Locomotives that NEARLY made it

To ‘rebuild’ a Spitfire all you need is a few bolts recovered from a crash site. And quite a bit of money.

 

No - KWVR managed to acquire a genuine tender chassis from a steelworks in Holland. It had been used as an ingot carrier, and was surplus to requirements. Only the tank was new.
https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/90733-wd-9257-wd-79257-ns-4464-sj-1931/

Richard.

 

A locomotive which has always intrigued me is the ex- Fursebrook Tramway 2'8" Pecket 0-4-2 ST Septimus, purchased for the proposed North Dorset Light Railway in about 1958, then stored at Peckett's works and cut up in 1962, I suspect due to company reorganisation as Peckett went out of business in 1961. Does anyone know any further details about this schema and why it foundered?

 

Why? What was so special about 44894? I sense a story here.

AFAIK Drapers never sold on anything. They kept 45305 for themselves and did not sell it.

Peter

 

Going back a couple of pages talking about companies with no preserved locos, the companies from Wales are seriously underrepresented, 2 Taff Vale Locos, 1 Port talbot and 1 North Pembroke and Fishguard loco (Excluding 0-4-0 and dock shunters). The Rhymmney, Cambrian and Barry Railway have no locos in preservation. What makes it disappointing is that many locos, particularly Taff vale and Rhymmney locos survived well into BR ownership and most survived until the late fifties atleast.

 

Was it any good though? Dr Beet and friends drew up a list of the best engines at the end of steam and found purchasers for some of them - including the KWVR who bought 45212 and Ian Watkinson who got 45025 and loaned it to them. Did they really need another Black 5 back then.

Peter

 

Maybe it was a case of save what's there and let's not be picky, 80002 wasn't in the best of health but was still there in 1969. When would you get another chance?

 

W. Elgar Dickinson in his excellent A Friend in Steam mentions a school trip to Crewe in the early 50s where their guide commented that the last Cauliflower 28616, which was on shed, had been proposed for preservation alongside Hardwick to illustrate the LNWR passenger and freight legacy. However the suggestion had come from footplate staff, not from the 'high ups' and was therefore rejected, what a shame.

(Those guides were so patient with us spotters!)

Dave

 

Matt - we are talking late '68/early '69 when you could be picky because there were still dozens of locos heading for scrap, which had been surveyed and had not found a buyer. You've left it a bit late if you have to buy a Black 5 from a scrapyard rather than BR. Remember that unlike Barry every other yard cut locos up almost as soon as they came in the gate. And as I said this is how the KWVR acquired 45212 at this time - did they really want another big engine like that?

Peter

 

There is one Ex Burry Port & Gwendreath Valley Light Railway locomotive preserved. She is called Ponyyberem, and was at Didcot for years, until the owner sold her. She was old off by the GWR in 1923 so never carried a GWR number. Shame to owner sold it, as sge she is a lovely little 0-6-0 sadle tank

 

Pontyberem was sold to industry long before the grouping. I thought it was now at Blaenavon? If so I'm sure it's appreciated more there than it ever was at Didcot.

 

I wonder if there are people who perhaps 'could' have bought a loco back in the 1960s but didn't and now regret that they didn't. I can imagine that a key worry at the time for most was not just the cost but where could you keep it as there were only a handful of preservation sites starting at the time.

My dad when he was looking for his first car circa 1955, went to go and see a steam roller that was being advertised by a council in Yorkshire. He saw it steam and it was going to go for scrap if nobody bought it and he said they virtually begged him to buy it, even offered some coal to go with it. He said he had the money but had to say no and was looking for a car anyway. He was living with his aunty at the time and he said she would have gone nuts if he had arrived home with a steam roller. I guess the roller would be now worth a lot more that the pre war Hillman Minx he eventually did get.

 

Did I read that Alan Bloom had wanted to purchase the last surviving Claud Hamilton?

He didn’t have enough funds himself at the time so tried to club together with a group of fellow traction engine owners, but was unsuccessful?

 

But are they? There are not that many pre grouping locomotives full stop. If you exclude the very early stuff, and concentrate on say 1880-1920, there are 4 from the LNWR, 4 from the Midland, 7 from the NER, 4 from the GER, 3 from the Caledonian etc.

 

The LSWR has always looked to me very well represented in preservation for locomotives (it's a desert for carriages). There are 12 preserved locomotives, but between them they span 1873 - 1920; four different CMEs; heavy goods, express passenger, suburban passenger and shunting locos. It is probably as good a spread as you could hope to have - by contrast, there are 13 preserved LBSCR locos but ten are of one type and twelve of the thirteen all from one specific CME. The SECR is somewhat in between: eight locos that give a good range of function (express passenger, suburban passenger, goods and light branch line loco) but a narrow range of dates (all but one from between 1902 - 1910 and one CME; and the odd one out being a rebuild from the same era and CME).

Tom