GWR 4900 Class 4936 Kinlet Hall

The Great Western Railway (GWR) steam locomotive No. 4936 Kinlet Hall is a preserved 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive

4936 Kinlet Hall
A locomotive is seen from in front and from the right. The locomotive is mainly green but the smoke box (at the front) is black and the buffer beam is red with the number 4936 written in yellow letters. The chimney is trimmed with a copper ring and the valve cover is made of brass. Behind the locomotive is a green tender with the words "GREAT WESTERN" written in yellow. In the background to the left is a signal and an engine shed with a tank engine, and to the right is a car park behind a wooden rail.
4936 Kinlet Hall at Toddington Station in 2005
Type and origin
Power typeSteam
DesignerCharles Collett
Build dateJune 1929
Specifications
Gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Career
OperatorsVintage Trains
Class4900 Hall Class
RetiredJanuary 1964
Restored2000
DispositionPreserved

Operation

Kinlet Hall was built in June 1929 at Swindon Works, at a cost of £5,209, and was first allocated to Chester.[1][2] The locomotive first worked with a 3500-gallon tender, but this was changed for a 4000-gallon tender in 1938.[2]

In 1941, she ran into a bomb crater after a bombing raid at Plymouth, and was severely damaged.[3]

In 1955, the locomotive was fitted with manganese steel liners (rather than the usual bronze liners) to the main axle boxes.[4] This was unique among GWR locomotives.[5]

In a black and white photograph, a locomotive (seen from the front and right) is pulling a freight train, of which can be seen a number of open mineral wagons, a closed wagon, and some tankers. The driver is standing at the edge of the cab and seems to be looking at the photographer. The number 4936 is shown on the smoke box at the front, and also the number 681 is written in chalk. Behind the train there is a two-storey brick building which includes a covered bridge over the railway. To the right of the locomotive is a second, smaller, tank engine.
Kinlet Hall working a freight train at Swindon in 1958

At various times, the locomotive was allocated to Cardiff Canton, Laira, Old Oak Common, Oswestry, Oxley, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Stafford Road, Swindon, Truro, and finally Cardiff East Dock.[2][4]

After completing more than one million miles (1,600,000 km) in service, Kinlet Hall was withdrawn from service with British Railways in January 1964 and sold for scrap to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales in June later that year.[3][4]

Preservation
A locomotive is seen from the right and behind. The locomotive is mainly green but there are patches of pale red. On the side of the cab the number 4936 is written in yellow letters. The chimney and boiler dome are missing and the roof of the cabin is detached and is partially resting on the end of the tender. The tender is pale red. Most of the wheels of the locomotive are hidden by a flat wagon. To the right is the end of a tank wagon.
Kinlet Hall under restoration in 1983

In 1981 it was bought by the Kinlet Hall Locomotive Company and moved to Peak Rail at Matlock where restoration work began. It was moved to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 1985, followed by the Llangollen Railway in 1992. In 1996 it was moved to Tyseley Locomotive Works for final restoration.[6]

The locomotive returned to operational condition in February 2000 and, following certification for mainline operation, it made several mainline trips to various parts of the country, sometimes in company with fellow Tyseley resident 4965 Rood Ashton Hall.[5][6] The inaugural trip in question was Vintage Trains' SLS Special from Birmingham Snow Hill to Didcot on 17 June 2000. It visited the West Somerset Railway Jubilee gala 2001.[7] It has since visited several of its former homes in preservation, returning to Llangollen in June 2001, and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway for much of the 2004/2005 operating season.

In 2006 it was fitted with the On-Train Monitoring Recorder (OTMR) equipment at Tyseley, and a full retube was undertaken during the first part of 2007. Between October 2007 and March 2008 the engine visited the East Lancashire Railway.[8] The fitting of OTMR has allowed it to provide motive power for various mainline excursions, including Vintage Trains' Shakespeare Express and the Three Choirs Express excursion, double-heading with 5029 Nunney Castle.

After attending West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala 2009,[9] visiting the Severn Valley Railway for summer 2009, and being displayed at the Tyseley Open Day on 25 October 2009, it was dismantled over the winter for a thorough overhaul, which was completed in around 20 months. The engine was on display at the Tyseley Open Days on 25–26 June 2011, and test running on the mainline commenced shortly afterwards. The locomotive visited the North Norfolk Railway in March 2012,[10] before visiting the Dartmouth Steam Railway between June and October 2012, hauling regular service trains on the line alongside the railway's own fleet of locomotives,[11] and also attended the Nene Valley Railway in September.[12] It then moved to the West Somerset Railway in October 2012 via the mainline. The locomotive spent 2013 hauling railtours on the mainline, before going on loan to the Severn Valley again,[13] from September 2013 to late March 2014.

