funds keep coming in above what was hoped for , so enabling purchasing of parts sooner than might otherwise have been the case , As Austerity said, its a first for rolvendon, an ex barry engine, is a different beast from what would be the norm, but i dare say that in amoungst the membership we have people who have restored barry engines before and want to proove those who said, "you will never do it" or "it will never run here " wrong,

 

And I see in Steam Railway that the K&ESR are offering a taste of what it will be like when 4253 is restored - sister engine 4247 is apparently heading east from Cornwall to star in the May gala. Hopefully this visit will stimulate further support for a project that has certainly got off to a good start.

On a different note, it is a rather curious statistic that four "Southern" heritage lines now provide homes for GWR engines with Welsh connections - KESR: 4253, MHR: 5224, Swanage: 6695 and Bluebell 3217/9017.

 

http://www.4253.co.uk/4253 PRINTS.doc

You can also buy some very limited edition prints, of the loco.
I have one.

 

GW steam worked the Folkestone harbour branch?... Do you have any more details ?

 

A number of pannier tanks were used as bankers on the withdrawal of more native locos such as the R1's.

 

eight coupled tanks are not totally inapproriate to the KESR anyway...remember Hecate (not sure it was a total success though!)

Weymouth Quay was always GWR I think was it not? but GWR locos did penetrate to Eastleigh and Southampton from Didcot and to the Guildford Line from Reading amongst others

 

And via the MSWJ to Andover and beyond. As with the Reading-Redhill lines, 43xx moguls and Manors were the most common visitors. I also think I've seen a picture of a Hall running through the New Forest bound for Bournemouth in pre-BR days. Apart from the Folkestone Harbour 57xx panniers, I don't think any ex-GWR steam made it to Kent or Sussex until the preservation era. Still, the KESR has done its best to compensate for this - 1466, 1638, 3440, 5552, 5572, 6619 (twice) and 7819 have so far put in an appearance, while 5521, 6412, 6695 and 7715 have visited the Spa Valley and 1450, 3440, 4561 and 5199 have provided the Dukedog with company on the Bluebell.

 

Here's a couple of photos my Dad took of Pannier no.4692 at Folkestone Central in 1960.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IcpMx4LeqcY9TNWyChsX-dMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/x6jwCtxLQwj22py-H63CjdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Cheers

 

This is one of the last Barry Wrecks

There is a unique opportunity to buy shares in the engine.

If you want to become a shareholder ... see..Rebuilding 4253.

 

Army operated Dean Goods (and, I think, Austerity) locos were based on the KESR during WWII hauling the rail-mounted guns based there.

 

Barry White? :yo:

 

Had the Barry sea gulls cast their vote on what was best, GW or Southern , or was it yet another whitewash