Margaret

When were these photos taken? Margaret looks to be in better condition than when I visited Scolton Manor last year.

 

recent as far as I know....I think nothing has happened to it for a long time , just a deceiving photo

 

I was there last year too, looks like some paint has been sloshed around since then?

 

Is there a long term plan for the loco & signal box?

 

not as far as I can tell. it's more or less dumped by the car park

 

This loco needs to go to the Gwili both for conservation reasons & to give that railway a "mainline" loco thus putting that railway on more folks radar.

 

Gwili have TVR 28. I think that Scolton Manor has the usual council issues of cash flow and resources. How many of us would actually contribute to help "Margaret"? I suspect we might run to one tin of paint between us.

 

Yes - is 28 actually on the Gwili now Anthony?

If there are council funding issues those are most unlikely to improve so transfer to the Gwili looks to be the best available option. After all it could reasonably be asked "What has Margaret got to do with the provision of core local government services such as Education, Social Services etc etc?"

LG needs to divest itself of these non essentials before Central Government forces the issue.

As this loco has some GW connections a proper appeal for it might raise enough to at least conserve it if properly publicised but not on the basis of leaving it where it is - completely out of railway context.

 

Are there any pictures anywhere of the loco 'as found' at Kidwelly? I believe it was more or less left abandoned in a shed from the 194os up to the mid '70s before being rescued. At least it was in a shed.

 

Yes, 28 went back to Gwili last October.

As for Margaret, she has been in the open at Scolton for nigh on 40 years. They will do what they can, but in the long term I believe that she does need to be undercover yes. However, "proper" appeals to conserve engines bring in small amounts. It seems to me that people will only give money if one announces the intention to "make it go". TVR 28 is a case in point.

 

Love to have it but unlikely to happen while Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire remain separate counties.

It would certainly look good with GWR carriage 216 of 1888, which is almost ready for use.

Yes we do have TVR28 with us for some pedigree, hopefully as we open the new extension more folk will pay us a vist to help get some more pedigree!

 

Point of interest is that the signal box is ex Sarnau on the west wales main line between Caramarthen and Whitland. It is identical to Llandybie signal box, now operational on the Gwili. It was erected at Scolton by the late John Farley, a well respected former Gwili and WSR volunteer. John also masterminded the rescue and re-erection of Llandybie at Bronwydd.

Regards

Matt

 

I remember seeking her out in about 1969(?) when she was slumbering in a one road, one engine shed at Kidwelly Tinplate Works. The loco was then a complete time capsule with numberplates & GW fittings intact. It was such a dark, cramped location though that photography would have been very difficult.

Subsequent outdoor storage will have done her no favours.

 

My parents went around the same time, with friends - mainly to see the Foden rolling mill engines and found Margaret was an extra attraction. The watchman told them that Mr Zammit, the scrappy who owned the works wasn't keen on visitors. Whilst they were talking, a Rolls Royce appeared, tooted its horn and the watchman scuttled over to it - on his return he said "Mr Zammit doesn't mind you looking at the loco but says it will be 2' 6d each". They coughed up.

In one of the old "Railway Times" published by Rich Morris in 1978 is a black & white shot of the loco outside the shed around 1947.

 

Oh, you never know. After all, the London Borough of Sutton keeps its engine in Kent.

 

If funds were available, would they be likely to release her into preservation?

 

The problem with a full blown restoration is that much material would probably be replaced. Probably not so much a question of funding but whether there would be much left of the original loco?

 

Couldn't the same be said about a lot of loco overhauls?

 

Don't disagree but this one was built in 1878 and hasn't run for over 70 years