"Preserved" steam locos that were subsequently scrapped

I'd rather see 4073 preserved as it is and 4079 working...what's not to like?

 

Its a tricky subject because of how loco favouritism changes ones ideas of what should and should not be done.

 

Just about all the original Rhymney locos were kept in stock until C. T. Hurry Riches took over in 1906, the year after Cornelius Lundie's 'retirement', and started a clear out.

Not preservation as such but the frames of the original No 13 of 1859 remained in stock as a wagon for steel rolls until 1960!

 

This pair of merchants make me sad...there must be a way forward for them...

 

Drifting off topic again (!), but I can't help feeling that the best way forward for at least one of the "no-hope" Merchant Navies would be to un-rebuild one. It's the same principle as the "Barry Ten" conversions - filling a preservation "gap" is more exciting than duplicating what we already have, and thus more likely to attract financial support. Yet for some reason, all the attempts at such a scheme over the years have never got off the ground - why?

 

money , difficulties getting it on to th mainline (perhaps) and lack of work for an 8P are things that spring to my mind

 

I have to say - and this might be controversial - I don't see the point in un-rebuilding really, other than it would be nice to see what they actually looked like un-rebuilt form...In my opinion there isn't a preservation gap, as part of the history of the class was for them to be rebuilt.

We have: 28 - about to be overhauled, 27 and 22 under overhaul, 18 nearly finished, 06 nearly finished, 05 awaiting overhaul...However currently out of that pile of locomotives only 28 and 05 have seen a great deal of use. "Ideal World Rose Tinted Glasses on" - there must be scope for some joined up thinking with 11 and 25..

 

Does an unrebuilt Merchant offer much new ?, they are effectively large WC/BB and plenty of them are unrebuilt.

 

The joined up thinking would be to get 35011 and 35025 to form a basis of major spare parts for one or two of the groups such as MNLPS & LSL. The main value would be in the boilers, bogies and wheel sets.

Having a spare boiler would allow for much quicker turn around times on overhauls by dropping on a pre-finished boiler, I know the MNLPS now undertake the majority of their running/major winter maintenance during the winter non running period.

 

Or have two in steam and one out for overhaul at all times...once you have all the bits obviously...

 

Here we go again. 35025 was not far off a restored rolling chassis when it left the GCR, the group have suffered some setbacks and I don't know what their current situation is but I'm sure that one at least is perfectly capable of being restored.

 

By set backs do you mean a very suspicious break in? Where the carefully stored and hidden expensive gunmetal parts were taken?

 

That's going on to dangerous territory!

 

I always thought the main reason for unrebuilding an MN was that it would just be easier to build a new one from scratch.

 

Not really, surely? About 90% of the originals ended up in the rebuilds: essentially the only really significant parts that were changed were the inside cylinder and motion.

If you have a rebuilt loco that is essentially in scrap yard condition, you probably don't have much to go on except a set of frames, wheels, boiler and cylinders. You've got to refurbish all those components, and then construct or source probably all the motion, the tender, the cab, all the small non-ferrous parts (injectors, lubricators, brake etc); the cladding etc. You'd have to do all that with a new build as well, but at least if you started with one of the derelict ones, you've had a leg-up with the frames, wheels and outside cylinders. Probably more significant, in the context of a hugely complex and expensive restoration project, there's possibly not a vast difference between restoring as rebuilt or as originally built. The more significant question might be whether you would get approval to run the resulting machine on the mainline.

Tom

 

Cheers for that Tom I did have thoughts that you'd need a set of frames, wheels and a boiler as a starting point but its all those other things like cylinders and motion Im no steam engineer so I wouldnt know how easy/difficult that would be, then as you say the most important thing are those bits of paper that mean you can run on the mainline.

 

Wasn't the plan for 35010 to be unrebuilt. ?

Afaik between the unrestored survivors there's one with a knackered boiler , one with an odd wheel and one with a cracked cylinder... If so makes sense to combine the bad bits into 1..

 

makes sense to scrap the bad bits and make a good loco out of the good bits don't you mean?