During the late 1920s, Hudswell, Clarke & Co. Ltd, a prominent industrial locomotive builder based in Leeds, experienced a downturn in business due to the recession. To counter this, they turned their attention to pleasure railways, designing diesel locomotives that were styled to resemble steam engines. Their pitch was simple: lower labour and maintenance costs without sacrificing the charm of a traditional railway—and it proved to be highly appealing to operators.
The first of these locomotives went to the North Bay Railway in Scarborough in 1931, and over the next seven years, Hudswell, Clarke built eight more. While some of these locos enjoyed stable lives, others moved between multiple sites, and two even ended up in scrapyards. Remarkably, all nine still survive today.
We’ll be taking a look at all these locos in due course and in this particular article will focus on the two that were bought by Billy Butlin.
See our blogs on the railways at Golden Acre Park and the Pleasure Beach Express to read more on what happened to the other Hudswell Clarke steam outline locos.
In 1938, Billy Butlin commissioned two 21-inch gauge ‘Princess’ locomotives for a railway he was constructing at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, coinciding with the British Empire Exhibition. The locomotives were named Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose, and were identical in design to the Princess Royal at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Always the showman, Butlin secured written permission from King George VI to use these royal names, ensuring his locomotives carried a touch of official prestige.
The railway only ran for one year but carried 500,000 people and was considered a huge success, although a crash between the two trains resulted in 17 people getting injured.
The following year, both locos were moved to Butlin’s Clacton holiday camp where a new railway had been built.
Princess Margaret Rose remained at Clacton until 1953, when it was transferred to the new railway at Butlin’s Pwllheli camp. A decade later, in 1963, Billy Butlin acquired the full-size Princess Margaret Rose from British Railways and also relocated it to Pwllheli, where it was put on display.
Princess Elizabeth was renamed Queen Elizabeth in 1953. It left Clacton in 1956 and was sent to a new railway at Butlin’s Ayr. In 1963 it was moved to the Minehead camp
Six of the Butlins camps eventually featured miniature railways, and from the mid-1960s, they began replacing all their locos with the newer CP Huntington models, manufactured by Chance Rides in the USA. By 1971, both Hudswell Clarke locomotives were described as “worn out” and were acquired by the fairground dealer Rundle’s. They were transported to their yard in Lincolnshire, where they remained outside, partially dismantled, for the next seven years. In 1978, the locomotives were sold to another Lincolnshire dealer and spent a further 13 years exposed to the elements, this time in a scrapyard – one was reportedly dumped upside down the entire time!
In 1991 both locos were rescued by Brell Ewart, now the owner of the full size Princess Margaret Rose, and moved to the Midland Railway in Derbyshire where they now share a shed with their larger namesake. Both locos have now been cosmetically restored and one has been rebuilt to working order.
We’d love to hear your memories and stories of the early miniature railways at Butlins. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
