Mid Hants Preservation Society Gifted LBSCR Coaches

Why not? Isnt that exactly the kind of arangement they have with the Bluebell regarding 1456?

 

Multiplicity of ownership strikes me a a recipe for cussedness, either on a short or a long term timescale. Analagous to renting rather than owning a dwellinghouse. It might seem to be advantageous financially in the earlier stages but not so as the decades pass. The decades have indeed passed and there has not been enough consolidation.

PH

 

It's an interesting premise that if the railway owned everything then all would be hunky dory. I only have to think of the NYMR, where if the railway owned the LNER stock it would all have been sold or scrapped by now, along with most of the freight stock. Their priority is to run a railway and they would not put money into anything deemed to be unnecessary. The coaching stock would be all Mk 1s and freight vehicles largely limited to the civils fleet. With private ownership of vehicles the owners, whether individuals or groups at least have the incentive to raise funds and make progress or be asked to leave. Vehicles that haven't been touched for years and are owned by inactive groups or inviduals are fair game for moving on though, and there is still a thirst for restorable stock from the newer lines.

 

Back to the LBSCR coaches.... There's a photo in this month's Railway Bylines magazine of a four coach set on the Hayling Island branch, with Terrier 663 on the front. I'll post the details of the photo later, unless someone beats me to it. Interestingly the full brake has spoked wheels, whereas the other vehicles have disc wheels. I think the formation was full brake, 4 compartment composite, 5 compartment third, and brake third.

 

Now that 34051 has gone back to York. Two Bulleid coach bogies have taken the space where 34051 had been. I understand they are to be stripped down and overhauled. Bulleid brake has now been moved behind the two Bulleid coach bogies and the other Bulleid coach (ex bluebell) has moved to the front of the shed on the other road.

 

Who says that "everything will be hunky dory", certainly not I. However with the present fissiparious position which is nearly, if not quite universally, the rule, I find it remarkable that anything at all is "hunky dory". Determination of priorities must be extraordinarily difficult, hence my use of the expression "Byzantine".

PH

 

Determination of priorities must be extraordinarily difficult, hence my use of the expression "Byzantine".

Groups and individuals set their own priorities, which may not be the same as their host railway but in the long run should be to its benefit. Again, I can only put forward my NYMR/LNERCA experience where we were generally thought to be wasting our time - I'm sure the NYMR management at the time would have preferred us to help with the Mk 1 fleet but that was not where our interests lay. However the fact that we persevered means that the NYMR now has a teak train with more carriages on the way. It wouldn't have hapopened if everything was owned by the NYMR, because they wouldn't have acquired the coaches in the first place!

 

That's about as Byzantine as Byzantine can get! A bit like getting involved with a dog owners club but keeping a cat instead.

PH

 

Hello,
Not often do you read the words:
Byzantine
Byzantine as Byzantine
Fissiparous
Cussedness
And
Analogous
With regards to such a poor relation of Heritage railways......railway coaches and wagons.!


Nick

 

Byzantine? We bought them and we restored them! The NYMR now has them on loan and operates & maintains them allowing us to get on with restoring more, which the NYMR want having realised that they are something special, but not having the resources to do them themselves. A straightforward arrangement when it works. Equally, I admit, there are vehicles on the NYMR that have arrived with high hopes but restoration has stalled for one reason or another, and these are gradually being cleared out now.

 

Yes Byzantine indeed. It struck me many years ago when visiting a "certain" heritage railway (not the NYMR) that there were lots of little hutlets, all occupied by different C&W groups and each sporting its own, individual, smoking chimney. Did they talk to one another? Were they not duplicating admin. effort if nothing else? This was reflected on the station platforms where there was a plethora (i.e. an "unhealthy superfluity") of collecting boxes after the manner of one of the more deplorable Cathedrals!

I think we are of the same mind about seeking a sexier alternative to the ubiquitous Mk.1 but differ fundamentally as how best to achieve this. Better leave it there.

PH

 

Hello,
Cannot add or subtract from Mr P Hitch.




Nick

 

Does anyone know about what's happening with the Ironclad third brake at the railway?

 

The opinion of the author of a new book on LBSCR carriages https://wordery.com/lbscr-carriages-volume-1-ian-white-9781905505357 is that the four are probably as follows:

LBSCR 174 – four-wheeled passenger brake van, built 1875, not LBSCR 174 – six-wheeled passenger brake van, built 1880 (same number re-used)

LBSCR 521 – six-wheeled First, later No.98 Compo, built 1878, not LBSCR 521 – six-wheeled First, built 1898

LBSCR - number unknown – four-wheeled - either main line Second or
Suburban First built in 1870s/80s - the doors are all missing but
careful study of the exterior might expose a number. not LBSCR 1646 – six-wheeled BK 3rd converted from a First

LBSCR 660 – six-wheeled First; later 1646 brake Third, built 1880, not LBSCR 660 – six-wheeled Third, built 1878

and they probably never worked on Hayling Island, which doesn't detract from a great project - just need to do the research to restore them correctly, if you don't you'll never hear the last of it from the friendly carriage fraternity!

Dave

 

The railway has plenty of time to do research, I dont expect work to start on them until those Bulleid brakes are completed in around 2017.

 

So if the Bullleid coaches won't be finished until sometime in 2017. Then we won't see these LBSC coaches running until around 2025. Unless the railway has another plan for them.

 

Lottery funding Lee

 

Cannot bank upon it. The skills needed, if not available, need to be developeed. Not quick.

PH