Woodham Brothers

File:Barry Scrapyard line of tank engines.jpg

A line of tank engines on right at Woodham's

Two Bulleid Pacific locomotives at Woodham's Scrapyard. Nearest the camera is Bulleid Light Pacific No.34073 "249 SQUADRON"; the other is Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacific No.35009 "SHAW SAVILL". Both of these locomotives were saved. 34073 has steamed and is currently at the Swanage Railway; 35009 still awaits restoration.

King Edward II at Woodham Brothers in 1982

Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks, in Barry, South Wales. It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard, where nearly 300 withdrawn British Railways steam locomotives were sent there, and ultimately 213 were rescued for the developing railway preservation movement.

History

Established in 1892 as Woodham & Sons by Albert Woodham, the company was based at Thomson Street, Barry. The company bought old rope, dunnage wood and scrap metal from the ships, boats and marine businesses which used the newly created Barry Docks, which it then resold or scrapped.

Albert retired in 1947, when his youngest son David Lloyd Woodham returned from duty in World War Two with the artillery regiment in Italy. Dai renamed the business Woodham Brothers Ltd in 1953, creating four lines of business under four separate companies, which between them employed 200 people: Woodham Brothers, Woodham Transport, Woodham Marine and Woodham Metals.

1960s Beeching cuts, Woodhams scrapyard

By the late 1950s, Woodham Brothers was trading mainly as a scrap metal merchants, producing high quality scrap metal for the newly nationalised steel industry. From the Beeching Report, the decision was made by British Railways to reduce national trackage by one third, and move from steam to diesel and electric powered trains. Dai Woodham resultantly negotiated a contract to scrap metal mainly from the old Great Western Railway section of the nationalised industry, covering rail, rolling stock and steam locomotives.

Each lot of metal was bought at an auction as a piece of rolling stock or infrastructure, with each lot having a priority for scrapping as detailed by British Railways. Woodhams premises which were based at Barry Docks, agreed an extended lease with the British Transport Docks Board, over the former marshalling yards of the almost redundant Barry Docks, close to what were the locomotives works of the former Barry Railway Company close to Barry Island. This allowed them to store large quantities of both rolling stock and steam locomotives that they had bought from British Railways, before they were scrapped.

However, on delivery of both scrap rail, wagons and locomotives, Woodhams found that commercially it was easier to both comply with the contract terms and conditions and turn a profit if they concentrated on the easier to scrap rail and rolling stock. There was also at least ten times the volume of wagons, particularly short wheel base coal wagons from the former South Wales coalfield, which hence took up more space and reduced Woodhams capacity to bid on more contracts and hence make more profit. It was hence agreed internally to leave the more difficult locomotives until later, perhaps picking up the work when the volume of rolling stock and railway line abated.

Preservation centre

The resultant rows of redundant steam locomotives gave both a pictorial sight to holiday makers travelling to Barry Island, as well as a centre for pilgrimage for both steam railway enthusiasts as well as the developing steam railway preservation movement.

While there was still a significant number of steam locomotives in the yard, railway preservationists began buying the better examples in order to restore them to working order. This often involved the use of parts (particularly tenders) from other locomotives. For most of the time that locomotives were being 'rescued' from Barry, as Dai Woodham had grown up in the steam era and had a soft-spot for them, it became accepted commercial practice by the company for preservation groups to pay a deposit for a particular locomotive, which was then 'protected' until the group could pay for the locomotive in full and arrange transport.

Today

In the early 1970s, Dai Woodham started building what are now called the Romily Units at the Woodham Road site on No2 Dock, Barry Docks, for the purpose of giving local business people access to cheap industrial units. By 1987 he had managed to build the site up to contain 23 industrial units size ranging from 2488 to 4145 sq ft to rent, with access to both the docks, railway an the M4 motorway. The main Woodham Brothers business is based today around these Industrial units.

Woodham Brothers continued dealing as scrap metal merchants, and scrapping locomotives on behalf of British Railways, even some of the earlier types of diesels ahead of the remaining steam locomotive stock. British Railways Class 21 No. D6122 was the last of its class to survive, cut up by Woodhams in 1980 because no one wanted to buy it.

