Halls of fame

Now here's an extraordinary thing: not only does the GWR host the only Hawksworth Modified Hall 4 -6-0 currently in working order on the Cotswolds line, namely no. 7903 Foremarke Hall, but next year it will have the company of another. After a long overhaul at the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean, no. 6960 Raveningham Hall will at last be returning.

These two Modified Halls are oldest and youngest survivors of the class. Raveningham Hall is the only Great Western-built example surviving, having been turned out of Swindon in March 1944 (although it wasn't named until 1947). All of the other surviving Modified Halls were completed after nationalisation, Foremarke Hall emerging from Swindon works in 1949.*

Raveningham Hall's tender has already arrived at Toddington and it is by any measure, an exceptional example, as the photograph shows.  The chassis has been completely overhauled, while the tender tank (everything above the frames) is brand new so, effectively, it is a new tender.  It is of the Collett pattern with fluted tops, as opposed to the flat-sided Hawksworth design which accompanies Foremarke Hall, and which would have been coupled to Raveningham Hall when it was turned out of Swindon works. It's not particularly unusual, though, for the tenders to be coupled to either the Collett or Hawksworth versions of the Hall class. There is a News Extra on the Hawksworth tenders which you can read by clicking here.

A group of GWR locomotive department staff paid a visit to the Flour Mill recently to see progress on Raveningham Hall.  What they saw was impressive: the locomotive's chassis is just about complete while the boiler, which has undergone extensive surgery, is nearing completion. Most of the outer wrapper of the firebox has been replaced including the complex one-piece throat plate, as well as the two sides and most of the backhead.  Fortunately, the copper inner firebox was in good order and required little work before it was refitted. A large part of the bottom front of the boiler barrel has been replaced and a new tube plate fitted.  The smokebox is completely new. The flue tubes and smoke tubes have been delivered. Cracks discovered on the complex casting which makes up the superheater header and regulator box have been repaired.

But these aren't the only Modified Halls at Toddington: a third, no. 6984 Owsden Hall is being restored on-site by owner Trevor Westbury and a dedicated band of volunteers.

So what's the difference between the Hall and Modified Hall classes? Click here for a quick summary of the differences and a brief history of each of the Modified Halls at Toddington and a few hints on how to spot differentiate one from the other.

* Some readers may point out that one Modified Hall survived that was built later than Foremarke Hall. No. 7927 Willington Hall was completed in 1950 but remained in ex-Barry Scrapyard condition until 2007, when the engine was broken up so that the components could be used to contribute towards two new locomotives being built to replace extinct classes: a Grange (at Llangollen Railway) and County (at Didcot Railway Centre). In all six Modified Halls survive complete: Nos 6960, 6984, 6989, 6990, 6998 and 7903.