The Vale of Rheidol Railway - News

I think the Renishaw Heisler would be top of my list to see on display, if only so I could pose this on its prototype!
Possibly not the most practical loco for VoR services however….

 

Yes, there are several locos in the collection I would love to also see running again; however, I think it will be down to two things: one is money, and two, where would you restore them? Reading various pages on here and other social media sites, I would doubt if either the VoR or the Brecon have the space to carry out the restorations of other locos; Tim indicated that the workshops at the VoR are already busy with the Rustenburg diesel, the Indian pacific steam loco, plus the new Brecon Coach and any other contract work it is doing (I think they are still working on a loco from Romney in Kent and a loco from Buzzard as well) so they will also need the space to maintain the current loco and rolling stock fleet at VoR as well.

If you wanted to see any of these locos running again, I would suggest you look to see if any railway would support you and that you also find someone with very deep pockets and then find out if the VoR would be willing to make a deal with you. I would estimate that you could be looking at the best part of 1 million pounds plus per loco.

 

We all have our favourites, but sometimes logic has to be worth taking into account! The decision to restore the Gwailor pacific has to be welcome but is it the most sensible one? Similarly, the restoration of the Garratt provided the VoR with a fourth loco but if Borsig "Sotillos" would provide a loco with similar capability to the VoR tanks, I would have thought it would represent a more useful engine than either - and one that could possibly go out more readily on visits to help justify its maintenance in working order.

Whilst it would be very interesting the Renishaw Heisler working as well, I can't see it being of of much practical use at the VoR or the BMR, which suggests it will remain as a static museum exhibit.

 

I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see the Heisler (or many of the collection) restored to working order as that simply isn’t practical for a number of reasons, but I think the “clean up and conserve” approach taken with Sotillos and others so far, and then displaying them very much in their working condition is an excellent compromise and to me personally is far better than them getting a shiny cosmetic paint job.