FRED THE STEAM FUGITIVE

This features aims to explore the railway broadcasting phenomenon that is Fred the Steam Fugitive and ultimately try to restore both the starring locomotive and the programme itself to its rightful position in our industrial and cultural awareness.

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs used to illustrate this feature are by the kind permission of

Yorkshire Television

Rather, Fred the Fugitive Engine - rolling away from the scrap man and dieselisation - appeals timelessly to anyone who has been doing their job or living their life for years without complaint only to have outside powers suddenly disrupt what has no apparent need to be disrupted.

Since steam was king on the railways, Britain has lost its seat on the topmost table of World power and joined the EU with all its directives on straight bananas. But Fred and his faithful crew aren't going quietly to razor blade land or even become a polished museum exhibit. This isn't the shining time of Thomas the Tank Engine on Sodor! Like heroes from Robin Hood and Butch Cassidy to Richard Kimball, they've gone on the run. And that's a format that also makes great television!

However, as shown on Channel 4 in 1990, there was a final cast and crew credit which also thanked the Middleton Railway in Leeds and a neighbouring scrap firm called Robinson & Birdsell ( as filming locations) but made no mention of date or production company, There was also a note to say that the sole broadcast show ( "Time to Go" ) was dedicated to the memory of actor Paul Luty who played Driver Sid. Given that only one episode was shown as part of "Going Loco", many viewers presumed that the show was a 1980s pilot that never blossomed into a series.

Sid ( Paul Luty ) offers solace to his son Wally ( John Faulding ) in "Time To Go"

Sid Paul Luty

Paul Luty played the part of Big Malcolm in Last of the Summer Wine and also appeared in the BBC series "Rosie" and, with Rudolph Walker, in "Love Thy Neighbour" - possibly the most politically incorrect sitcom ever allowed on British TV ( Alf Garnett included! )

Wally John Faulding

Mr Jenkins Bill Pertwee

Bill Pertwee was arguably the most famous actor in this programme, already having achieved immortality as Air Raid Warden "Put that ruddy light out!" Hodges, Captain Mainwaring's would-be nemesis in Dad's Army. Bill Pertwee is also an accomplished author and related to actors Jon and Sean Pertwee.

Mr Weasel Ken Baxter

Supervisor John Jackson

Writer and Producer was Chris Sutton and Director was Tony Bulley

Long before St Helens Rugby Club, comedian Johnny Vegas ( real name Michael Pennington ) and model Louise Glover put St Helens on the map, Providence Works was founded in 1865 and turned out about 40 distinctive "Borrows Type" well tanks between 1872 and 1913.

Among the other owners of these engines was fellow St Helens firm Pilkington Glass, who - in October 1981 - presented "Windle" for preservation on the World famous Middleton Railway in Leeds.

As well as "Windle", Providence Works numbers 37 ( known as 3) and 48 "The King" have been preserved. Number 37 is at Marley Hill Steam Centre on the Tanfield Railway in County Durham while the Shackerstone Railway Society was founded in 1970 to provide a home for 48 "The King", built in 1906 and still in use with U.G.B. Charlton in 1960.

During the 1990s however, 48 "The King" left the Battlefield Line at Shackerstone in Leicestershire and is now at the Ribble Steam Centre at Preston Docks. It spent most of its working life with United Glass before being transferred back to St Helens. "The King" was last steamed in the late 1990s when based at the Fleetwood Locomotive Centre and will require boiler work before returning to traffic. However, as it is a very small locomotive for the demands of running a passenger service at the Centre, it is currently on display in the museum building following a splendid repaint by its owners P. Steer and P. Probert.

Edward Burrows & Sons 0-4-0WT 48 of 1906 "The King" as seen in 1960 (J.E. Bell )

However, thanks to the big hearted generousity of the Middleton Railway, "Fred" lives! Indeed, our favourite 0-4-0WT has found a home on a truly remarkable preservation project.

The TV show may have captured a part of the Middleton Railway that has since been necessarily dismantled - and the evocative industrial background of the film also levelled more than 10 years ago -( Although a search on the internet reveals two remaining firms called Robinson & Birdsell: one at 124 Garnet Road Leeds LS11 5HP and the other at Audby House, Audby Lane, Wetherby, LS22 7FD ) - but then the Middleton Railway has been growing strong by surviving change for almost 250 years!

