Overseas Locomotives

Interesting list, thanks! Does anyone know about the intentions regarding:

Danish E Class Pacific no. 996
Swedish ‘B Class’ no. 101A

Also interested in the Nene Valley's foreign dining rake, where did they come from!?

 

You need to add the four USA 0-6-0T shunters to that list (Bluebell, KESR*2, KWVR)

Tom

 

At least five Belgian Cockerill built standard gauge locos to add to this list, at Middleton (1625), Nene Valley (1626), Tyseley (3083), Hollycombe (2945) and a private site in Norfolk (2525). All 0-4-0's

 

You can add TGR K1 to the list.

 

The Danish pacific at Railworld is now being cosmetically restored by the IRPS, and it is intended to overhaul her for use on the NVR. The Swedish B listed as based at the Stephenson Museum is now at the Lincolnshire Wolds, and No. 1928 has left the Spa Valley and is now in somebody's garden somewhere in the South East.

 

the Downpatrick loco was only built abroad, has been an Irish loco all it's life....actually there are two of them....

 

What's the hope for all those Finnish ones ? Wrong gauge and all....
Some one got them cheap and a few people are stuck with em, it seems.

 

Danish E Class Pacific No.996: Undergoing a cosmetic restoration for display only, concentrating on the tender initially. There are no realistic plans to restore it to steam at the moment as far as I am aware, although a couple of people have expressed an interest - whether this will snowball remains to be seen. I don't know first hand how true this is, but - I have heard it is in excellent condition, as it was apparently given a works overhaul and a test run before arrival at Peterborough Railworld, and that the ashes from this are still there!So if the overhaul is cheap enough, it may be a possibility.

Swedish B Class 4-6-0 No.101: Given a cosmetic overhaul by the International Railway Preservation Society (IRPS) based at NVR a couple of years back, now on 'gate guardian' duties at Wansford. If ever restored to working order, believe a fair bit of firebox work would be required. Although otherwise in quite good mechanical order as far as I am aware.

Whether there is much interest amongst the membership or further afield in seeing either of these locos restored to steam remains to be seen in my opinion, fundraising is a particular concern at the moment and the continental stuff never seems to win many prizes in the popularity stakes.

The coaches you ask about are a mixed bag; the genuine Wagon-Lits restaurant car behind No.101 on the gate hails from Italy, the Wagon-Lits sleeping car behind it was built in Belgium (both operated all over continental Europe in CIWL expresses). The other continental coaches that are in blue and cream Wagon-Lits livery (not authentic to these vehicles) but are in the running rake are from Belgium, the three 'mainline' coaches operated to France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands when in original service. The fourth is a Belgian suburban coach (with sliding doors and wooden slatted seats) and comes complete with bullet holes in the roof after being strafed by the RAF during WW2!

 

Beyond the steam locos listed here there is also the ALCO diesel No.804 at Railworld (currently for sale - see link http://www.irps-wl.org.uk/about/for-sale-alco-804), I think there's at least one other of these in the country? and also Swedish Y7 railbus No.1212 at NVR which was recently overhauled in a very impressive timescale to working order.

Not forgetting the Romanian-built Class 56's and also the more modern diesel locos in current use, sadly not built here.

 

If were talking modern There's nearly 400 class 66's plus 67's, 70's, the few remaining Roumanian 56's.
Then all those German built EMU's and just about everything built the century...and Tornados boiler.

 

Absolutely fascinating and quite some history in there! How on earth did they source them all!?

 

Is there not an American Bo-B0 diesel at the Yeoman stone quarries at merehead in Somerset.

 

I suppose that our Sollinger Hutte regulator will scrape in as being foreign but someone is bound to say its not an engine.
My argument is that it is an item of self propelled plant operational on the NYMR

 

I must say I didn't realise this thread was posted in the 'steam traction' category, apologies if I've helped it to go off on a tangent... however it's interesting to see so many other large foreign steam locos exist in this country, didn't realise there were so many.

 

Diesels are welcome too, not to worry!

 

In relation to what Paul's said about 996 and the locomotives at the Nene Valley I can only really add a bit more about 996. The boiler was overhauled and has never been steamed. We've had members of the Danish Railway Museum look at her and they reckon, based on what they have seen she's one of the best condition locos out there.

Plans are rapidly coming together around her long term future, though for the moment we are just dealing with the cosmetic restoration. In terms of that cosmetic restoration it is effectively the pet projects for the NVR youth group and a few of the lads have taken real ownership of the task in hand. I've updated the website with a report from the summer here: http://irps-wl.org.uk/restoration-projects/international-restoration-projects/996

Spud UK, in relation to the coaches they're a bit of a mixed bunch.

The Danish DSB coaches were brought over in the early years (6 of them) for the main services. 1 was sold off to be used as a static building, an older vintage compartment coach is in store and 4 have, until recently, been used as a high density service rake. The coaches are currently going through an overhaul program with the disabled brake coach currently in the works. When they come out they'll be outshopped in the authentic maroon and gold livery they were built in.

All four Belgian coaches (the K1A international coaches and the M1B suburban coach) came over in 1990.

The history of the two Wagons-Lits coaches can be found at http://irps-wl.org.uk/restoration-projects/wagons-lits

The Norwegian teak balcony car came to the railway in 1976 and was one of the first continental pieces of stock on the railway (See the attached photo).

The other continental coach on the railway is a 1928 monocoque French Nord Coach. Amazingly the French were using the technology we introduced with the Mark 2s 40 years before us! In my view this is the nicest coach on the railway and has some beautiful design features. Sadly it's rotten through and would require a ridiculous amount of money to run again.

 

I'm not too well up on the early history of NVR as I'm a relative latecomer, however according to the sources I have:

Belgian-built Wagon-Lits sleeping car 3916 (built 1949, withdrawn 1976) was purchased in 1979 for a BBC television film made at the railway, and evidently never left afterwards!

Italian-built Wagon-Lits restaurant car 2975 (built 1927, withdrawn 1977) was purchased by Peterborough-based Thomas Cook (travel) in 1978 and presented to NVR on long term loan (now owned by NVR, since 2001). According to the NVR stock book (some years out of date now) it is believed this coach was the heaviest passenger vehicle in regular use in Britain when used on NVR services, it weighs in at a massive 55.2 tons (but only seats 56 - nearly a ton per person!)

The four Belgian coaches in inauthentic Wagon-Lits blue and cream livery arrived in 1990, the mainline coaches date from 1934 and the suburban, from 1936. Beyond this I can't find any more information.

A very interesting little book is available at Wansford station shop, entitles "Why all this foreign stuff!". It goes into much detail of why and how the continental collection was assembled, and contains some extremely unfortunate 'ones that got away' such as the other WD 2-8-0 that was stored in Sweden alongside the one now at Keighley. It also reveals that the continental image was an accident of history rather than a deliberate policy, as it was realised that foreign locos from the strategic reserves of mothballed locos across Europe were considerably cheaper and in much better condition than what could be obtained from Barry, even in the early 1970's. Whether the continental image is doing us any favours now however is a subject that continues to be hotly debated...!

 

There are two more ex-Steel Company of Wales ALCOs in the UK: one is or was under restoration for use on the Aln Valley Railway, while the other is at the Cholsey & Wallingford.

 

Of the Alco's, 801 is currently under restoration and owned by the same gentleman who owns Swedish Railcar 1212. She should be operational within a year.

Other foreign loco's in their fleet are two German Kof locos, (Appropriately nicknamed Cough and Splutter) both of which are currently employed shunting units at Eastleigh works (Photo can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...938789.-2207520000.1377866627.&type=3&theater )