Woodhams - fireboxes

Copper fireboxes had to be returned to BR as part of the sale agreement

 

Evening,

There were three inner fireboxes together, back in 1986 - if I can find my print / neg, I'll scan and upload the image.

 

If the fireboxes mentioned in the opening post were seen in 1978, they could not have come from 4156 and 92085, which were not broken up until July 1980. The next question is, were these the same fireboxes seen in 1989?

When the scrap dealers were bidding to buy condemned engines they were given details by BR of how much of each type of metal, e.g. copper, brass, ferrous etc the locomotives contained. They based their bids on this information and I doubt if the amounts varied very much from dealer to dealer unless there were other factors which caused one type of metal to be more in demand locally than others. In South Wales there was a high demand for steel scrap so there was probably more competition between the various dealers. What did affect all the bids was the mileage charge levied for delivering the engines after purchase to the dealers scrapyard. This is the reason why nothing from the Eastern Region went to Barry. It was too far away at the time the majority of purchases were being made. Towards the end of the purchasing years fewer locos were becoming available, so the delivery charge became less important. And 61264 doesn't count because at the time Woodhams bought it Colwick was an LMR depot not an ER one.

 

It would have been rather difficult to return the firebox of a loco sold for preservation.

 

True Ian, but copper boxes from scrapped locos were indeed required to go back to BR, quite often for use in Overhead Wire. By the time Barry locos were bing sold, well over 15,000 steamers had bitten the dust, and I imagine the sale of 43924 challenged the "no-resale" condition and overturned it so much that the odd 200plus locos in South Wales didn't really matter so much. Plus many were Bulleids with steel boxes. It was said that a couple of purchasers in the scrap trade on cutting open a Light Pacific were "sadly disappointed thereat"...

 

Ha, ha. Serves them right for cutting such wonderful locos in the first place.

 

there was also a clause forbidding sale of complete locos

 

Whenever a steam locomotive was sold onwards from Barry, didnt Woodhams have to pay BR for the copper (and bearings?) that were part of that locomotive ?

 

Bearings? If you bought a loco from Barry and it still had bearings you were blooming lucky.

 

Someone told me that some GWR locos had brass cylinder covers is this correct?

 

ER - no - your leg is being pulled a little.

GWR Piston valve locos do have pressure relief valves in the cylinder covers which are made of mainly non ferrous metal though - but then so do many other similar types from other railways.

 

Yes in the case of tenders - though Woodham had a pile of tender bearings in his stores from which purchasers were able to select suitable items for their new aquisition (at least for the first rescues into the mid '70s).

No in the case of loco axleboxes (with the odd exception) - removal of these would have required the use of a wheeldrop or lifting the whole loco! - a lot of axlebox underkeeps have needed replacement though through earlier theft.

 

Hello Martin,

I've finally got round to scanning the print:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristol-re/5849216566/in/photostream

Very Best Wishes,
Bob.

 

Interesting - the LH is probably ex 4156 & the RH probably ex 3817 looking at the tube layouts.

The middle one looks like a 3 row superheat job so it could be from the 76xxx - not wide enough for the 9f.

 

The centre one definitely had 4 rows...

 

Though a number of GWR locos got to Norwich for cutting.

 

What about the NER V2s that were cut up at Swindon. Also ER O2s ended up at Wigan.