Engines Being Scrapped?

Without trying to decipher the pros and cons of various foreign built locos and the merits of gauges etc etc, what is the current situation regarding the two Polish Locos - has the seller managed to get a purchaser yet for the pair?

 

Is there any update to this, as it has been almost 4 months since they had one month left....?

 

Surprised nobody has mentioned this but in Heritage Beano it said the NBLG had pulled out of trying to save that Finnish monstrosity at Epping - Ongar as the backer had pulled out. Got to be the end now?

 

I've always liked the KESR because of its "small engine policy" and 4253 certainly doesn't fit with that image but short of double heading, how else do you cope with longer trains?

 

Indeed, and below is a link to their monthly PDF... it does appear that their bid is withdrawn and the loco has little time left.

http://www.rubihorn.demon.co.uk/nblg/news 2012/NBLPG Newsletter 2012-7 July-1.pdf

 

The two unwanted Tkhs at the Spa Valley appear to be the subject of a bid by the BCDR Trust, which is offering brochures for shares in the engines on Ebay.

 

Belfast and County Down Trust?...It'll never happen

 

That's pretty much what I thought. They're selling the share issue as a way of paying tribute to British troops, on the basis that the engines if purchased would be named (or renamed in one case) "Hero" and "Remembrance".

 

just a touch sectarian... I'm all for honouring our troops, but this is a bit like naming pineapples at Reading Uni.... devisive

Interesting to read the history of this "trust"...seems it has had aspirations for decades and is a bit of a One-Man-Band

 

I suspect it is an entirely valid trust properly set up and therefore the inverted commas are not appropriate.I also note that the moneys required to purchase and transport to Northern Ireland are not enormous- sixty thousand. I have never visited the line but it was featured on Portillo and looked OK. I don't know how much time they have but I imagine there will be quite a lot of interest in County Down in the record of British troops abroad, especially with the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War coming up. It would certainly be interesting to have the prospect of more standard gauge steam in Northern Ireland.

 

I think you will find that, while the K&ESR has a lot of small engines, it has no such policy but tries to make the best use of what it has. The engines we have are what we could get rather than what we wanted. Ours was always a light railway - not a main line, so Pacifics and 9Fs would not be appropriate even though the track could take them. However, if you have a few Class 3's or 4's looking for a good home, I am sure we could help!

 

@ L&NWR
that's a different line altogether... i suggest you google it as I did... try a couple of the Irish forums for info. This isn't a line, it's an abandioned trackbed owned by people some of whom don't want a railway. None of it is owned by this trust (with or without inverted commas).

heres one link I spotted

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056754791

 

I remember years ago seeing an U Class engine & tender at Tenterden and it was deemed too heavy for the line, and later went to the Bluebell Railway where it
still resides.

 

That was 1618 and at that time the K&ESR still had several weak bridges, long since upgraded. The line is still advertised as a rural light railway but the restoration of the permanent way and civil engineering was not, I am pleased to say, authentic to this description. Col. Stephens built railways of great character but they were not engineered to last, and few of them did.

 

1618 was Barry No 2 - i.e the second engine to leave the scrapyard. She went first to a private site and then to the KESR where she was restored by 1974. Sadly for the KESR, the then track wouldn't allow her to venture out of Tenterden station, so she was limited to demonstration pottering around rather than hauling proper trains; so in 1977 she moved to the Bluebell where she could have a proper run.

The owner at that time was the "Southern Mogul Preservation Fund"; 541 (owned by the "Southern Q Locomotive fund") arrived from Gloucestershire about the same time and both groups merged with the then Maunsell Locomotive Group (owner of 847) to form the fledgling Maunsell Society, which now also owns 928 and is custodian (but not owner) of 1638.

Tom

 

As a matter of interest, would Tkhs be in gauge for the KESR? They're very wide engines, but are they any wider than, say, the Norwegian mogul?

 

Just to add, she was towed to Kent by a Class 37 and I was amazed to see her arrive in Reading General and lay over on the freight lines for a good while.I don't have a date (and cant find my photo) would be 1969 I should think and I beleive the 37 was D6880 (from memory)

 

as a bit of an aside quite a few of the preserved railways have 'spares' from scrapped locos.

the Bluebell has a spare Marsh/Field cast iron copper capped chimney for a terrier off the last Brighton Works loco (which saw service on STEPNEY for awhile), and the IW steam railway has a spare 02 adams rear bogie and a few other parts plus some westinghouse pumps off other 02s, 3 of which are now fitted to ROYAL ENGINEER and WAGGONER and AJAX. the westinghouse pumps were apparently found in jolliffes scrapyard on the IW. the E1 has the chimney off No.31 02 CHALE. terrier MARTELLO also has CARISBROOKE's old larger IW bunker after the loco was scrapped at eastleigh. i had friends who had the reverser off CHALE and the regulator handle!

the BEACHY HEAD new build on the Bluebell also has a few original parts, not forgetting the reverser and handbrake wheel on TALIESIN on the FR. LINDA and BLANCHE have the rear wheelsets off MOEL TRYFAN, and LINDA has LITTLE GIANT's eccentrics. PRINCE apparently also has LITTLE GIANT's weighshaft for the allan valve gear fitted in 1955.

i am here describing some post-preservation additions from other scrapped locos as opposed to pre- preservation swapping of parts!

cheers,
julian

 

Julian, 2857 on the SVR has a cylinder block from Briton ferry steelworks. 7325 has the wheels from 4156 scrapped at Barry. IIRC 7714 got the boiler off 3612 scrapped at the SVR but now I think the 3 57xx boilers are 'pooled' (maybe the spare block too). Of course there's also the Barry ten locos dismantled for various new builds. Hope this helps answer your question. Ray.