Platform

Richard Castle – the man who bought a Beattie!

THE RETURN to steam of a second Beattie well tank was one of the big stories of 2006, but although in the ownership of the Quainton Railway Society, the long story of No 30585’s preservation is actually far more complicated, as we have been reminded in a series of letters by Richard Castle, the man who saved it for preservation in 1963.

From the late 1950s onwards, Richard had taken a particular liking for the Beatties largely through pictures in The Railway Magazine, and thought they would be a good match for four and six-wheeled coaches.

In the early 1960s, Richard became secretary of the London Railway Preservation Society, which in 1963 was engaged in raising £500 to save a Metropolitan Railway F Class 0-6-2T. Any thought of purchasing another locomotive was out of the question and nobody realised this more clearly than Richard. So it was as a private individual that he wrote to BR at Waterloo in April 1963 enquiring whether a Beattie well tank would be available for sale.

At a committee meeting of the LRPS held on 17 May 1963 in the upstairs buffet at Liverpool Street station, not all committee members supported the idea of trying to purchase a second engine while still raising funds for the first. It was even stated that ‘quite enough steam engines have been preserved already’ and it was felt regrettable that so few pre-1923 carriages had been saved.

With the late Noel Draycott’s support though, the committee agreed to the project, but it was recorded that ‘this is to be organised by the secretary in a way that he considers best and that it should be independent of other LRPS activities and have a separate bank account’.

Richard said: “Preserving a Beattie was a project