Looking for Lew?

Its nice to have a view, and thank you those who have posted in the last day , some railway preservationists, enthusiasts, will no doubt do things others would not.

It depends a lot on your background and training and how you have spent your life and how you want to spend the next few years.

"Engineers" design and build things to do a job,other people don't really have the mind or tools to do that, so taking something that is semi complete and making bits of it are their prefered option maybe.

In many cases these pieces of railway equipment have done that job in their life and are time expired.

Engineers have the forsight so don't go back and repair old kit, unless the man paying insists on it , they take a good look at the original and design an improved version "LYD" in the case of "LEW" is whilst somewhat similar to the originals, also quite different. "LYD" is still being tweaked to get the best from it.

LEW or LYD may not be the best or most suitable design for the operation and efficiency of trains for passengers over the L&B route. I would go for a new design, but most of you know that.

Back to the thread title, "Looking for Lew" if LEW is found, and it still possibly may be found or at least its final location and demise certified.

What do you do with it?? As far as I can see its a drain on resources eternally, from the moment its found.

On the basis that resources are tight, it will limit other aspects of ever opening a longer L&B.

There are still people who have bottomless pockets, but they have their own agendas, not so many, as there were , but I suspect someone will want to drag it back to Blighty to stick in a heated shed for people to look at, so Chris, that will be your objective, happy days.

I don't think we have seen Rationalisation on a big scale yet, in the UK and especially on Preserved sites, but I think its enevitable.But that is just a view.

 

Thankfully preservation isn't just run by engineers or accountants but a mix of people with ambitions and those who have the knowledge and experience to implement them.

 

Commercially your right, restoring L&B coaches is not a value for money operation,its rather fool hardy, and short sighted, but someone personally chose to fund that plan.

NOT the L&B management as part of a sound business plan, they don't have the money to fund either the rebuilds or a new build rake of coaches.. When they are finished how long will the wooden body coaches last in service which is what is planned ?

Don't get me wrong I take my hat off to the men building them in Essex , nice restoration work, and lovely to see and maybe operate high days and sunny days, but the weather down there will kill them, when used as service vehicles.

These vehicles need dedicated indoor accomodation, that is not availible, to store them in, and likewise would not be availible for LEW.
Railway preservation in the UK has been built on and supported mainly by the pockets of people who join in with it all, I suspect this is about to change.

Regards TE

 

Maybe your right Neil we will see, in the next ten years as many die off, loose money in the UK is now short.

The L&B was only able to open eventually, because people died and left money to build aspects of the site, otherwise it would not have happened.

I put a lot finacially into the originakl build and I know many of the others who did likewise, I know what the unofficial account looked like, and was funded by.

I am now 50+ I have stopped funding ANY railway related projects, and have no intention of starting again, on the basis, I have more important things to fund , all those I knew or know , seem to have done likewise, without money and lots of it , preservation cannot proceed, it does not matter how much knowledge or experience they have its down to MONEY, the L&B is no different there.

 

The Answer to your question.

Because it was a project that eveyone said "It could not be done".

And had it not changed course a lot more of that would have been done.

 

Just a view

As Sidmouth says, there are 2 main options, for railways but we all aim for some of both.

My point was this, really regarding finding LEW, first it will cost money, lets just say it cost 20K to pay whoever has the loco and haul it to a dock then ship it and then haul it to a location.
Question is this a good use of 20K

At some point it will either get a cosmetic paint job and stuck somewhere and it becomes a responsibility to fund or a more thorough rebuild to working condition.

Who will build it? bearing in mind there are no volunteers on the L&B who have the capacity to do this work, it will be some Engineers somewhere,like Gartell did AXE, and another is doing the thing from WHHR chances are they will only do it , if they are being paid, considerable commercial rates.

Who will pay and we are talking about several hundred thousand the L&B could not raise this money.

Coaches, and trucks and stuff , there are far more people who can turn their hand to wood related skills, and enjoy that aspect.Than there are who have sufficient size machine shops or fabrication facilities.

If LEW was found it would be better of as a private recovery and project.Than the L&B trying to digest it that is all.

