The Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society is aiming to rebuild LMS Locomotive No.10000, one of the original Scot diesel locomotives.
Its president, Stan Fletcher, worked between 1947 and 1983 as a commissioning engineer at English Electric. His role included being the team that built and tested the London Midland & Scottish Railway’s D16/1 design diesel loco 10000 and its twin 10001.
When Stan started to be involved, 10000 was just a locomotive frame minus its wheels. Stan’s job entailed travelling behind the twins during their first 150,000 miles on the Midland and West Coast mainlines. This included runs from Derby down the Matlock line that is nowadays is known as Peak Rail.
Now in his 98th year, Stan was at Rowsley on Peak Rail during October 2018 to take part in filming for a future Society video and sign a Royal Scot booklet dating from 1949.
On the 1st of June 1949, the two locomotives hauled their first Royal Scot train from London to Glasgow. The Royal Scot was a prestige express on which businessmen and celebrities often travelled.
Stan recalls seeing actress Dorothy Lamour travelling behind 10000.
The president recalls that the Twins’ first Royal Scot was a particularly heavy train, including three carriages full of VIPs. During that run staff from the railway company took VIP passengers up to the lead loco in groups of 4 people at a time
During the outward journey to Glasgow, a problem developed. The errant part was a feeder pipe to an air reservoir for pneumatic contacts. This impacted the transfer of power from the generator to the traction motors. As a result one of the Twins was unable to contribute traction for a period.
The Society recently obtained a copy of British Railways’ handbook of this initial diesel-hauled Royal Scot run. Stan has duly signed during his visit to Rowsley, appropriately sitting in a NRM-owned LMS carriage. The booklet is marked as the copy handed to T.F.B. Simpson, Works Superintendent at Derby from 1947.
In January 2019 Stan is launching a fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 in time for his 100th birthday (March 2020) to raise capital with which to buy components from locomotives which are soon to be withdrawn from mainline service.
He will be attending the Society AGM on the 23rd of March 2019 at 1pm in the Aston Court Hotel in Derby and will be available to talk with members and visitors.
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