Firedrake files No. 12 - Scaldwell, special Peckett M3

Scaldwell doesn't look like a four-coupled Peckett M3 

Reviewing some old images of a visit to Amberley Museum, I noticed a picture of this tall and thin steam engine. My 2007 me had foreseen the need to take some notes at that time to inform the 2022 me. Some further research turned up an interesting history.

Scaldwell – what a great name for a steam engine! – is a Peckett M3 saddle tank built for the three foot gauge railway system serving Scaldwell Ironstone Quarries in Northamptonshire. Built in 1913 with works number 1316,.

Pecketts had developed a series of standard designs to cater for most of their customers’ needs but the quarries were narrow gauge an anything but standard. Rising to the challenge, they adapted the normally standard gauge M3 four-coupled design into a narrow gauge six-coupled version.

I was immediately reminded of The Chronicles of Boulton’s Siding. Isaac Watt Boulton adapted obsolete mainline locomotives for industrial use as well as building new engines for the same purpose. The rise of specialist manufacturers to supply industrial demand soon followed and Scaldwell is an example of one of those specialist locomotive builders adapting an earlier design, albeit to produce a brand new locomotive.

The change in wheel arrangement was something Boulton often undertook. Wheel arrangements involve a lot more heavy lifting compared to flower arrangements but at Scaldwell started off with new frames right from the start.

It’s interesting for me to compare the wheel spacing to clear the motion, firebox and cylinders with the layout of a regular Peckett M3. Scaldwell also reminds me of Firedrake File No 3, the Bagnall pannier tank that had been regauged

Scaldwell worked with a similar engine named Lamport until 1955 hauling wooden quarry wagons to standard gauge trasnhipment sidings. The system closed in 1963 but Scaldwell had already entered preservation in 1962 when it was purchased by Brockham museum where it was occasionally steamed. Scaldwell came to Amberley in 1981 but didn’t fit in with the facilities or planned developments.

After my visit to Amberley, Scaldwell was offered to the Southwold Railway Trust who were intent on reviving the three-foot gauge Southwold Railway in Suffolk which closed in 1929.

I had first heard of the Southwold Railway from R W Kidner’s Light Railway Handbooks, which I collected as a teenager. I often revisit these stimulating books because they ooze enthusiasm. Each light railway is succinctly listed with all the important details any interested party would care to know and they impart a certain intimacy as if each one had been personally visited by the author in a state of rapt enjoyment.

The entry for the Southwold Railway is no exception and I can only imagine the joy of the late R W Kidner might have to learn that the Southwold Railway was to be revived as a heritage railway with recreated motive power.

In the meantime, Scaldwell will get their steam trains moving. Three foot gauge engines in Britain are rare. Scaldwell will be more powerful than any of the new copies of the originals and much quicker to get into service than building anything from scratch. It seems that Amberley museum had looked after the engine very well for a static exhibit so things are looking good for seeing Scaldwell again in working order in its new home.