 

What makes people so convinced Lew still exists... I mean I could stand on a platform and say there's 3 duchess's in the Kalahari and would a bunch of people go rushing off in search of it.. I'm not understanding how an engine which left the UK without even a trace record of it's destination back in 1936 and never heard of since... can captivate so many into believing it's still out there chugging in a south american jungle. (Any idea how big the combined size of Brazil and Argentina are... about the size of the US.. or double Europe.. that's some hunting ground).

I do know (having seen it myself) that there's a small tank engine built in the 1880's in Wolverhampton on display in Curitiba, Brazil.. I've cabbed it.. The reason it's preserved in a shopping mall is due to the uniqueness of the engine.. the Brazilians recognised it was an old British engine and retained it... if Lew was still about don't you think the same could have happened in it's case by being spotted by some Dr Livingstone on holiday somewhere between 1950 and 1990 ?

Unless someone shows me proof that it even arrived at a sea port in South America. it's long gone and the entire population of the UK searching for a year would still miss it.
It's probably easier to find the British steam strategic reserve.

I hate to blow bubbles but my belief is like 99% of all other steam in South America.. it ended up in a smelter back in the 1950s-70s. If anyone knows otherwise show me the proof.. i'll offer to fly back to South America at my own cost and go see it, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay are lovely countries.

 

Why are people so interested, just one of those peculiar things.

I agree the likelehood is its gone long ago, the theory that it never got there , is most likely, as no evidence has come to light of a trace.

Like a lot of 8F's a few years later, they ended up on the bottom of the sea, all be it a different area of the world.

It was speculated, and I am not adverse to agreeing with the person concerned. back in the early 1990's that was where LEW was, with the ship that she was on on the bottom.

The one person who would have come to a conclusive answer was Colin Pealing I trusted Colins view he was the orracle of all things ( usually correct).

It even illuded him as to where the loco ended up, although his view was it went to Pecketts at Foundry Bristol before shipping with its various track and sub frames.

Its fair to say on that premise, that it went to the melter or on the bottom long ago.It most likely left Swansea on the Sabor that has been the line taken for many years.

Question is was it trans-shipped on route as there was never a destination, that was verified for any of the stuff that was all part of the ALC lot 1.

Better if the myth is never solved.

TE

 

Out of curiosity, is it 100% certain that LEW reached and left Swansea whether on the Sabor or otherwise?

 

I doubt anyone can certify that SS Sabor was loaded with these items, like all this its 80 years ago those involved with it are all dead.

It is accep[ted I think generally, from records and transcriptions of conversations that it was on the bill of loading and did leave Swansea as detailed in Dave Tooke's very good account attatched earlier in the thread. For what it is worth I believe it was shipped.I also think because of its weight, it was trans-shipped at some point, in its journey.

TE

 

By trans-shipped you mean "lost at sea"?

Have I imagined it, or were all the records for the shipping company lost in WWII? This would certainly hinder attempts at tracing it.

 

That might be what I had in mind. Thanks for the link and the info.

 

By trans-shipped I mean a floating or dockside crane capable of lifted her off the SS Sabor at an Atlantic sea port, like Rio and onto another ship possibly a coaster, that would have gone anywhere along the coast or up the river estuarys. Whilst SS Sabor was lost, that is a red herring !! I doubt that the loco was on it 2 years + later !! the shipping line would have done several return trips per year across the Atlantic and elsewhere, although the loco and other bits may have sat in a port for some time before re shipping onward.

Although at 5200 tons and single screw 510 HP she was a small ish freighter anyway, she would not have had capacity within her cranage I would not think to self crane this load.I t would have taken a fairly large ish port to lift 25 tons at this radius "hold to dockquay"

TE

 

Actually, the L&B (that is, the L&BR Trust) COULD raise the money if it so chose, but the fact is, there is no credible evidence as to the current location of LEW, nor of the time and place of its eventual fate, and the L&BR Trust has no plans to even look for it (the former L&BR Association did once support a search to South America, in the '90s IIIRC, but that was not the same organisation that exists now).

Fascinating discussion though, and may the myth of Lew live on...

(The REAL truth is, LEW is at the end of my garden, in the paddock where we keep the unicorns, buried under the crock of gold, just beside the pool where the mermaids swim... )