MHR Restorations and Overhauls

Couldn't agree more! Would just be a quick fix - Out of interest (and slightly off topic) I make it 16 Bulleids that have survived - 3 now at the Mid-Hants, 4 at Swanage, 1 at Keighley and 8 at the Bluebell, with restoration in hand or already finished for many of these

Operational I make it 2 at Swanage, 1 at Mid Hants, 1 at Keighley and 4 at Bluebell - 8/16 currently operational is very good going but do correct me

 

The Urie society uploaded a new post yesterday on the Mid Hants website which makes interesting reading. The most impressive news is that tender 3208 is almost complete which is a major milestone achieved.

 

Web link here for the Urie group.

http://www.urieloco.co.uk/index.htm

 

given that the coaches are wood framed,on metal underframe how hard would it be to new build some coaches, on suitable underframes? tavern car anyone?

 

If any new-build "heritage" coaches were to be built I'd put money on them being LNER streamlined stock - I've a feeling its probably on the A1 Trust's "to do list"!

 

If any new coaches were to be built. I wonder if one of the coaches would be needed to be used for crash damage worthiness or would the original design suffice.

 

Maybe, but I bet the first coach would be outweighed by its associated paperwork if you wanted to go mainline, which presumably the A1 Trust would? That's if NR would let a new-build wooden-bodied coach onto the network at all.

It's good to see news of progress on 506. I know a lot of people associate the Mid-Hants with Bulleids, and yes, Standard Fives, but through the '90s 506 seemed to be an ever-present; sometimes I'd have sworn there wasn't another serviceable loco on the line.

 

Who said anything about them being wooden bodied? The streamlined coaches were steel panelled on timber frames, but there''s no reason why a modern version couldn't be steel framed - and it isn't impossible to get approval for that, it has been done with the Pegasus Pullman. I've no doubt that there would be a lot of paperwork involved, but I don't believe the rail industry crash-tests new designs, does it?

 

i was thinking of heritage line use, more than mainline, whats to stop a group buying a unrestored /unwanted departmental vehicle for the underframe and building a new body on it, as long as its the same size, as the original, or close to it? if the original body is so far gone, you would end up rebuilding it anyway, your thoughts?

 

even if you could source enough Teak, I doubt you could afford it. I don't think you'd get approval for using a softwood body, so that leaves Steel as the choice of bodywork.Probably easier to mend a Mk1 than build a new one

 

Actually, although teak is quite expensive, it isn't ruinous in price - if it was I wouldn't have supplied teak panels for around 50 coaches around the country via the LNERCA, many of them would be covered in veneered plywood by now. However, it's almost entirely plantation grown stuff these days, meaning that it is very hard now to source material of sufficient width and length to provide the larger panels found in later end vestibule coaches, because the trees are harvested at a relatively small size. A few years ago there was a resurgance in ex-rainforest stuff , from trees flattened by the Tsunami, but this source now seems to have gone. For the body framing, if one buys a log to provide the paneling (the cheapest way), a lot of frame timber would come from the waste either side of the heart, and where it doesn't show other hardwoods such as Sapele could be used. The bigger cost, I think, would be the joiners who would machine the timber and build the frame, as there's a lot of bespoke hand work involved, and that's a constant whatever wood is used.

 

we renewed the vestible ends on 2 pulman cars using Sapele, the rest is quite easy to remanufactore if its things like door openings, you could re use some mouldings

 

Though I agree it's a shame that JB's locos are leaving, I disagree about the remaining locos. It's still one of the most region-appropriate collections in the country. 76xxx, 75xxx, 80xxx and 92xxx locos all worked over Southern routes, and Black 5s turned up at Bournemouth frequently on S&DJR or inter-regional trains.

As for Swanage, Wadebridge and/or Bodmin moving to their name-sake towns: the B&W recognise that a Bulleid light pacific is not the ideal loco for their line, which is why they agreed to Wadebridge's sale to the MHR; the Swanage Railway has more Bulleids that it can sensibly make use of already. Yes, they make great gala visitors, but permanently? Silly notion.

 

thanks for the insult.Did you miss the smilie?

 

Getting back to the loco front, whats the lastest on Bodmin? any one know when she is due to leave and by which method, i noticed her rods were down in the last shot of her, so that would indicate a probable move by rail.

 

Last Wednesday loco gang report says leaving by road. I don't know if it has left yet, or where it's going.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replica-c...ollectables_Railwayana_RL&hash=item2c81ace248

Just seen the cab sides that someone posted a photo of on here a couple of weeks ago are now on ebay….

 

Given the number of 19th century coach bodies being restored on wagon chassis, I suspect minimal.. there's one "former garden shed on wagon wheels" doing 50mph on the London Underground now..

 

There was nevertheless an awful lot of paperwork and testing needed to gain approval for it to run on the Met. It's not the same as doing it just to run on a heritage line.