After reaching an operational agreement it spent the 2014 season on the West Somerset Railway, including the Autumn Gala.[14] It was then agreed that it would remain at the West Somerset Railway during 2015,[14] although a planned visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for that line's Spring Steam Gala in April didn't occur.[15] In April 2015 it was announced that Kinlet Hall Ltd and WSR plc had agreed a five-year residency period for the locomotive, to be based at Minehead. The agreement allowed for periods of both mainline running and visits to other preserved railways events.[16]

In summer 2016 it was announced that the firebox brick arch had been found to be broken beyond repair. This caused firebox and boiler damage, and as a result the mainline certificate was withdrawn. Faced with a period of limited running and no mainline income, director Jon Jones-Pratt agreed to buy out the other shareholders and pay for a full mainline certified overhaul. The engine ran on the WSR until autumn 2016, then moved back to Tyseley Locomotive Works for a complete overhaul.[17][18]

Models

In 2005 Bachmann produced an OO gauge model of Kinlet Hall in GWR green with crest.[19][20]

In 2008 Lionel, LLC produced an O gauge train set (Lionel Shakespeare Express “Kinlet Hall” Passenger Set) comprising Kinlet Hall and three GWR coaches.[21]

References
  1. "4936 History". Kinlet Hall. Archived from the original on 24 June 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  2. "Leamington Spa - GWR Locomotives: gwrls188". Warwickshire Railways. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  3. "Lionel Shakespeare Express "Kinlet Hall" Passenger Set Owner's Manual" (PDF). Lionel. Chesterfield, Michigan: Lionel LLC. 2008. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  4. Daniel, John (April 2013). "'Hall' class details, 4900 - 4949". Great Western Archive. 4936 Kinlet Hall. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. "4936 Kinlet Hall". Vintage Trains Ltd. 24 July 2011. Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  6. "Loco about a steam engine". Burton Mail. 6 February 2002. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  7. "News Archive 2001: The Silver Jubilee Steam Gala". UK Steam Info. wrs.org.uk (unofficial West Somerset Railway website). 2 April 2001. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. "East Lancashire Railway visit 25th November 2007". RCTS. Cheltenham: The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  9. Vaughan, Lloyd (27 March 2009). "Steam gala success!". Somerset County Gazette. Newsquest Media (Southern) Ltd. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  10. "News Archive March - June 2012: North Norfolk Railway Spring Gala". Norfolk Railway Society. Norwich. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  11. "Dartmouth Steam Railway Heritage Festival 8-9/06/12". Totally-transport.co.uk. June 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  12. "Full steam ahead for Nene Valley Railway's gala". Peterborough Telegraph. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  13. Holloway, James (October 2013). "Severn Valley Railway Steam Gala, 20th - 22nd Sep" (PDF). Tracks. Inter City Railway Society. 41 (10): 23. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  14. Jones, Robin (23 October 2014). "Taunton Shed Reborn". Heritage Railway. Horncastle, Lincs, UK: Mortons Media (195): 73–4.
  15. Brodrick, Nick, ed. (April 2015). "Kinlet Hall to be star guest at North Yorkshire Moors gala". The Railway Magazine. Horncastle, Lincs, UK: Mortons Media. 161 (1, 369): 68. ISSN 0033-8923.
  16. "GWR 4-6-0 no 4936 Kinlet Hall to be based on WSR for five years". wrs.org.uk (unofficial West Somerset Railway website). 10 April 2015.
  17. Railway Magazine, P12, July 2015
  18. "4936 - Kinlet Hall Update".
  19. "Bachmann 32-003 DCC ready GWR Hall Class Kinlet Hall". Samicarken. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  20. Whalley, Tom (2013). "Bachmann Branchline Past and Present Models Rev. 5" (PDF). World of Model Railways. Bachmann Europe plc. p. 14. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  21. "Shakespeare Express "Kinlet Hall" Passenger Set". Lionel. Chesterfield, Michigan: Lionel LLC. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
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