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Middleton Railway damage

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by TseTT, Jun 21, 2011.

  1. TseTT

    TseTT New Member

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    Hello,
    A minor theft causing major damage has been inflicked to the Middleton Railway. Scrap thieves/vandals have smashed approx 120 cast iron rail chairs to steal the steel keys (thickos) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-13839859.

    Appologies, if this has already appeared on another thread. I'm also unsure how to post it on the thefts thread!:doh:
     
    TseTT, Jun 21, 2011
    #1
  2. Muppet

    Muppet Member

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    Get round the scrap yards pronto and get the owners on the lookout. Hopefully you'll be able to catch them.
     
    Muppet, Jun 22, 2011
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  3. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    the suggestion (and i say suggestion) is that it is odd the theft occured shortly after a travellers camp was set up about 300 metres away
     
    Sidmouth, Jun 22, 2011
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  4. Steve

    Steve Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    220 CS1 chairs when I counted them yesterday. They have smashed the lugs off the outside of the chair, rendering them useless, and taken these small lumps of cast iron and the keys. By my reckoning, probably not worth more than £100 as scrap. Even more annoyingly, on many sleepers they have smashed just one chair rendering some 180 sleepers unusable. The chairs are dated 1948 and it is likely that they have been on the sleepers since that date. We are concerned that the nuts will not be removable without breaking the through bolt, making it necessary to change the whole sleeper, an unenviable task with concrete sleepers weighing ¼ ton and not possible to use the crane as the track is unusable. However, a trial removal of some nuts yesterday gave us some hope that at least some of the chairs could be replaced without recourse to sleeper changing.

    We've had lots of offers of help and many thanks to all those who have done so, both as individuals and organisations. We think that we have now sourced sufficient replacement chairs to do the job but these will not be available for a few days. Meanwhile, we are making preparations to get on with the job as soon as the local itinerant encampment moves on, not that we're making any connection between them and our problems but better to be safe than sorry.

    Perhaps I should add that the site is still open for visitors and the model railway exhibition on 2/3rd July will be going ahead. We also plan to run trains on the little used Balm Road branch on this weekend so get yourself along, support us and sample something a bit different.
     
    Steve, Jun 22, 2011
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  5. StoneRoad

    StoneRoad Member

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    Another example of mindless greed related theft adversely affecting others.

    I hope that the Middleton Railway gets all the help it needs to recover from this incident.

    As for the thieving $%$%$% bags, I wish that some appropriate karma comes around to deal with them, and as soon as possible .....
     
    StoneRoad, Jun 22, 2011
    #5

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