From the Archives: The Hurstpierpoint Locomotive 

This year 2025, as well as being the centenary of Rugby at Hurst and 30 years of girls entering the senior school, is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway in Britain. On 27 September 1825, history was made when George Stephenson’s steam-powered Locomotive No.1 travelled the 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton, carrying hundreds of passengers to great fanfare. It set in motion a ‘train’ of events that changed the world of travel forever.

But did you know our college once had its own train?  Well, one named in its honour, that became part of the revenue-earning service in England.

The’ Hurstpierpoint’ No. 918 was a fine piece of workmanship and part of the Southern Railways ‘Schools Class’. The most powerful 4-4-0 express passenger locomotives ever designed for a British railway at that time. These Schools Class Locomotives were a masterpiece of design by engineer, Richard Maunsell, and our particular train was built at the Eastleigh Works, Southampton.

On Tuesday 24 October 1933 the ‘Hurstpierpoint’ No. 918 went on view for the first time at nearby Hassocks Station and the whole school was allowed a half day holiday by the Headmaster, Revd. Bernard Tower, to go and visit it, climb on board, inspect it, talk to the crew, and learn that it carried 4000 gallons of water and 5 tons of coal.

There were 40 schools to have trains in this class including Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Uppingham, Blundell’s, Epsom, Wellington, Tonbridge, Sherborne, Sevenoaks, Marlborough, St. Paul’s, Dover and Whitgift. The engines became immediately popular, producing exhilaratingly fast performances and earning the affection of footplate crews, and so became the engines of choice to haul the Royal Train. One proud Operations Superintendent at Victoria Station boasted to Prince Philip about the journey to Epsom that, “If her majesty’s horse is half as good as our engine it will come in first today!”

Sadly, in October 1961 the ‘Hurstpierpoint’ was withdrawn from service and broken up, and all schools class were withdrawn by the end of 1962. When it was finally decommissioned our college was allowed to retain the name plate which is displayed on the staircase to the Science Block along with its framed photo. We have no colour photos of the Hurst engine but after being painted wartime- black in the 1940s it went back to its original green colour, this time a glossy Brunswick Green livery.

Just three Schools Class engines survived the cull, lingering in forgotten railway sidings, until ‘Stowe’ (No 928) was saved and went onto the Sussex Bluebell Railway, ‘Repton’ (No.926) went to the North York Railway and ‘Cheltenham’ (No.925) arrived at the Railway Museum in York in 1977 where it was. You can visit the National Railway Museum in York and explore the past, present and future of railways. They are open seven days a week 10am-5pm. I have been and it is vast and magnificent.

M-L Rowland – School Archivist

Acknowledgments:

My grateful thanks to OJ Peter Mellor (Fleur de Lys 1958-63) who became a volunteer footplate operator on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, for his detailed technical notes for the Archives from 2021. Also, an excellent book by D. Winkworth The Schools 4-4-0s.