Isle of Wight Steam Railway

Right I'll bring it back to the island. As we are talking about coaches and nice to have and the IOWSR rolling stock policy.
Does anyone know of a LCDR bogie composite on the mainland or heaven forbid what happened to the IWCR steam railmotor coach/ saloon after it went back to the mainland on the floating crane?

 

It's all grand Ray, I just checked and we are ..... currently on the Swanage thread!

 

Not what it says on the top of the page . Mind you these days we seem to be talking about many different things on many different pages that are not correct for the line in question.

 

I don’t know of any complete LCDR bogie composites, however the IOWSR seems to think it has enough body sections to re-create one.

I once heard there was a LSWR bogie coach body that the IOWSR had their eye on if it ever became available. Anyone got any more info or pics of that one?

 

You do realise you're heading down the path of starting a 'Thread Drift' thread?

On the 'plus' side, it's been great (and not a little surprising) to see the ongoing Island Line upgrades have stayed on their proper thread.

Unfortunately, there's nothing to suggest this fascinating vehicle, with bogies of differing wheelbases, went anywhere other than up in smoke, after it's trip back over The Solent. Same applies to the rebogied (ex-12 wheeled) former S&C carriage, the sometime IWCR 'Railmotor No.2' and the two 1883 vintage IWCR Lancaster C&W 'short bogies'.

One lost IWCR vehicle I particularly mourn was an ex-LSWR 4-wheeler, a one compartment brake, the genesis of which is something of a mystery. I suspect it was rebuilt on the mainland, following an accident, as there's no mention of its design or construction in a pretty comprehensive history of LSW non-bogie stock in my possesion.

Whilst I think the word 'never' has no place in our movement, recreations of any of the foregoing can't be seen as vaguely likely, given that the existing impressive supply of grounded bodies ought to be more than enough to keep Haven Street C&W gainfully employed for a several hundred months to come .... that is, when they're not busy keeping the service fleet running!

 

It's been very good luck that so many grounded coach bodies have survived, over the years, and mostly are in very good condition, when you consider the age of them, had it not been for this bit of good fortune, the IOWSR, would have really struggled for coaching stock,
Just out of interest, does anyone know what coaches made up the very last passenger working in 1966, from Shanklin to Ryde and which ones managed to survive the cutters torch

 

Not the unique ex-LBSCR Directors Saloon, which survived the end of steam as an ED inspection saloon, but (see your own comments on what things were like back then) was declared past saving. If only we'd known, Eh?

 

Yes, if i remember correctly, it lasted until 1968, and was broken up at Ryde in the yard, a lot of stuff was deemed to be un restorable in those days, if you would have said, we can rebuild it, people would have walked away shaking their heads.

 

Well we have the toilet bowl so it will only be a mere repair. Just like a certain engine around a nameplate

 

Don't be silly, ceramics don't count. Now, trailing bogies, on the other hand .....

 

W14 rises from the Ashes?? or was it W31's ?

 

W14 will be in steam and running on the IOWSR this year! Unfortunately I think we are talking about different W14s.

 

I think you mean W24, unless you're not talking about Calbourne and some other IoW loco I'm not thinking of!

 

No I do mean W14. Check and see what loco is visiting the IOWSR for its 50th anniversary event this year.

 

I can see an ex-island Terrier, but OK, I'll bite ..... what gauge is the visiting W14? And as two completely different locos carried that number over the years, are we talking Shanklin or Fishbourne?

 

The visiting W14 is standard gauge! Ok it doesn’t carry that number at the moment, but it did run on the island in the 1930s as W14 Bembridge. It now resides on the KESR numbered 2678.

 

In my experience there's precious little empathy by a number of people on this forum Simon, that's why I rarely contribute, just can't be arsed to put my head above the parapet. I can just sit back and watch the pomposity.
As a general member of the public as some would call me, even i knew what the guy was talking about.
I'm not singling out one individual here, I'm sure he didn't mean it.
OK back below the parapet for another five years now

 

My idea was to use those coaches as an example that we are only seeing some of the nice ones being restored now. Like the isle of eight is doing with there carriages except there ones are not quite as famous or posh

 

Be good if my old friends at the K&ESR were able to temporarily re number it as W14, and fit it with Bembridge nameplates to co incide with the visit, and possibly run it as W14 for a little while afterwards