Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0DH

Grace

The history behind the design of Hudswell's 0-4-0 Disel Hydraulic shunters has been outlined with "Claire".

"Grace" was the last standard gauge shunting locomotive to be produced by the Railway Foundry. Sadly even this reflected the poor performance of Hudswells over the previous ten years, with two batches of part-built locos awaiting firm orders before money or time was spent to complete them. Thus their despatches from Leeds are erratic - D1344 ("Beverley") was despatched in 1965, D1388 ("Claire") in 1970  yet "Grace", D1345, was February 1971.

Delivered to the Avenue Coking Plant south of Chesterfield,   D1345 worked alongside D1388 as "Avenue Coking Plant No.5" and "Avenue Coking Plant No.4" until the plant closed and the locos were bought for preservation. They moved to a private site near Shrewsbury, dubbed the "Shropshire Collection"  where eventually 56 industrial locomotives had been amassed, suddenly to be put up for sale in 2001. At that time, all the locos were sold to one businessman, but it became apparent that he would release duplicates for sale and Andrew went back to Shrewsbury to inspect D1345 and D1388. Both locos had defects, and torn between them, he put in offers for one or both and was accepted for both, duly named "Grace" and "Claire". "Grace" at the time was missing two buffers and had frost damage to the oil cooler and cab radiators, but spare buffers were obtained from another loco going for scrap and work went ahead at Long Marston to get the loco to running order, although considerable crankcase pressure was later diagnosed.

Leaving Long Marston, "Grace" went first to the NRM at Shildon, where it was resident for two years. The Middleton Railway having expressed interest in "Grace" for its historical value in  preference to  "Beverley", it transferred to Moor Road early in 2008.  It has been run briefly at Middleton but awaits time to carry out an engine strip down and rebuild, hopefully during summer 2010. It is the only one of Andrew's locos to receive proper cast nameplates.

More photos can be found in the Gallery section, here

Undergoing restoration and still showing its Lot Number (32) from the Shropshire Collection Auction