- Class: V, “Schools”
- Wheels: 4-4-0
- Built: 1934
- Numbers Carried: 928, 30928
- Last Overhaul Completed: 1980/1
- Current Status: Overhaul in progress; Tender has received overhaul.
- Owned By: Maunsell Locomotive Society
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The final development of the classic express 4-4-0, the Schools class were designed originally for the Hastings line with its restricted loading gauge, but proved themselves capable of hauling the Southern’s top expresses along side larger engines on the railway’s other main lines, and “Stowe” was built for the London-Portsmouth run. Bought from British Rail by Lord Montague, it was for a time displayed at his motor museum at Beaulieu, before moving to the East Somerset Railway in 1973 and the Bluebell in 1980 where it was rapidly restored to working order. Following expiry of its boiler certificate, it was been stored awaiting its turn in the workshop, in need of some very major (i.e. expensive) boiler repairs.
In September 2000 it was bought by the Maunsell Locomotive Society, so securing its future on the Bluebell. The team that rebuilt the tender for No.1638 then completed the major rebuild of Stowe’s tender, and the locomotive was repainted into Southern Railway Bulleid-period Malachite Green livery to ring the changes for the subsequent period when it was on display in the loco shed. In 2013 a start on the overhaul of the locomotive was made, with fund-raising also very much to the fore, since this will not be a cheap overhaul. Following re-wheeling of the overhauled chassis at Sheffield Park, the boiler and chassis have both been moved different contractors to speed the overhaul whilst the Bluebell’s loco works concentrated on ‘Fenchurch’ and ‘Sir Archibald Sinclair’. You can contribute towards the overhaul of this locomotive via the Bluebell Railway Trust.
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