Full steam ahead at Doncaster

If it could speak this would surely be the gist of an announcement from a boardroom table that has been present during the shaping of history. In fact for over a century some of the most daring decisions ever taken in the making of the railway were made across it..

Those gathered around the polished oak on this occasion were mostly local people who remember those great days and are determined to ensure that in the future others are reminded of it too.

Not before time either. Doncaster is the town that made possible an unbeaten world railway speed record but for some reason it has been painfully slow to promote its unsurpassed achievements.

Doncaster’s contribution to rail travel is, if measured by famous names, arguably second to none. Flying Scotsman and Mallard were among more the 2,000 and more steam locomotives built there before its famous Plant works turned to building diesels and electrics in the late 1950s.

Amazingly, Donny’s central role in the railway’s story is largely untold where it should matter most, on its doorstep.

In terms of public recognition the town loses out to other places along the East Coast main line. The great icons it produced are displayed at the National Railway Museum in York. More recently Doncaster was overtaken in the history stakes once again.

The first steam locomotive to be built in Britain for nearly half a century – a replica of the originals it helped to make – was constructed by enthusiasts in Darlington.

It’s called Tornado and it has since pulled thousands of enthusiasts, the Royal train, and earned global prestige for County Durham. Its success has also prompted a belated response in South Yorkshire.

Those promoting Doncaster’s cause aren’t making a case for the town becoming top of the pecking order in railway nostalgia. It’s a coincidence, they insist, that their own project is centred around a locomotive called Cock O’ The North.

They see it as the first step towards Doncaster receiving the credit it deserves. It could lead to other things, maybe even its own railway museum to honour its innovative journey along the iron road that began more than 150 years ago.

First things first. The priority is to recreate what was in its time the most powerful express passenger steam locomotive ever built for a British railway.

It was also “among the most spectacular and beautiful”, according to one writer. P2 No. 2001 Cock O’ the North, completed in 1934 by the London & North Eastern Railway at its Doncaster works, was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, the company’s brilliant chief mechanical engineer who was also responsible for Flying Scotsman and record-breaking Mallard.

The P2s, with their unusual wheel arrangement, were intended to work on the ardous Edinburgh to Aberdeen route, but only six were built. The class failed to fulfill its potential, although it was never fully developed.

After Gresley’s death the P2 disappeared from the production line and re-emerged in a different form.

Now, if all goes to plan, the banished giant is to be rebuilt as part of its home town’s bid to resurrect the glory days. The task is awesome.

Recreating Tornado (a post-Gresley A1 Pacific) and putting it on the track took 19 years and cost around £3m.

The Cock O’ The North team think they can have the streamlined version of the P2 running in about eight years, but the venture will need about £5m given the rising cost of materials.

To put those figures in context, the last steam engine built for British Railways cost £33,500 in 1960.

Steam locos are also temperamental beasts. For those involved there’s a lot of sweat and pain. Flying Scotsman is currently in bits at the National Railway Museum and the subject of a £250,000 appeal to get it running again.

A few yards away, and two years after making its debut, Tornado is also back in the workshop. Its boiler has been returned to the German manufacturer for extensive repairs. Several revenue-earning enthusiast specials, which help to pay off the engine’s outstanding debts, have been postponed, and Tornado won’t be running again on the main line until the end of April at the earliest.

Such reality checks weren’t deterring Cock O’ The North’s supporters, among them the mayor, when they unveiled a progress report around that old railway company table in Doncaster Museum.

They have applied for charity status, are bidding for money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and are urging businesses and individuals to get involved.

Initial donations have already bought several tons of steel for the loco’s frames, and the engineering expertise is in place and ready to start once a suitable site in town has been found in which to construct the locomotive from copies of the original design drawings done on linen sheets.

One of the team’s leaders is engineer John Seale. He arrived from Birmingham 22 years ago and was “absolutely appalled” to find almost nothing in Doncaster marking its great railway heritage.

“Not so much as a blue plaque in Avenue Road where Gresley lived, the genius who created the steam engine that holds the world speed record.

“It’s high time the town acknowledged its legacy.

“There’s been talk before of rebuilding one of its steam engines here but it was seen as pie-in-the-sky and there’s been a lot of apathy. Tornado and what it’s done for Darlington has changed things.

“Their team proved that it’s possible to turn the clock back, and it’s given Doncaster the incentive to do the same.

“One difference will be that we are determined to manufacture as much as we can locally or at least in the UK. We have the history, skills and now the determination to remind everyone of what this town has done for the railway.

“The potential for tourism alone is tremendous. Who knows where the project could lead.”

It couldn’t have a finer representative than Dave Court. He comes from the town, retired in 2009 after 48 years as a railwayman, and was on the footplate during the final days of steam.

His experience earned him the honour of driving Tornado on its test runs on what he still calls “the network’s metals.”

And he knows all about a steam engine’s promotional value. In 1969 he was the fireman on board Flying Scotsman when it toured the United States with a British trade mission.

Now Court is chairman of the Doncaster P2 Locomotive Trust and determined see that it gets the funds to enable Doncaster to crow about Cock O’ The North.

But, he’s asked, can it justify all that time and money, and anyway, do we need another recreated steam loco to add to all those that have been preserved?

“The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned,” he replies. “The P2 was a great, charismatic locomotive that didn’t receive the credit it deserved.

“It was unique, so it would be good to honour it and at the same time pay a long overdue debt to Doncaster and the craftsmanship that was here.”

Given the scale of the mission, and for additional inspiration, it might also be worth borrowing an idea from Tornado. Its nameplate incorporates the motto of an RAF base: “We rise to our obstacles”.

For information about Cock O’ The North visit the website www.streamlinep2.co.uk or email the project manager, Nic Davison, at [email protected]