The Middleton Railway, the first such undertaking in Britain to be authorised by Act of Parliament - and the first standard gauge preserved railway in the World - opened on 20 September 1758 to a gauge of 4'1". Built by Newcastle coal owner Charles Brandling, this supplemented a horse drawn wooden tramway which had since 1755 revolutionised the carriage of coal from the collieries at Middleton to the River Aire. The Middleton Railway leapt forward again in 1812 when John Blenkinsop, agent of the Middleton Estates, concluded that steam traction would be more economical than continuing with horses. Both horses and horse fodder had grown ruinously expensive during the Napoleonic Wars and Blenkinsop's own design of locomotive - using a rack and pinion drive rather than the weight of the machine to transmit torque - was built by local iron founder Matthew Murray. Blenkinsop pattern engines "Salamanca" and "Prince Regent" thus became the first steam locomotives in regular commercial service anywhere in the World on 12 August 1812.

The line reverted to horse power in 1835 but more conventional steam came back in 1866 before the line was re-gauged to what was by then the British standard of 4' 8 1/2". The privately owned line then flourished, gained links with the national network and spread some four miles to serve local coal mines and other industries. However, with the decline of coal extraction after the Second World War, the National Coal Board decided to shut the Middleton Railway in 1958 as it was not prepared to subsidise the use of the line by other companies.

However, in June 1960 the Middleton Railway Preservation Society - formed by Leeds University students - ran its first demonstration pasenger service, and goods services for firms at the northern end of the line were re introduced from September 1960 until 1983. These services diverged east at Parkside Junction from the north-south Moor Road - Middleton Park axis of the preserved line along the Balm Road branch to the former Great Northern Railway line from Leeds Central and Holbeck towards Wakefield and Castleford.

The short branch to Robinson & Birdsell's scrapyard - west of the Middleton Railway proper and now removed - converged on a west to south curve to the Moor Road - Middleton Park line. Indeed, the Middleton Railway used to run north from Moor Road to a terminus at Casson Close near Leeds Bridge but little trace of this route now remains.

A front view of 0-4-0WT 53 "Fred Windle" from "Fred the Steam Fugitive"

This has not been - and is not now - an easy task and sometimes hard decisions have to be made for very good reasons. For example, although Britons are largely more affluent than in the early days of the Talyllyn, Bluebell and Middleton projects there are also many more financial and recreational distractions - the internet to name but one! Similarly, while once a brake van ride of a few hundred yards behind a small tank engine would draw in steam enthusiasts from miles around, today's more sophisticated family audience often demands a longer journey in main line standard continuously braked bogie carriages hauled by larger and more glamorous locomotives.

In the face of these pressures though, the Middleton Railway has stayed loyal to its roots and continued to offer a home - and display environment - to many of the smaller - but historically highly significant - tank locomotives that seem to have lost their roles on many longer preserved railways. Indeed, the Middleton Railway has also yielded a great service to its home City of Leeds by preserving examples of locomotives built by such native firms as Hunslet, Kitson, Fowler, Manning Wardle and Hudswell Clarke.

However, even the financial, engineering and volunteer resources of such an eminent line as the Middleton Railway are not infinite, and while as many as four other locomotives are at any one time being stripped down and rebuilt better than new, practical support from the general public has yet to allow "Windle" to be returned to its steamable condition of the days when "Fred the Steam Fugitive" was filmed.

Put simply, the more money and manpower that the Middleton Railway receives, the faster that other outstanding tasks can be completed and the faster the restoration of "Windle" could be considered. For more information, please visit www.middletonrailway.org.uk

Indeed, help sooner rather than later would be much appreciated as at the Middleton - like so many other preserved railways - covered secure storage for rolling stock is at a premium. As a result, "Windle" has had to be stored in the open for a number of years and has sadly suffered from those other modern malaises - vandalism and theft of non ferrous parts.

Current estimates put the cost of restoring "Windle" to steam on the Middleton Railway at around £ 60 000. This might seem like a great deal of money but it must be remembered that any alternative of purchasing by another entity, relocation or restoration elsewhere to steaming or cosmetic display standards would also incur high transportation and organisational costs.

A home movie still of "Windle" ( nearest to camera) taken in 1991 when the 0-4-0WT was still in good condition at the Middleton Railway. ( James Buck )

General view of 53 "Windle" in June 2006 ( James Buck )

The Well Tank's motion has not seen much use recently! ( James Buck )

A clearer view of the cabside plates ( James Buck )

Some serious corrosion on the cab roof ( James Buck )

Many fittings will have to be returned before "Windle" can look good again ( James Buck )

In the final scene of "Time To Go" Fred steams past a very suspect semaphore signal!