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Steam Locomotive Restoration of the Decade 2010-2019

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by Pete Thornhill, Dec 31, 2019.

  1. huochemi

    huochemi Part of the furniture

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    Perhaps "resurrected"? When the Chinese were picking up the pieces in the late 1940s, a number of derelict MK1 (JF) locos were put back into working order and proudly carried worksplates saying, inter alia, "fuhuo" which literally means brought back to life (which, logically, is the Chinese name for Easter).
     
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  2. S.A.C. Martin

    S.A.C. Martin Part of the furniture

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    That’s a tad unfair. I never said it had to be accurate down to the last rivet.

    My original post stated quite clearly it should be as far as practical.

    The livery on the outside is just as much a part of any locos history as the mechanical gubbins.
     
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  3. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    I mean a machine with all the technical features of a J class, not just one with a half globe stuck on the smokebox
     
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  4. Jimc

    Jimc Part of the furniture

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    It's an argument that will never be settled though.

    In a museum I want to see individual exhibits in the best possible accurate form, and I don't care that there are juxtaposed items from different eras that would never have been seen together.

    Out in the countryside I want to see an impression of the railway as it was/would like it to have been before I was born, and I'd much rather see a train in (say) all 1930s GWR style than a ridiculous ragbag of liveries from different eras, even if not every component of the train ran in that livery in the 1930s.

    I'm quite happy for people to disagree with me, but I object to being told my preference is intrinsically inferior to theirs.
     
  5. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    That's fair, and I'd add the use of "what if" liveries to the pile too - for example the express blue rebuilt MNs. What I struggle with is the contortion of arguing both that rivet counting accuracy is unnecessary and, simultaneously, that a livery never used in service is somehow "authentic".
     
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  6. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I "get" the argument, though one might extend such a line of reasoning to a MN working on the S&C, a 'Jub' anywhere on sometime LNE metals or (perish the thought) a Dukedog on the Southern! :)
     
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  7. Andy Williams

    Andy Williams Member

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    In practice, there is little or no difference in the amount or nature of the work involved between the initial restoration of a locomotive from 'Barry' condition, and a heavy general overhaul undertaken after the same loco has been stored out of use at the mercy of the elements for ten years. Taking your statement "that restoration should not apply to any process that could have happened in a railway factory during normal working life", perhaps the term 'restoration' should never be used when referring to working locomotives, as it would be impossible to return one to full working order without recourse to the processes previously carried out in a railway works.

    Andy
     
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  8. misspentyouth62

    misspentyouth62 Well-Known Member

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    Maybe I'm too OCD or just too much of a pedant but I have always used notation that aligns to :
    Unrestored : in a state of decay or dismantlement from withdrawal from BR in 1960s
    Under Restoration : in the process of being restored to working order from an Unrestored state
    Awaiting Overhaul : has been restored but awaits overhaul to further working order
    Under Overhaul : in the process of being returned to further working order
    Operational : in ticket
    Static Exhibit : as title suggests
    New Build : majority if not all major components sourced as new

    Edit : I accept that there will be some engines that were quickly returned to operational use from withdrawal that need just as much sweat & tears for overhaul as initial restoration
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2020
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  9. DismalChips

    DismalChips Member

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    There seems to be a certain amount of grey between these two.
     
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  10. Jimc

    Jimc Part of the furniture

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    Missing major components is one big difference, but I tend to agree that there have, shamefully, been restored 'preserved' locomotives left to the elements unmaintained and unconserved that have ended up in a state of semi dereliction from which restoration is an appropriate word.
     
  11. Andy Williams

    Andy Williams Member

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    Many of the early locos to leave Barry were largely complete, with only the easily removable non-ferrous fittings missing. Many of the missing fittings had been removed by Woodhams themselves and were subsequently made available to the buyer of the locomotive.

    Andy
     
  12. Fireline

    Fireline Well-Known Member

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    Mike Hart's restoration of the Sentinel "Gervase". Half of the engine had been scrapped or stolen. A set of frames, a life expired boiler and some seriously worn wheels rescued from the undergrowth at Rolvenden, and returned to being a fine locomotive by a small team at Elsecar. Not an engine you restore because of it's revenue earning potential, but because you love steam.
     
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  13. misspentyouth62

    misspentyouth62 Well-Known Member

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    yes, that's true.
    Example might be 92219 and 92207 respectively - both are unrestored but one is ex-Barry condition
     
  14. 240P15

    240P15 Well-Known Member

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    Back to the thread topic my candidate would be the magnificent SECR H class no.263 preserved at the Bluebell Railway:Happy:

    Knut
     
  15. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Indeed. But if we're to get worried about such anomalies, we need to own to the limitations of railway preservation in managing to achieve full preservation of most lines and stocks, such that they can be "authentic" museums, without anachronism, of their previous selves.

    I've no issue with "what ifs", and rather like the idea presented by @Jimc of conveying the impression, but only where they are genuinely argued as such. Otherwise, I prefer just to acknowledge that the owner is applying their own livery, and leave it at that.
     
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  16. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    Define 'service', is a restored loco regularly in use on main line not in service? Galatea has run for several years in a livery not used in her original ownership, this is therefore not authentic?
     
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  17. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Neither is Galatea the first to do so!

    60532_BLUE_PETER_at_the_Dinting_Railway_Centre.jpg

    [Image courtesy of wikimedia.commons]
     
  18. talyllyn1

    talyllyn1 Member

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    Hmm.
    It could be argued that the first instance was Talyllyn Railway No 2 Dolgoch - repainted and lined out in 1952 in a style not used by either of the two previous regimes.
    This by an outfit with "Preservation" in its title! Then came the two Corris locos - bought to do a job rather than for their provenance and given the "corporate" livery.
    There's since been some rejection of the pseudo GWR-ish livery that the then TR grandees wanted, but it is now "historic" and arguably more authentic than the ornate "best guess" livery currently carried by Nos 1 and 2.

    As long as it's recognised that a BR red Jubilee and an LNER Apple Green Blue Peter are not a faithful re-creation of the past I don't really see what the problem is.
    Both are now "historic"! ;)
     
  19. std tank

    std tank Part of the furniture

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    Fair to say that that applied to 75069's boiler.
     
  20. LMS2968

    LMS2968 Part of the furniture

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    The problem is this: it is recognised that these are not a faithful re-creation of the past - at the moment. And in twenty years time?
     
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