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The Linear Scrapyard: Which locos/coaches/wagons in it would you most like to see get restored ?

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by toplight, Jan 4, 2018.

  1. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    I have told the railway that they can use it if they want, however when the snow comes the railway is generally shut.
    Need to refit the adjustable toe blade before it goes out though.
    Charters may be a possibility.
    Both Std engines in the film survive, there has already been a partial reunion at Kirkby Stephen in 2012 at the 150th but a full reunion is still to happen.
     
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  2. 61624

    61624 Part of the furniture

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    The H & B RSF has seen new blood come in recently and they seem to be making progress with the first coach, so whilst you shouldn't hold your breath there's more hope now. I just wish some care and attention would be given to the Thompson CL as well and we could look forward to one day having a passenger train that isn't composed of corridor stock for shuttle services at special events. Sadly, the NYMR is too focused on its core services to be bothered about heritage these days.
     
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  3. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    Hull and Barnsley Carriages , I'd forgotten those . I'd also like to add the GCR Barnum's to the list .
     
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  4. J Rob't Harrison

    J Rob't Harrison Member

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    One of the Barnums is being worked upon; it is (or at least, was in November last year) in one of the workshops at Ruddington. The GCR-RST are actively recruiting for people to help out on it.

    http://gcr-rollingstocktrust.co.uk/uncategorized/call-for-volunteers-on-barnum-restoration/

    Likewise the Barnums are on my list of things I'd like to see restored.
     
  5. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Hardly a situation confined to Yorkshire. In some ways, the discussions over on the WSR thread regarding catering isn't a million miles away from NYM heritage considerations, as both raise questions of funding and manpower. Aside from meeting statuatory requirements, any board anywhere will quite properly concentrate on keeping the wheels turning. The sort of additional stock being suggested is a lovely idea, but this can't be at the expense of core operations.

    Am I the only one thinking back over four decades ago to the creation of the Festiniog Heritage Group? For those too young to remember, this group started life in response to stated plans to do a "Merddin Emrys" type rebuild on "Livingstone Thompson" (then running as "Earl of Merioneth" for some reason which has always escaped me). From an often fairly stormy start, the FRHG evolved to become (effectively) the 'conscience' of the Ffesterbahn and no mean force in itself.

    Would the NYM board be adverse in principle to 'something different' on the rolling stock front? Were I in their position, the sort of questions I'd want to see answered would revolve around establishing exactly what was being suggested, how it would benefit the railway and how it might be accomplished without taking resources needed elsewhere to keep the trains running. Without satisfactory answers to all those points, would any board commit to a scheme?
     
  6. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

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    A random and pointless piece of patriotic royalism, I have always assumed.
     
  7. Steve B

    Steve B Well-Known Member

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    The story (according to Festipedia) is here - https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Livingston_Thompson#1956-1971:_Use_during_the_early_revival_years. The loco had already been renamed "Taliesin" after the single Fairlie of that name had been withdrawn in the early 1930s. I'm amongst those who didn't see the point of renaming it "Earl of Merioneth", but I have less of a problem with the name on the 1979 loco.

    Steve B
     
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  8. marshall5

    marshall5 Well-Known Member

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    Although not in a linear scrapyard by any means the one loco I would really like to see restored to working order is the F.R.'s Alco 'Mountaineer'. As this is the centenary year of the end of WW1 I think it would be appropriate to restore it, as far as possible, to WW1 condition. Obviously this would preclude its use on the F.R. but as a roaming ambassador and for lighter or double-headed trains on the WHR .......?? Or am I drifting into WIBN territory?
    Ray.
     
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  9. Miff

    Miff Part of the furniture Friend

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    Last year it was reported Jeremy’s Locomotive Storage Co. had bought the old Tri-ang factory in Margate. Has he stored anything there yet?
     
  10. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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    Couldnt agree more, Tom. That wish list almost exactly matches my own. I do hope I live long enough to see a Birdcage set running, but for once I'm in accord with the railway's commercial needs, and that 6- carriage Maunsell set is a divine prospect. From an embarrassment of riches, I'd hope for the 2 BCKs, the 2 open thirds, Restaurant car, and the Nondescript 4441 as the wheelchair accessible vehicle, plus the Hastings brake 3rd as reserve. There's also the CK 5644 to consider, but that's probably very long term.
    One other wish of mine is that the LBSCR 4-wheel composite, currently unique in preservation and languishing on the Plym Valley, will sometime find itself a good home (wink wink!)
    http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=3386
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2018
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  11. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Interesting to see the survey report suggests this is in worse condition than other grounded bodies which actually appear worse in photographs. I think the L.B.S.C.R. tended to use mahogany which seems less durable than the teak found in surviving L.C.D.R. and I.W.R. vehicles.

    One factor that needs to be held in mind is the more carriages which are restored, the more workshop time and space will be required merely to keep them in condition. Thus, given an unchanged level of facilities, the fewer "new" restorations can be carried out.

    PH
     
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  12. GWR Man.

    GWR Man. Well-Known Member

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    And the covered building to help keep them in good condition longer as well.
     
