Steam Locomotive Restoration of the Decade 2010-2019

Perhaps "resurrected"? When the Chinese were picking up the pieces in the late 1940s, a number of derelict MK1 (JF) locos were put back into working order and proudly carried worksplates saying, inter alia, "fuhuo" which literally means brought back to life (which, logically, is the Chinese name for Easter).

 

That’s a tad unfair. I never said it had to be accurate down to the last rivet.

My original post stated quite clearly it should be as far as practical.

The livery on the outside is just as much a part of any locos history as the mechanical gubbins.

 

I mean a machine with all the technical features of a J class, not just one with a half globe stuck on the smokebox

 

It's an argument that will never be settled though.

In a museum I want to see individual exhibits in the best possible accurate form, and I don't care that there are juxtaposed items from different eras that would never have been seen together.

Out in the countryside I want to see an impression of the railway as it was/would like it to have been before I was born, and I'd much rather see a train in (say) all 1930s GWR style than a ridiculous ragbag of liveries from different eras, even if not every component of the train ran in that livery in the 1930s.

I'm quite happy for people to disagree with me, but I object to being told my preference is intrinsically inferior to theirs.

 

That's fair, and I'd add the use of "what if" liveries to the pile too - for example the express blue rebuilt MNs. What I struggle with is the contortion of arguing both that rivet counting accuracy is unnecessary and, simultaneously, that a livery never used in service is somehow "authentic".

 

I "get" the argument, though one might extend such a line of reasoning to a MN working on the S&C, a 'Jub' anywhere on sometime LNE metals or (perish the thought) a Dukedog on the Southern!

 

In practice, there is little or no difference in the amount or nature of the work involved between the initial restoration of a locomotive from 'Barry' condition, and a heavy general overhaul undertaken after the same loco has been stored out of use at the mercy of the elements for ten years. Taking your statement "that restoration should not apply to any process that could have happened in a railway factory during normal working life", perhaps the term 'restoration' should never be used when referring to working locomotives, as it would be impossible to return one to full working order without recourse to the processes previously carried out in a railway works.

Andy

 

Maybe I'm too OCD or just too much of a pedant but I have always used notation that aligns to :
Unrestored : in a state of decay or dismantlement from withdrawal from BR in 1960s
Under Restoration : in the process of being restored to working order from an Unrestored state
Awaiting Overhaul : has been restored but awaits overhaul to further working order
Under Overhaul : in the process of being returned to further working order
Operational : in ticket
Static Exhibit : as title suggests
New Build : majority if not all major components sourced as new

Edit : I accept that there will be some engines that were quickly returned to operational use from withdrawal that need just as much sweat & tears for overhaul as initial restoration

 

There seems to be a certain amount of grey between these two.

 

Missing major components is one big difference, but I tend to agree that there have, shamefully, been restored 'preserved' locomotives left to the elements unmaintained and unconserved that have ended up in a state of semi dereliction from which restoration is an appropriate word.

 

Many of the early locos to leave Barry were largely complete, with only the easily removable non-ferrous fittings missing. Many of the missing fittings had been removed by Woodhams themselves and were subsequently made available to the buyer of the locomotive.

Andy

 

Mike Hart's restoration of the Sentinel "Gervase". Half of the engine had been scrapped or stolen. A set of frames, a life expired boiler and some seriously worn wheels rescued from the undergrowth at Rolvenden, and returned to being a fine locomotive by a small team at Elsecar. Not an engine you restore because of it's revenue earning potential, but because you love steam.

 

yes, that's true.
Example might be 92219 and 92207 respectively - both are unrestored but one is ex-Barry condition

 

Back to the thread topic my candidate would be the magnificent SECR H class no.263 preserved at the Bluebell Railway

Knut

 

Indeed. But if we're to get worried about such anomalies, we need to own to the limitations of railway preservation in managing to achieve full preservation of most lines and stocks, such that they can be "authentic" museums, without anachronism, of their previous selves.

I've no issue with "what ifs", and rather like the idea presented by @Jimc of conveying the impression, but only where they are genuinely argued as such. Otherwise, I prefer just to acknowledge that the owner is applying their own livery, and leave it at that.

 

Neither is Galatea the first to do so!



[Image courtesy of wikimedia.commons]

 

Hmm.
It could be argued that the first instance was Talyllyn Railway No 2 Dolgoch - repainted and lined out in 1952 in a style not used by either of the two previous regimes.
This by an outfit with "Preservation" in its title! Then came the two Corris locos - bought to do a job rather than for their provenance and given the "corporate" livery.
There's since been some rejection of the pseudo GWR-ish livery that the then TR grandees wanted, but it is now "historic" and arguably more authentic than the ornate "best guess" livery currently carried by Nos 1 and 2.

As long as it's recognised that a BR red Jubilee and an LNER Apple Green Blue Peter are not a faithful re-creation of the past I don't really see what the problem is.
Both are now "historic"!

 

Fair to say that that applied to 75069's boiler.

 

The problem is this: it is recognised that these are not a faithful re-creation of the past - at the moment. And in twenty years time?