No. 63601

GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY 8K Class 2-8-0 102

Designed by Robinson as a heavy freight engine, No. 103 was one of 131 built and one of four preserved. (Three ROD O4s are in Australia.)

103 was built at Gorton Works for the Great Central Railway (GCR) in January 1912. It was among the first of its class designed specifically to haul heavy freight trains to and from the massive new port of Immingham, which the GCR opened in July 1912.

The construction of No. 102 (a sister engine) was authorised on 8th August 1910 as part of an order of twenty locomotives. It was completed at a cost of £3,352. This locomotive endured the challenges of two World Wars, operating with heavy and continuous traffic but minimal maintenance. The fact that it survived into the later days of steam, virtually unchanged from its 1912 condition, is a testament to the original design’s robustness.

No. 102 was first allocated to Gorton on 14th March 1912 and subsequently moved through several sheds including Sheffield, Mexborough, Barnsley, Doncaster, Frodingham, and Immingham. Traffic to Immingham was enormous and included coal, pig iron, iron ore, wood pulp, timber, pit props, grain, and other goods. Imports included wool from Australia for the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Originally numbered 102 and classed as an 8K under GCR ownership, the locomotive was reclassified as an O4 and renumbered several times under LNER management: 5102 in June 1925, 3509 in April 1946, and finally 3601 in February 1947. After Nationalisation in 1948, it was given its British Railways number, 63601, in September 1949.

An article in the June 1958 edition of Railway World proposed preserving GCR locomotives from classes D11, O4, and A5. Thankfully, the 4-4-0 No. 506 “Butler Henderson” was preserved as the D11 example. The O4 is the subject of this article, but sadly the large GCR tank A5 did not survive.

As one of the most successful steam locomotive designs ever and one of only three surviving O4s with a Belpaire boiler, 63601 was selected for preservation in 1960 shortly after its last general overhaul.

After a hard-working life of over 51 years hauling heavy freight on the GCR’s Pennine route, 63601 was withdrawn from service at Frodingham in June 1963, where it had spent many years supporting the iron and steel works.

Following withdrawal, 63601 experienced several relocations: first to Doncaster Works, then to Leicester for display in the proposed Leicester Museum of Technology at Abbey Meadows. In 1976 it moved to the GCR shed and preservation centre at Dinting, before its final move to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York in 1977.

Growing calls for its restoration culminated in 1996 when, thanks to a successful campaign by the Main Line Steam Trust Ltd and Steam Railway magazine, 63601 was returned to the GCR on 6th June 1996.

Restoration was supported by a Steam Railway appeal starting in 1997 to raise £70,000. The Main Line Steam Trust immediately donated £25,000 to kick-start the appeal. On 24th January 2000, 36 years after its last steaming, 63601 moved under its own power back on its home railway, the GCR.

During the following 12 years of service, it visited railways including the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, Barrow Hill, the Churnet Valley Railway, and the National Railway Museum at York.

63601 ran a final train before its boiler ticket expired, having been extended to keep it steaming for its 100th birthday. On that day, it departed Loughborough Central at 17:30, returning from Leicester North at 18:10. The locomotive looked immaculate and ran perfectly, as usual.

For the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in 2018, 63601 went to Quorn and was dressed as one of its sisters, ROD 2012, on 11th November. Upon returning to Loughborough shed, it was taken apart for overhaul.

The overhaul is scheduled for completion in 2027, when 63601 will return in its original GCR livery as No. 102 for the first time since 1924.