The last locomotive built at Broadstone

[jhb171achill]

Something a bit different here. My friend Callum Christie of Coolgreany, Co Wexford, asked me to post his article here for one of the model magazines. It is a quite fascinationg story of a live steam locomotive which his great grandfather commenced building in 1939, the year that the 800 class were under construction, but skipped two generations for Callum to complete and steam only this year!

No. 50: The last locomotive built at Broadstone Works

Callum Christie

 

This story begins in 1907 when my great-grandfather  James A Christie, started working as an apprentice blacksmith / boilersmith for the Great Southern & Western Railway in Inchicore Works, Dublin, aged fourteen or fifteen. 

He worked in Inchicore until about 1920, when he moved to the Midland Great Western Railway’s Broadstone Works on the north side of the city. Here he continued his work as a blacksmith / boilersmith / engineer. In the early 1930s he met my great-grandmother.They married in September 1935 and on the 7th July 1936 my grandfather, William Christie was born.

In 1939 James started building a 3½” gauge 0-6-0 steam locomotive and also a little 2½” gauge 0-6-0 tank engine fired by methylated spirits, as a birthday present for my grandfather William’s 4th birthday; he couldn’t afford to buy presents for his children as they were a poor family and even as a foreman his wages were poor.

Around 1944/45 James was promoted to foreman in the blacksmith shop as his boss, Jack Brennan, left Broadstone Works to go to Inchicore. James’ post as foreman of the blacksmith shop lasted until 1957 and in between his foreman duties he built miniature steam locomotives, mainly his 3½” gauge 0-6-0 tender engine which he had started back in 1939. During this time he also built a 3” scale miniature traction engine with wooden carriages, while also working on a 3½” gauge model of the Great Southern Railways 800 class 4-6-0 “Maedb” and a freelance 2”½ gauge coal-fired locomotive.

He had most of these locos almost complete when he retired from Broadstone in 1957, despite not wanting to retire. This hindered his work on the models as he no longer had access to the necessary machinery, and the alternative electric power tools were very slow in comparison. 

Six months after his retirement, James received a letter asking if he would be interested in coming out of retirement to start up a blacksmith / engineering shop for a new engineering company, Hubbard Brothers, in Ardee St. in Dublin City. He accepted the role and Hubbard’s asked him to go out and buy all the machinery to start the workshop.

He did just that and would go on to work there until his passing in June 1969 at the age of 74. He went to work one morning, calling into the polling station to vote in the General Election on the way, before working at Hubbard’s from 09:30 to 14:00 lunchtime, as he had surgery at 16:00 that afternoon. It was a routine operation, but sadly he died of a heart attack on the operating table. However, that was not the end of his legacy…

 

THE REAWAKENING

After James died, his only son, my grandfather Willie, inherited his engineering tools and model locomotives.

Willie brought all these bits to his house in Palmerstown, County Dublin, where my dad Finín lived. He had also had an interest in his granddad’s models.

The models were stored by my aunt until my dad got older. The 1970s flew by and my dad got more and more inquisitive. So eventually in 1980/81, he joined the railway in Inchicore Works as an apprentice blacksmith / engineer, the same journey his granddad James had taken all those years before. My dad loved working on the railway, lots of workers used to come up to him and tell him great stories about how his granddad James taught them everything; it made his day hearing all these stories about his grandfather.

He retrieved tools, one steam engine and other parts from the skip and took them with him to every house he lived until they moved to our current one.

One day in the 1980s he visited his aunt’s house and one of the models was produced for him to see. My dad said it was the best memory in his life. He was let hold it for 15 minutes and then it went back to the attic, not to be seen again until 2023!

I was born on 13th July 2006, the “chosen one” to save my great granddad James’ locomotives and tools.

 

My first memory is of playing with his 2½” steam train that he built in 1940. My dad had borrowed the engine in the 1990s when he moved house. He saved his granddad James’ tools, but one day he found his brother throwing out bits belonging to his granddad in a skip as he was clearing their shed.

As I grew up my dad taught me how to look after what he had. When I was four we asked my great aunt what happened to my Great Grandfather’s engines and she told me that she always thought they disappeared when she and my uncle were having work done in their attic.

During various family visits, I tried to persuade my great aunt and uncle to allow me to have the remaining locomotives and part, but initially to no avail. But I persisted. Fast forward to my 16th birthday in 2023, and at a family gathering I had set up all my great granddad’s locomotives and parts to show her to try to convince her to let me have them. I promised that I’d look after them. Thankfully, it was all eventually produced, to my great delight!

A few days later we brought it to my friend Mark Franklin in Rhyl, North Wales. Whilst there he kindly made a hinge pin on his lathe to hold the smokebox door on. When we got back home on 20th July we made running boards for the locomotive. 

In August we started cleaning the locomotive for completion. In September we tried running it.

Then in December 2023 I was talking to our friend Mark on the phone and he suggested that I contact the boiler inspector for a miniature railway club in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, Drumawhey Junction.

I contacted a friend there and asked him who was the boiler inspector in Drumawhey and he put me in touch with Keith Wood. I talked to Keith and asked him for help. Keith advised me what remaining parts I needed, including flux-coated silver solder rods and my dad attempted to solder the boiler of the logo in January 2024. However, he wasn’t able to complete it as he was too busy with work, so I asked Keith if he would make the parts needed to get it running. He agreed, and it took him four weeks to get it complete and running.

We collected the loco from Keith on 16th March 2024 and I got to drive it around Drumawhey’s track. From then on we have been driving it at both Drumawhey and our other club, Marley Park in Dublin. As of August 2024 a year since I got it, the loco is fully painted and operating.  We have visited two model engineering clubs in August – Wrexham and West Shore Miniature Railway in Llandudno, both in north Wales. The locomotive ran well at both.

Dublin’s Broadstone Works was the engineering headquarters of the erstwhile Midland Great Western Railway. When the MGWR became part of the amalgamated Great Southern Railways in 1925, most locomotive engineering facilities were transferred to Inchicore Works. However, the last locomotive to enter traffic, having been built at Broadstone, was initially numbered 49, which would have been the next number in the MGWR’s series, although in entered traffic with its new GSR number in 1925.

Based upon this logic, since my great grandfather’s model was also constructed in Broadstone, albeit subsequently, it would seem logical to number it as 50; and this is the number it carries. It is of freelance design, but in carrying this number it truly qualifies as the last steam locomotive ever built in Broadstone Works! Being commenced in 1939 and finished in 2024, it may well hold a record as the locomotive which took the longest time to build…..

I will be entering  my great grandfather James’s  locomotive in a miniature steam locomotive  competition  (IMLEC)  at Fareham  Miniature  Railway  in July 2025.

I’m not concerned whether I win or lose – I will simply honour my great grandfather James and his locomotive.

And we’re not done yet—we’re just getting started! I made a promise to get all of the rest of James’ engines completed and running, I will not stop until I complete every single one - I will carry on his legacy with my dad!

 

 

Callum Christie 

 

[Niles]

And if anyone is in the area on Sunday, Callum will have some of these locomotives in action at the Coolgreany Vintage Day (open 12-6). It's about 10 min drive the Arklow South exit on the M11.