LSWR T3 563

Will the Swanage mainline DMUs have to have doors in contrasting colours? I'm amazed that charter trains don't! (or the NYMR Whitby sets, for that matter)

 

Derogation.

Robin

 

yes but a post that showcases two other locos....perfectly par for the course

 

Swanage have two Bulleid coaches in service.
My experience which follows earlier postings, general public ask if they have to pay more to travel in.
To be fare (did you see what i did there) Swanage has a number of Formica Mk1's so the general public can be forgiven.

 

Swanage does indeed have two Bulleid's in service but operates them in different rakes hence my reference to a single coach.

 

I just read on the ‘Swanning around’ newsletter, that the bottom end of 563 is in amazing condition- like a newly overhauled locomotive.

So things are looking promising, although boiler will be the biggest expense.

 

That is one thing that was the cause of much chatter, how come, an engine pulled out of the scrap road, just weeks. or even months earlier was given such an extensive mechanical for an engine that was not to have any further working life, would you go to the extent of what looks to be fresh works motion why not just paint it up do a cosmetic job, ?
I guess the truth will come out when the valves and pistons are removed, if they are freshly machined and all new parts, then, that can only lead to one obvious conclusion, that someone overhauling 563 had it in their mind that post the 1948 calibrations, she would be done up to a standard that it could be used as a working heritage loco, I wonder, when did BR W put City of Truro back into use? what must have been in the early 50's so did someone at Eastleigh have similar intensions ?

 

Or maybe it was seen as an opportunity for apprentice training? Good practice for them, but wouldn’t matter too much if they messed it up.

 

Valve faces look meaty and almost brand new. Same goes for the pistons.

 

City of Truro was returned to service in 1957 if memory serves, etc.

 

Did any of the railway press at the time kick up as much of a stink at the time when WR returned 3440 to steam as Steam Railway mag has about the possibility of 563 returning to action?

 

It is fortuitous that the bottom end is in such good nick. Obviously it rests on the condition of the boiler and what that will entail to repair.

She is pretty much THE Cinderella locomotive, isn't she? Overlooked for years as part of the collection, used in The Railway Children production at Kings Cross (and I was lucky enough to get up close and personal in 2015 when it was on - and it struck me then how the paintwork was tired but the locomotive seemed not), then delisted - and she's in good hands, no doubt.

I really do hope in years to come we will talk about this locomotive in the most positive of terms. She deserves a happy ever after - and won't it be fab when she does return to steam for us all to enjoy.

 

And maybe a certain magazine can give it a rest about the NRM and giving it away?!

 

Well, quite. What's done is done. It is clear she is going to be much loved and I hope well looked after in future. This could be the making of 563's career and a big boost to Swanage. Both agreeably good things for railway preservation and the local economy in Swanage.

We mustn't see this as a gate being opened to delisting the national collection on a whim - but it is hard to disagree with, say, the NSR tank going to a railway renowned for their NSR carriages, or the T3 going to a railway its classmates would have worked on, or similar. We have a finite space around the country for our railway collection and invariably as cuts to public services are made, difficult decisions will be also.

What we must try and do potentially is be more open about having the debate. Would a loan be better than delisting? Is there a way of sharing the custodianship of a locomotive around the country? Etc etc. Maybe we need to engage in the debate more.

I have felt for a while that the NRM regularly gets beaten with a stick it doesn't deserve - both by SR on 4472 and others on this and other topics - maybe if we all tried to engage better with the national collection we'd get somewhere. Just my two cents.

 

Pigs will fly in a frozen over Hell first.

 

That or once 563 hopefully does get overhauled and returned to steam, at which point everybody will be over the moon in seeing such a fine elegant machine of the victorian era running again, so it would go against the magazine's best interests to continue putting such a downer on the subject.

After all how often do we hear about 4472 and it's well over the budget overhaul nowadays since it's actually got back up and running again? Not much if at all I find, certainly with so many being ever ecstatic to see it running near them or at their local heritage railway.

Certain corners of journalism do have an awful habit of piling on a dire image on a (at the time) controversial news story, but once it's over and most people come round to see it positively, they soon change their tune and in turn report on the subject from a more positive angle.

 

So much 'journalism' seems to be culled from Facebook!

 

Alas so true...

 

That and Twitter. Some dailies are notorious for it.

 

I have to say Ian, I've never heard that much from you in said mag!