Great Escapes

I've been reading about locomotives that couldn't be saved in time from the cutter's torch. To lighten my mood I'm creating this thread hoping people can share some uplifting 'great escape' stories. I am particularly interested to learn if there has ever been a case of a locomotive thought to have been lost having been found.

Additionally I remember seeing a picture of a narrow gauge locomotive with a slice through it's cabin where somebody had began cutting it up before it was rescued. However my memory is hazy about what locomotive this was or the story behind it. So any information about that too would be great.

 

Would 4965 count as being thought of as lost then found? I think 71000 had lucky escape it was towed to Cashmores despite the paper work saying Woodham Bros then Cashmores started stripping it, until someone noticed and told them to stop.

 

i don't subscribe to the 4965 story....

 

Whats your theory then?

 

RHDR's The Bug is probably a pretty good example… found buried in a Northern Irish scrapyard…

http://www.rhdr.org.uk/locomotives-the-bug.html

Simon

 

Assuming the story of the two Kings only ending up at Woodhams because of their use in bridge tests is true that might qualify.

 

62005 was originally bought to provide a spare boiler for 61994 - it only survived because it was subsequently found it would not fit, but even then it was a lucky survivor , having been used for a while as a stationary boiler at an oil refinery.

 

Thomas Muir Scrapyard was full of forgotten engines, which I saw in the 80's, and I don't know how many were lucky to survive.

There was another very old 0-4-0T with an open cab, buried in a scrapyard, north of of Birmingham, under a pile of exhaust pipes!

And I recall there was a construction NG loco, which the sea uncovered, back in the 80's.

 

The story of the surviving J21 is pretty good - not one but two escapes from the gas-axe...

 

Can we include foreign locos?

Rogers K88 in New Zealand. Built 1877. Rolled into a river to help stabilise the bank in 1927. Dug out after 47 years under water in 1974. Restored to service 1982.

K95, another of the same class in situ in the river bank:



K88 once dragged ashore:



K88 restored:



Source: http://www.whitebusfamily.co.nz/k88_restoration.htm

Tom

 

Just how much of the engine did you save?

 

Beat me to it I was going to say the J21! I think the B12 was called for scrap several times but Bill Harvey refused to have it sent for scrap. Tallyn no's 3 and 4 deserve a mention too kept at Machynllth and Tom Rolt and co went down to Swindon to negotiate the £65 per loco down to somthing more reasonable. To quote Mr Rolt 'it was a figure that would enable us to accquire both locos for less than the original price of one'.

 

From the Severn Valley Railway Stock Book seventh edition:


And from the eighth edition:


Close, but no gas axe...

 

A couple of LSWR examples:

The preserved T3 No. 563 (now part of the national collection) failed on a goods train in March 1939 and was immediately withdrawn in preparation for scrapping - all but one other of the class had been scrapped already between 1930 and 1936, so it was already a late survivor of its class. However, the worsening political situation at the time put a hold on scrapping; instead it was repaired and returned to traffic, along with the only other survivor, 571, working goods services from Basingstoke. 571 was withdrawn in 1943, but 563 made it to the end of hostilities, being withdrawn a second time in August 1945. It was then stored at Eastleigh until January 1948, before being towed as far as Kimbridge Junction on its way to Dinton, where the Southern stored locos awaiting sale for scrapping. At the last moment, someone realised that if action wasn't taken, there would be no Adams' tender locos left for the impending Waterloo Centenary celebrations, so the loco gained a second reprieve and was towed back to Eastleigh, where it was restored as far as possible back to Adams condition.

Adams radial tank 488 was sold out of LSWR service in 1917 and eventually was bought by the East Kent Light railway (part of the Colonel Stephens empire). By March 1939 it had been laid aside but fortunately wasn't scrapped. In 1946, the Southern Railway desperately needed more motive power for the Lyme Regis branch, as the two surviving Adams Radials were in need of overhaul but neither could be taken out of traffic. Therefore, the SR bought 488 for £800 after 7 years of dereliction: it was overhauled and put into service and thus survived long enough for preservation in the 1960s. Its history means that it was the most original of the three surviving radial tanks when the Bluebell were looking for one; the other two had Drummond boilers and had had new frames in the 1930s, whereas 488 has her original frames, with evidence of crude frame repairs made by the EKLR.

Tom

 

Boiler, frames, wheels, cylinders - there are Barry escapees that have come out with not much more!

Tom

 

Well the evidence is there & conclusive.

 

Some more lost engines are the loco boilers found at a woodworking firm in the late 80's. I know one boiler was moved to Bitton, and was, I think it was an LSWR tank, but I've never heard anything of the other two.

 

Just wondered, as it looked as though there was not that much that was restorable.

Great job that you saved as much as you did. Some people here, buy a Barry loco, and scrap most of it, and build a near replica!