Didcot Railway Centre - a few pictures - and videos.

Evening All,

I paid a visit to Didcot over Easter when they had the Steam Railmotor in action. And what a wonderous beastie it is!

My pictures are now on Flickr and if anyone one would like to have a look, this is the first one in the Photostream:

RD16329. 7808 at Didcot. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Alternatively, they can also be found in this album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmfoW5xB

Hope they're of interest.

 

Didcot has an amazing atmosphere, particularly in the main shed.

I do find it remarkable that despite having such a large collection of locomotives they find themselves having to hire in Captain Baxter- I assume this is still down to a shortage of operational locos?

Hopefully things will ease in the next few years with the return of 'Pendennis' and the commissioning of the 'Saint' and the return of the small 0-4-0 that was sent out for contract overhaul.

Chris

 

Going round the shed takes me back to my train spotting days!

I can remember seeing Captain Baxter at Sheffield Park when it first arrived there, so it was nice to be able to ride behind it.

 

It makes you wonder where they are going wrong. I visited last Sunday, a running day to find a Class 14 doing the honours and Captain Baxter the only loco out of the shed and dead. There seemed to be little or no activity in the workshop and the 72 and the County seemed to not have progressed at all in the past 2/3 years since I was there. The Saint wasn't as far forward as I had expected. What's more, they have so many dead engines now, 4 were stored in the workshop itself. A far cry from the days I used volunteer there as a lad when there was activity everywhere and not uncommon to have a handful of locos in action. You'd think they could drag one loco out for display of a running sunday now wouldn't you? It's very sad

 

I agree. I recall staying up all night for a big weekend in the period 1974/5 when we lit up 7 locomotives and the atmosphere was amazing and a little choking. At the time many of the "preserved railways" were in their infancy and Didcot led the way, not least with the Vintage Train. Now the position is reversed, Didcot is struggling for motive power and if you are an owner then why take your locomotive and team to Didcot when the SVR, SDR, WSR etc all beckon? One compares the Didot count of visitors on at any given day to that of one of the railways. I worked on the Manor tender (the alignment of the screw heads was my work, should have been countersunk rivets? but I was doing what I was told as a teenager) and with the vintage train there was a real buzz. My personal experience of how private owners, I was just a 'worker', put me off volunteering for life. Perhaps the one piece of rolling stock that sums it all up is the Dreadnought 3299, some of which was stripped of some external panelling by a small team at the time and then reality struck that a 70' coach of that age and construction was and is a real challenge, perhaps one of the most important pieces of British rolling stock in existence. It remains sheeted over at the back of the carriage shed to this day. Incidentally there was a story told that when the head of the NRM visited to inspect Shannon and No 4 he was asked which of the Didcot collection he wanted the most. It was expected that he would state a locomotive but emphatically he wanted 3299.

 

I paid another visit to Didcot on Wednesday to see the amazing Railmotor in action again. It did not disappoint. As well taking a few snaps, I also took some video of it action and the first part is now on YouTube. (Parts two and three will also appear there in due course.)

This is the link if anyone would like to have a look:



Hope it's of interest.

 

I've now put the second part of my Didcot video on YouTube. Here's the link if you'd like to see it:

 

The third (and final) part of my Didcot video is now on YouTube and this is the link:



Hope you like it.