Llangollen Railway

Stop presuming things. You're not very good at it !
The owner wanted it to be sold and asked the auctioneers to sell it for him.

Bob.

 

Ah well, better than being part of a board that managed to bankrupt their own railway. Then trying to pretend nothing happened and carry on like normal as if they weren’t a part of the problem.

 

Yes, all of a sudden lots of new bids have appeared on several different coaches. I wonder if that suggests one bidder with an interest in several coaches?

 

I can understand you being upset, but did that really help?

Noel

 

One thing I do hope with the coaches is that any buyers are buying them to use as coaches, even if that means on another line. It will be sad if they get bought to convert into something else, eg camping coach, pub restaurant etc with the original interiors ripped out.

 

There is apparently a large amount of interest from other lines, so all are likely to see further Railway use.

 

I'd be amazed if that were to happen, it would be much cheaper for people in that market to buy something much less runnable than these.

 

I hope you are right, but the general public often don't know this. Look at this LNWR coach, you think it would be preservation gem, recently was running at the Bluebell, but now part of an Indian restaurant. I know the previous owner at the time was wanting a very high price.

https://www.heritagerailway.co.uk/1705/pullman-car-moves-to-restaurant/

 

I wonder if a more likely scenario is railways buying better carriages in order to decommission worse carriages. So a net reduction, but not by the mechanism you suggest.

Tom

 

Thats a shame, it was never worth 60k in its condition but disapointing none the less to see its present use.

 

Well, look at the bright side; to the extent a modest amount was paid for it, the current owner is unlikely the scrap it when they are done with it, or dump it in a field, so hopefully some day it will come back to a railway.

Noel

 

I agree.

I was looking at the MK1s that the CVR was looking to buy. The only way to describe those coaches is 'basketcases'. Why spend money on that when you can buy viable coaches that you can have up and running now?

The NNR's carriage blog gives a very good indication of the amount of work required to get and keep mk1s up to scratch. I am sure that if you said to any line that for the amount of money and time required to restore a mk1 in poor condition you can buy a mk1 in good/better condition, I struggle to think of a GM in the country who would say 'no I am happy spending time and money restoring our mk1 basketcases'.

I half wonder if we won't see more basketcases coming on the market if lines operate work on one in one out.

 

You don't know exactly what happened and if you can tell me how to defeat five other directors with no commercial business experience please let me know.

Bob.

 

Many railways used to operate on this basis. However once the supply of replacement Mk1s from BR dried up, it ceased to become a viable business model.

Now we’re seeing railways investing ever increasing sums of money in overhauling their Mk1s. They have to, there is nothing to replace them with.

Perhaps one or two of the Llangollen coaches might be a temporary quick fix for certain lines. However I don’t envisage this leading to the loss of other Mk1s in poorer condition. They are a finite resource now.

 

I'd assume it depends how much spare siding/covered space a line has. The impression I get from some lines is that it is 'no room at the inn'.

 

Whilst that is true for some lines, there are several lines which are actively extending and will need more stock in the not too distant future.