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The "linear scrapyard" revisited

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by paulhitch, Dec 25, 2015.

  1. Steve

    Steve Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Work started on the overhaul of 830's boiler several years ago but the boilersmith working on the project sadly died and the job seemingly stalled. Not sure what the current situation is with the boiler.
     
  2. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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    825 - in service
    830 - frames, wheels and cylinders at end of Grosmont headshunt, boiler formerly under overhaul.
    841 - frames and cylinders dumped in the undergrowth next to headshunt at Grosmont.

    One complete set of fittings and components attached to 825. A few other components avaliable, but not enough for another loco.

    Is that about right @Steve?
     
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  3. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Thanks @5944. Theme tune to 'Soap' in my head now abated. :)
     
  4. Steve

    Steve Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    About. I haven’t looked in the undergrowth recently
     
  5. dan.lank

    dan.lank Member

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    I’m sure I remember a statement from the MLS when 830 was sold saying that a condition of sale was that it’d be restored in its own right - or am I imagining it? I guess that was a while ago now and nothing’s stopping a group of parts being assembled for use with the number 830 on the cab sides!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  6. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    There's a relevant posting on another thread:
     
  7. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    I have no fixed view about the whole business of what you restore, when you restore it or what you do with it whilst it is in the restoration queue. What I am certain of is that it's probably not possible to restore everything that could be restored. Neither is it a good 'look' for 'stuff' to be just lying around.

    Every time I pull up in the Carnforth Goods Loop for a loco change I am confronted by a whole line of stock that has been there since the dawn of time. Does it matter? Probably not, as it's on private land and may even serve as a visual screen behind which sits the real stuff or provides a soft target for anyone wanting to make mischief.

    I'm less certain about the value of hanging on to vehicles or motive power on heritage lines especially if space is tight. If it's in full view of passing trains then that does little for the image of the railway in my view. It's a bit like having your dustbins at home by the front gate.

    There are two problems.
    1. Individuals or a group that rescue something and get permission to store it on a heritage railway but with no real hope of being able to restore the item or get someone else to restore it to an agreed time scale. To my mind, in that example the landlord should be quite firm about the conditions under which it should remain.
    2. Items that are acquired by the railway for use on the line. In an ideal world that is a conscious act not a general desire to squirrel away stuff 'just in case'. The trouble is that for understandable reasons you see something and want to preserve it even when there is no real need for another of whatever you are looking at. I won't give examples as that would generate too much argument but to my mind you can't preserve everything.

    Apologies if all of this has gone before as I have not read all of this thread but as far as the linear scrapyard is concerned you do have to be hard nosed about the whole business, if for no other reason than the fact that the financial security of the set-up probably depends on it. Interesting that during COVID, some items have been 'moved on' to raise cash. It's also interesting to look at modern day set-ups like the Hosking empire where even with a seemingly bottomless pit of money to fund the business you don't see much stuff lying around at Crewe without a known purpose.

    Something that some heritage lines could probably learn from?
     
  8. alexl102

    alexl102 Member

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    Which thread was this?
     
  9. Mark Thompson

    Mark Thompson Well-Known Member

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    Embsay & Bolton Abbey.
     
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  10. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    The 4TC group at Swanage on FB now have a photo of carriages awaiting restoration, with no confirmed date, covered up by tarpaulin as the only space is lineside, but will look acceptable. Guess the issue of potential damp under the tarpaulin is not an issue?
    There is also a parts donor carriage, not sure if it is also covered or will be scrapped?

    "Today we managed to get the other two unrestored coaches covered with their new tarpaulins. This should help protect them from the elements until their wait in the restoration queue is over."
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    The first two in that line up are the met red coaches (should that be red and what I call "Swanage Green", enough of it on my car). I believe from your earlier comments they are the donor vehicles. The two blue and grey vehicles were uncovered when I arrived at HX (too late having seen it leaving Swanage ) to photograph the arrival.
     

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  12. GWR4707

    GWR4707 Nat Pres stalwart

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    As someone who passes Carnforth on a pretty regular basis, it moves around a hell of a lot more than many would imagine, the views into the site seem to change on a weekly basis. The issue they will always have is that much of their stock is pretty obsolete in terms of spares so its dependent upon donors, so for instance I assume all the ex RES stock that is mainly at the southern end is there for parts having migrated from its previous storage at Hellifield, I imagine strategy is less WIBN and much more based on buying when things pop up rather than any real sort of long term plan.

    Funny you mention Crewe, when I last passed probably two years ago (that's depressing!) it was starting to look rather Carnforthesque in the amount of stored stock screening the depot, again I would suspect for the same reasons snapping up what's available for its component parts rather than for its intrinsic value as a whole piece.
     
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  13. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Wasn't the RES stock purchased purely for the bogies?
     

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