8F in Iraq

I suppose a few of us by now are aware that there is an 8F in the middle of a field somewhere in Baghdad. Coordinates for it on Google earth are 33°20'43.02"N 44°21'13.18"E and a link to a photo of it is http://www.ajg41.plus.com/images/rail/iq-8f.jpg. It was sent there around the time of world war 2 (i presume?) and now its kind of abandoned. Its probably not seen service for the best part of 20 years (maybe more?) and theft of parts appears to have already begun (hence the missing motion and open smokebox door). As i understand it, a couple of 8fs were imported from turkey 20 years ago and there are rumours for the repatriation of a few more. does anyone know of any news concerning this one or what's happened to it recently?

(let's hope we brits, the americans or the terrorists haven't destroyed it by accident)

 

we where asked not to discuss the repatriation project as it is a delecate matter

 

To answer the question, the 8F 'HarpoMarxist' refers to was supposed to have been bought by an individual (from Butterley I seem to recall?) and arrangements were being made to return the loco to the UK when the first Gulf war started. As I understand it, the current condition of the loco is unknown and indeed it may have been damaged or destroyed during the military operations.

There was one 8F (LMS 8274/WD 348/TCCD 45160) imported from Turkey in 1989 and which ran for a period on the Swanage railway. It was withdrawn for overhaul and moved to the GWR at Toddington where it is in the final stages of reassembly and is due to be completed at some stage this year. The group that repatriated this loco are apparently negotiating to return some/all of the remaining 8Fs from Turkey. When it was last discussed on this forum, the group asked for the thread to be locked as it may jeapordise negotiations, however this was nearly a year ago so I can't see why it shouldn't be discussed now. If negotiations haven't reached a conclusion by now, then I doubt that they will conclude in the near future.


Keith

 

Turkey is a strange country to do business with. It took me years to set something up (not related to railways) with constant and patient negotiation, plus a lot of dealing with various agents etc. At the end the deal was done and 2 days later they wanted the parts and then fined me for being late by one week even though the minimum lead time was 40 days. You might not like it but the best way is to have a local contact who knows his way around.

 

Why bring more locos back to the UK? Don't we have enough locos already? With ex Barry locos that are still waiting their turn to be overhauled There are also more new builds on the way. Is there an enough resource’s to make these loco's steam again once they have been return/repatriated back to the UK or will these loco’s languish in sidings on preserved railways just rusting away.

 

The locomotives over there are alot more complete and restorable than any of the barry lot.

 

As ghost mentions above, we did discuss last year the fact that a group were negotiating for--I think-- four out of six largely intact 8Fs in Turkey, and despite the fact that you could find the information on the internet by a bit of careful Googling, we were asked not to discuss further. ( The article was part of a newsletter from a respected overseas railway society, and was a bit dated. I cannot now find it on the internet.)

I think the last mention of these 8Fs was probably in the Railway Magazine in about April last year.

Anyway, if an open discussion upsets people, then so be it, good luck to them in their long negotiations. We need to move on for the moment and leave then to it.

 

We were asked not to comment about the repatriation of the two locomotives from Turkey.

As they are both back in the U. K. I think we can safely comment on them now.

As to the Iraqi locomotive it would be nice to have it back as I agree it looks more complete than the two unrestored Barry hulks.

 

Of the remaining 8fs some are threatened for scrapping.. I understand 2 could be candidates, In which case why not bring both back...
whilst one is semi-Barry, the other is same condition as the other two.
i understand some German groups are interested to buy a couple of other German TCDD locomotives as well, as many as 100 steam locomotives could be for scrap there.. It's probably the last large scale European pre-Barry condition steam sale left in Europe... Polands reserves are becoming quite Barry-esque.

They have also have the UK built DR design 2-10-0 which the 8fs were a poor substitute for, that were eventually delivered postwar.. One of these, in my mind, is historically also worthy of repatriation... To look at it would be confused as German, but was very British built...the 8f story is but the meat in the sandwich of the whole story.


As for the 8f in Iraq... I doubt it still exists, if it did, it's probably been very heavily stripped by now.