1014 County of Glamorgan

For all the talk about how sad it is that we have lost an 8F for a firebox, and do I think it was particularly sad to lose the "LNER" built 8F that completed the set of Big Four war time built 8Fs, shouldn't we really be placing it in some context. We've got 8 8Fs in the UK at the moment, of which one is still unrestored nigh on 50 years after withdrawl, another has been brought back from turkey but has taken a very long time to garner any real interest in its presrvation whilst its sister was promptly put back on a boat and shipped to israel due to a lack of interest.

The 8Fs then sit in a much larger pool of large goods engines including Austerity 2-10-0s, GWR 28XX etc that are actually pretty well represented numercially in preservation but they have not actually faired all that well after they were "saved" because, it seems, not enough people are interested to actually do something. Instead, they end up filling skips round the back of engine sheds after their owners lose patience, part them out and gas axe the frames. If there was the money and desire, I highly doubt this would be happening.

 

How many of the GW 2-8-0s left are unlikely to be restored? 2859 has pretty much had it but aren't all the others in some sort of progress? 9 or 10?
Seems odd the 8Fs have found less success, but I'll admit a bias!

 

I can't understand why people have the impression that 2859 is beyond saving, yet in actual fact it is in far better condition than some of the 28xx & 38xx that have changed hands recently.

Bob.

 

3845 owned by DMLL is foingbto be decades away. They've got two operational locos to rotate plus the restoration of 2874 to be getting on with which should keep them occupied for a little while...

 

It has no wheels now does it?

 

I think you have the wrong loco. 2861 is the one. It was one of the Didcot pick and mix locos.

 

It's got all of its wheels , complete with almost 'new' tyres.

Bob.

 

I seem to recall seeing on FaceBook about a group who were going to raise the money to restore 2859, assuring its long term survival. Or did I imagine that?

Tom

 

Recall hearing that an engineer for the SVR group inspected all of the ones at Barry and identified 2859 as the best. Somehow the report was misread and the bid was made for 2857, which turned out to be much the poorer condition. Maybe apocryphal?

 

Was it dismantled at Llan? Maybe where my confusion arises.

 

I think it's still in one piece - certainly looked that way when I last saw a picture of it on the Facebook page set up by the infamous Mr Reeder....

 

Re 2859 i seem to recall when i went to look at it many years ago the tyres would stand another turn but that would be it. However both 3855 and 2874 have almost new driving wheel tyres.

 

Yes.

 

There's some truth to that. Members of what subsequently became the 2857 society went to Barry with the intention of obtaining a 28xx. Being a Midlands based group there was a particular interest in one loco in particular which was the last loco to go through Stafford Road works in Wolverhampton. That loco was identified as being 2857, however it was realised later on that it was in fact 2859. '59 was withdrawn soon after its overhaul, hence the unusually good condition of the boiler.

 

I thought there was 2x GW 2-8-0s that were now "without major bits" ?
Is it 2861 without wheels, but I thought I read somewhere there is another one that no longer has a boiler, but good wheels / frame, the boiler, I heard, was sold off separately for an 'interesting idea' that hasn't happened (not the 47xx).. as of yet ?

 

At the risk of continuing the severe thread drift here it has to be said that an operational 28xx/2884 would be of far more use to operational heritage railways for daily use than the actual subject of this thread. There is a shortage of suitable operational motive power on quite a few lines now.

 

Think the key word is operational. Plenty waiting in sidings and sheds waiting for overhaul and repair

 

Quite so the move to build yet more is simply a trainspotting exercise with no thought given as to who will look after it all in years to come.