34058 Sir Frederick Pile (SR 21C158, BR sc1C158 & BR 34058)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 34058-sir-frederick-pile-leaving-winchester-on-a-train-to-bournemouth-may-1964.jpg

34058 Sir Frederick Pile (Sir Frederick Pile was General Officer Commanding of Anti-Aircraft Command, one of the elements that protected Britain from aerial attack during WWII and the Battle of Britain.) was built at Brighton in 1947 with original air smoothed casing and numbered 21C158. It was initially allocated to Nine Elms but moved on to Stewarts Lane in August 1949 for a month before returning to Nine Elms. In March 1951 34058 was transferred to Exmouth Junction where it remained until October 1963 when it moved to Eastleigh.

The locomotive was rebuilt in March 1960 and the air smoothed casing was removed and 34058 continued in service until withdrawal in October 1964, having only a brief life as a rebuild and covered 812,568 miles in total in service.

It arrived at Woodham Brothers scrapyard in 1965 and stayed there until privately purchased by Mike Vout in 1986.

The early restoration history appears to indicate that it went to the Avon Valley Railway. It is clear that it was then moved to the Mid Hants Railway in 2011 (when Avon Valley Railway evicted the Mike Vout) in a partly restored state using new parts rather than ones from other locomotives. The owner has donated the locomotive to the railway.

Much of the restoration work has involved studying drawings from Eastleigh and Brighton works prior to producing the required components. Understanding sometimes being aided to view other locomotives of the class which have already been restored.

The tender is being constructed totally from scratch at Bitton.

In 2000 work concentrated on the boiler. After considerable effort, all the large and small diameter tubes were removed (for the first time in about 40 years!). Most of them were extracted easily, but some of the small tubes, being clogged solid with soot and ash, took a lot of persuasion to get out.

No work has been done on the locomotive since the previous owner died in 2015 although the Mid Hants Railway intends to restore 34058 to run as a member of the home fleet.

September 2023 the plan was to move the locomotive from Alresford to the Southern Locomotive ltd’s base at Sellindge in Kent. The reason for the move being simply that there was no space on the Mid Hants Railway to lift the boiler from the frames.

By December 2023 the boiler had ben lifted from the frames to enable an assessment of the locomotives condition could be undertaken.