MHR Restorations and Overhauls

or 245! Remember it visiting and being dragged around. Would love to see it working on its own out of Alresford.

 

Hope they remember the Swan Hotel's scaffolding when Cheltenham and the 9F return - and the Autumn Gala migrants.

Aaargh - 50027 is presumably in Notwork South East livery. Can we paint it camouflage green please?

Nice to see the otters on Springwatch - within a few feet of the S&D railway bridge (thats my excuse for mentioning it here)

 

Well 50027 made it past yesterday (with ease) and it is longer than either of them.

Yes 50027 is NSE livery, and no you can't paint it. The colour choice is down to the owners. Personally I think Brunswick green like 50007 would be nice, but that is my choice, and it ain't my loco.

 

50027 on a low loader passed me on A31 yesterday afternoon going towards Alresford, and yes it is in faded NSE livery.

I hope that this does not start a livery debate

Regards
Chris:

 

My first and last comment on the NSE livery. It is the only preserved class 50 in NSE livery so as it is prototypical of the class and the owners choice, it should remain. (Although it is personally not my favourite!)

 

Very confused as to how NSE livery fits in with the MHR's stated raison d'etre - very confused as to why we've got the thing at all....

 

I was talking to a chap the other day at Theale (for 35028 and the VSOE) who reckoned that the owner of 50027 requested the move from the NYMR to the MHR due to 'an issue regarding usage on the NYMR'. All the usual conditions i.e. don't shoot the messenger!

James at SVN

 

50s often fall into a limbo - they're too new to work, really, on heritage railways - yet are 1st Gen. diesels and have a significant following. To my knowledge, no other diesel could be said to fall into this grey area.

There are 4 on the railway on which I volunteer - the SVR - and without wishing to criticise them or their owners, I do prefer to see a 20, 37, 42 or 52 on the front of the diesel hauled services we operate, as at least these diesels definitely fall into the 'transition era'. The fact that 42s and 52s are amongst my favourite diesels helps, of course...

 

didn't really fit in with the NYMR, either.

 

So why has it come to the MHR ?, is there to be a one on one out policy enforced here?

Regards
Chris

 

Class 50s are also akin to Duchess pacifies... 100mph mainline passenger diesels, but now trundling along at 25mph on preserved lines, only Deltics share this trait.. but of course these are green.
All others are lesser, slower and more common multipurpose. Even class 52's were slower and seen on freight.
50's win the diesel enthusiasts popularity vote as they survived long enough to be preserved en masse... if Deltics lasted until 1994.. all 22 would have been preserved ;-)
I'd like to see a 50 at Epping Ongar.. nice straight line, immaculate blue/gray mark 2 set and similar gradients to MHR... and a lot more running opportunity i'd guess.

 

I should make clear that my post was not suggesting 50s oughtn't be preserved or on our preserved lines - just pondering their appearance on a heritage railway.

 

I was brought up in the era of the Class 50 going from Waterloo to Exeter on my holidays - These are fine machines and deserve a place in the heritage be it preserved or mainline... The latter I don't think will happen for a little while - Although there is always hope.
Back to the MHR I believe 50027 will certainly get alot of interest on the MHR and the fact she was there when she came off the mainline (Almost back on home territory).
I think this loco will and should be a welcome addition to the fleet and should for it's first run have a 'West of England' or such with it's first running.
Also this site might be of interest if you are a class 50 fan; Main Line Events

 

Maybe this is the price we have to pay IMHO for having the S15 for the Autumn Gala?

Pure speculation.

Chris:

 

Funnily, 50s constitute my earliest memories of railways, as I lived in Whitchurch (Hants) in my youth and my Grandad used to take me up to the station in my pushchair, and we'd watch them roar through. So by the usual standards they should be amongst my favourite locos, but they do nothing for me.

 

I well remember the Class 50`s on the Waterloo to Exeter services. Funnily enough "Lion" was always one of my favourites.

When i lived in Pinhoe. I was near to the West of England mainline and on a cold winters night and with the wind in an easterly direction you could hear the sound of the 16 cylinder engines thudding through the stillness, all the way on the climb to Honiton about 14 miles away!

I am glad 50027 is back at the MHR personally, i know it wont engender universal approval from everyone, but it deserves its place on the MHR to represent West of England motive power through the 1980`s, and after all, it is that periods equivalent of the Merchant Navy pacifics that ran the West of England services 20 years prior.

As for fitting in to the MHR raison d'etre, well of course it doesn`t fit the core representation period of 1950-60`s steam. But i am sure it will have a keen following amongst the parrafin can followers on the days it is running and at possible future diesel galas, especially if class mate 50017 "Royal Oak" were to be brought in as a guest some time in the future.

Don`t forget others such as the South Devon Rly, have similar aims such as to preserve a typical 1940-60`s steam Great Western Branch Line, but they also have a healthy thriving diesel fleet comprising of a a representation of a class25, 33,37 and 50 to name but a few.

As for one in one out, didn`t the MHR lose the `Slug` class37 recently? 50027 is more suited to the MHR than that by far.

 

The MHR actually makes quite a lot of use of its diesel fleet, just not much is advertised in advance. You can't rely on just one "mainline" loco though, and with 37905 leaving another loco was needed.

50027 has a group dedicated to looking after it, and that is something the railway has lacked for a while, so has to be a positive. (The 71A group are also working on 27007 again which is great news too).

NSE livery might not be appropriate to the 1960's era, but it is appropriate to the region as is the loco.

You can't pick and choose exactly what you might want....it isn't like there is a showroom out there full of green class 33s just waiting to asked to move the MHR. Sometimes you have to take what you can get. 027 runs, is cared for, and was available. So far a win-win all round I 'd say.

 

Taxi!