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  13. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

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    and 1365 which would could run 7864 an alternative to the Wealden Rambler. Another coach has been suggested on the Bluebell yahoo group as a possibility for a wheelchair accessible vehicle, I think it was this one http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/exhb_coach.html.
     
  14. Steve B

    Steve B Well-Known Member

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    It has been interesting (and pleasing) to see that the majority of the posts in this thread have been about coaches, rather than locos. Also that the Bluebell has figured quite strongly. I also would echo Tom's wishlist (with the addition of LSWR 320, given that restored LSWR coaches are few and far between - and would be useful).

    Now I understand what is meant by the "linear scrapyard" description, but in that category fit many locos, coaches and wagons whose future is not really at risk - there are long term plans, and steps taken to minimise deterioration in the meantime. Many of the coaches that have been mentioned (for example the Bluebell ones) you could comfortably say "one day it'll happen" but maybe not just yet. Across the railways more needs to be done to provide storage facilities, and for workshops to be provided and expanded. There are some railways (including some big players) where lack of adequate workshop facilities will become a huge issue as the fleets of Mark 1s that are used deteriorates to the point of being unusable and there is nothing else available. We already commented on how much of the Bluebell's early running stock is now awaiting restoration - well the same is starting to happen with the Mark 1s elsewhere in preservation. We see paint peeling, rust breaking through, dodgy floors, worn out upholstery. There comes a point where the coach becomes unusable - what then?

    But what is also a concern are those coaches that are at risk. Those with no effort being made to protect them, no likelihood of work starting, where the owners have gone AWOL, or no longer able to do anything constructive towards their future. There were pictures of the GWR coaches in the process of falling apart posted earlier in the thread. They aren't the only ones. Is there anything that could reasonably and practically be done for such vehicles?

    Steve B
     
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  15. toplight

    toplight Well-Known Member

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    Many of these vehicles are not able to be progressed and deteriorate because there is not enough covered space to properly work on them. Most if not all railways have a shortage of workshop space.
    If say a coach is in bad condition it needs stripping down gradually, windows and doors removing etc and virtual reconstruction and you can't do that outside when it is pissing down with rain and everything is sopping wet, plus you need power for tools, lights etc. A lot of the vehicles are also stored in some siding somewhere miles from power and workshop civilisation which certainly doesn't help.

    Even if you do try and do it outside you run the security risk of kids getting inside and wrecking everything. I am in the situation myself with one coach inside the workshop being steadily progressed (see my avatar picture) but another outside under tarpaulins, and no space inside to do them both, plus even if you try to do two it means you end up with two half finished instead of one finished. There is also a shortage of skilled people to step forward who know what they are doing to work on them. Lots of people want to see say historic coaches restored, but are you helping to do them ?

    In the case of the wrecked GWR coaches in the pictures that were posted, knowing who owns them my suspicion is that they have been purchased to stop them being scrapped but also with the intention of selling them onto someone else with a profit later.

    So if railways want to help such vehicles, build more more covered space where they can be stored and worked on and stop the rot.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2018
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  16. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Although the Facebook page for Sharpness railway claims they will be restored there...
     
  17. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    Toplight sums up the problems that exist with many heritage vehicles which await restoration. Principally lack of secure covered workshop facilities and people who know what they are doing, where restoration is concerned. Most of us can saw timber and paint things but that is not the expertise that is needed with restoration projects.
    Sadly many of the items to be seen in linear scrapyards were got, with all best intentions, but without a lot of thought about their future.
     
  18. gwalkeriow

    gwalkeriow Well-Known Member

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    Better workshops and storage give the possibility of attracting more volunteers
     
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  19. pmh_74

    pmh_74 Well-Known Member

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    Nothing went for scrap as far as I know. Some owners of abandoned vehicles were traced and agreed to the disposal of said vehicles, and some vehicles left for new homes in preservation elsewhere. The pity though is that the fallout from all of this was that one private owner felt he needed to sell vehicles off the railway, which there were people on the railway willing to take on and restore. We've lost at least 8 vehicles that way that I can think of off the top of my head, including one I'd happily have taken on myself, though it will probably be restored sooner at its new home.
    Everything which remains has a plan, as far as I know, although in one or two cases I'm unsure what that plan is.

    To answer the original question, once I'd spent my fictitious massive lottery win on getting the four GCR suburban carriages at GCR/GCRN restored and added the one which is elsewhere and the other one which is in two pieces in Scotland, I think my next project would probably be a rake of LNWR carriages, just because someone ought to.

    Slightly more realistically though I did try to buy a brake van about 15 years ago which was festering in a siding on one of our longer-established heritage lines. I managed to contact the owner and he very politely told me it wasn't for sale under any circumstances. It's still there, still festering. I wonder if it will have to wait until said owner shuffles off and if there will be anything left to restore by then. (I've moved on though; too many other commitments to consider it now.) (I mention this just because there is probably rather more of this going on than people realise.)
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2018
  20. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Everything here is perfectly valid. Another factor is the fact that tourist railways are in competition with other leisure attractions which are rather less likely to "entertain" their customers with the sight of derelict bits of equipment.
     
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