As LSWR ‘T3’ No. 563 steams for the first time in 75 years, Steam Railway explores its fascinating history and journey towards its revival.
June 25 1948 – Waterloo station. It is the last day of an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the former London & South Western Railway’s terminus. Sitting in one of the platforms is an example of the newly formed Southern Region’s most modern steam locomotives: air-smoothed Bulleid ‘West Country’ 4 ‐ 6‐2 No. 34017 Ilfracombe. Only three years old, Ilfracombe’s radical, boxy shape and vibrant Malachite green and sunshine livery are in stark contrast to the decidedly traditional, Victorian outlines of the other locomotives lined up behind it. The first is ex-London, Brighton & South Coast Railway ‘A1’ 0 ‐ 6‐0T No. 82 Boxhill. The second is one of Ilfracombe’s direct predecessors: ex-LSWR ‘T3’ No. 563.
With its elegant stovepipe chimney, undulating splashers and delicately painted lining, this quintessential pre-Grouping 4 ‐ 4‐0 is the aesthetic antithesis of Bulleid’s bold and innovative design – or indeed the muscular, semi-streamlined form of ex-LMS Stanier ‘Princess Coronation’ No. 46236 City of Bradford which, bizarrely paired with a former War Department eight-wheel tender, arrives with a train from Exeter as part of British Railways’ Locomotive Exchange Trials. This strange tableau epitomises the new, emergent BR era, with archaic technology giving way to new designs and a breakdown of old, regional identities.
Later that day, with the festivities over, No. 563 withdrew to the electric carriage shed at Farnham, seemingly destined for a life on static display. Few could have imagined then that, 75 years, one month and a day later, the ‘T3’ would be resurrected. It’s a fairytale story for one of preservation’s sleeping beauties.
Adams’ apples
By the time William Adams assumed the role of Locomotive Engineer for the London & South Western Railway in 1878, he had already enjoyed a long and successful career.
Born on October 15 1823, Adams was apprenticed at 17 to a firm of marine engineers and, in 1848, joined the Sardinian Navy as an engineer. He returned to Britain in 1853 and, two years later, was appointed as Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent of the North London Railway. He helped organise and extend the NLR’s Bow Works and, in 1863, introduced the first of the NLR’s 4‐4‐0T designs – the first to be built by the railway itself at Bow rather than by outside contractors.
In 1873, Adams became L