After Dai Woodham announced that he was going to retire, a concerted effort was made to clear the remaining hulks. One result of this was ten locomotives, known as the 'Barry Ten', being taken on by the Vale of Glamorgan Council and stored in 'scrapyard' condition. All under the care of the Barry Island Railway, eight locomotives are still in Barry only a few hundred yards away from where they were removed from, while two are under restoration at different locations around the country. GWR 4575 Class No. 5553 was the last steam engine to leave Woodham Brothers, in January 1990 for the West Somerset Railway.

A total of 213 locomotives were 'rescued' from Woodham's yard. Over 100 have been restored to working order, although many of these have since been withdrawn for overhaul and are out of use or awaiting further work.

Engines saved from Barry scrapyard

Below is a list of the engine types saved at Barry scrapyard. They are shown by class, indicating how many of each class were saved.

BR standard classes

• 1 BR standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester
• 4 BR standard class 5
• 4 BR standard class 4 4-6-0
• 4 BR standard class 4 2-6-0
• 7 BR standard class 9F 2-10-0
• 14 BR standard class 4 tank
• 4 BR standard class 2 2-6-0

GWR classes

• 6 GWR 2800 Class 2-8-0
• 9 GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0
• 6 GWR 5700 Class 0-6-0PT
• 10 GWR 5101 Class 2-6-2T
• 5 GWR 4200 Class 2-8-0T
• 2 GWR 4500 Class 2-6-2T
• 11 GWR 4575 Class 2-6-2T
• 2 GWR 4300 Class 2-6-0
• 8 GWR 5600 Class 0-6-2T
• 3 GWR 7200 Class 2-8-2T
• 1 GWR 9400 Class 0-6-0PT
• 8 GWR 7800 Class Manor class
• 11 GWR 4900 Class Hall class
• 6 GWR 6959 Class Modified Hall class
• 5 GWR 4073 Class Castle class
• 2 GWR 6000 Class King class

LMS classes

• 6 LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 Black 5
• 2 LMS Jubilee Class
• 6 LMS Stanier Class 8F
• 2 LMS Hughes Crab 2-6-0
• 1 LMS Stanier Mogul 2-6-0
• 2 S&DJR 7F 2-8-0
• 7 LMS Fowler Class 3F Jinty 0-6-0T
• 4 LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0
• 3 LMS Fowler Class 4F 0-6-0
• 2 LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T

LNER classes

• 1 LNER Thompson Class B1

SR classes

• 10 SR Merchant Navy Class
• 18 SR West Country and Battle of Britain Classes – of these ten are the rebuilt locos
• 7 LSWR Class S15
• 1 SR Class Q
• 4 SR U Class
• 1 SR N Class

Preserved locomotives

The following is a partial list of locomotives saved from Woodham's, which are now in preservation:

• BR standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester
• BR standard class 9F 92212
• GWR 2800 Class 2807
• GWR 4073 Class 5029 Nunney Castle
• GWR 4073 Class 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe
• GWR 4073 Class 5051 Earl Bathurst
• GWR 4073 Class 5080 Defiant
• GWR 4900 Class 4930 Hagley Hall
• GWR 4900 Class 4936 Kinlet Hall
• GWR 4900 Class 4953 Pitchford Hall
• GWR 4900 Class 5900 Hinderton Hall
• GWR 4900 Class 5967 Bickmarsh Hall
• GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall - the locomotive used in the Warner Brothers produced films series about Harry Potter.
• GWR 6000 Class 6023 King Edward II
• GWR 6000 Class 6024 King Edward I
• GWR 6959 Class 6960 Raveningham Hall
• GWR 6959 Class 6984 Owsden Hall
• GWR 6959 Class 7903 Foremarke Hall
• GWR 7800 Class 7802 Bradley Manor
• GWR 7800 Class 7812 Erlestoke Manor
• GWR 7800 Class 7819 Hinton Manor
• GWR 7800 Class 7821 Ditcheat Manor
• GWR 7800 Class 7822 Foxcote Manor
• LMS Jubilee Class 5690 Leander
• LMS Jubilee Class 5699 Galatea
• SR Merchant Navy Class 35027 Port Line
• SR West Country Class 34007 Wadebridge

External links

• Woodham Brothers website
• Story of the Barry scrapyard at the Great Western Society
• Photographs of Woodham's of Barry in May 1966 by Dave Sallery