Practical Issues in Preserving Steam Locomotives

I seem to recall I first heard the story from an old guy who claimed to be an ex-Nine Elms driver at the MHR when I was a kid, 20 years ago. Reportedly, the would-be buyer had raised the cash to buy the loco and was making arrangements for its collection when the NRM stepped in, allegedly claiming they intended to steam it. It's a rumour that I've heard repeated several times since. It's not like the NRM didn't already have a Bulleid (34051) anyway.

21B - quite right too - totally forgot about 34058. Make that three. There are, I believe, 2o surviving Light Pacifics and 11 MNs... of which nine are operational (six LPs, three MNs), twelve (10 LPs, two MNs) are currently awaiting or under overhaul having previously run in preservation, two (34051, 35029) are on permanent static display, three (one LP, two MNs) are in a state of imminent or nascent restoration, six (three LPs, three MNs) are not currently receiving any restoration work (albeit one of the MNs has had a lot done to it). That doesn't compare too unfavourably with some of the other most well-represented classes in preservation (BR 80xxx, LMS 5MT, GWR Hall).

34007 - restored, now out of ticket
34010 - unrestored ex-Barry, restoration imminent
34016 - restored, under overhaul
34023 - never went to Barry, now awaiting overhaul
34027 - operational
34028 - restored, now out of ticket
34039 - restored, under overhaul
34046 - operational
34051 - never went to Barry, static display
34053 - operational
34058 - unrestored ex-Barry
34059 - restored, under overhaul
34067 - restored, now out of ticket
34070 - restored, awaiting overhaul
34072 - operational
34073 - unrestored ex-Barry
34081 - operational
34092 - operational
34101 - under overhaul
34105 - under overhaul
35005 - under overhaul
35006 - operational
35009 - unrestored ex-Barry
35010 - unrestored ex-Barry
35011 - under restoration
35018 - operational
35022 - unrestored ex-Barry, restoration imminent
35025 - under restoration (albeit currently stalled)
35027 - under overhaul
35028 - operational
35029 - vandalised

 

Thing about rumours is that you can hear them lots of times even if they all go back to a single source with no foundation, especially if they strike a chord.

 

Was 29 the first MN to be purchased from Woodhams?

 

Not quite - CanPac beat it out by nine months.

 

Sorry BB but you are talking absolute rubbish. Regardless of what your "man in the pub"( I bet he drove the Flying Scotsman t00!) told you the embryonic NRM purchased 35029 in 1974 with the specific intention of displaying it as a sectioned exhibit. There was never any intention of steaming it - after all there was a perfectly good representative of the class in steam at the time, namely "Clan Line", and there were plenty of other unique locos in the collection that were much easier to steam. So lets rap up this nonsense about 35029 once and for all.

Peter James

 

As may be - but it doesn't necessarily discredit the notion of another buyer attempting to acquire it for it to be steamed. When was it sectioned anyway?

 

well there were plenty to choose from and that guy getting it instead of the NRM would have made very little difference in reality and it was a good choice of class, as your list confirms, at the time there was very little hope for almost all of the locos and I sincerely doubt that two or three of them will ever be restored.

 

It was sectioned at Market Overton by Flying Scotsman Services in early 1975 and was on display in what is now called the Great Hall when the Museum opened in Sept '75. It was externally repainted in a darker shade of green a couple of years later as the original paint job was considered too light.

Peter James

 

Speaking of which - has anyone else noticed that Clan Line is a hang sight lighter now than it was last ticket?

 

Right yes thanks, presumably then 05 deemed in best condition and went to Steamtown Carnforth, did it not?
Pointless trying to decipher tge decisions of 40 years ago but I wonder if a Hall or 8F were considered as a sectioned exhibit? Possibly the more valuable copper firebox would give a higher purchase price?

 

What if... instead of some of the Bullied Pacifics that made it to Barry, some more Eastern types ended up there? A few more of the B1s, or K3s that had been in use as stationary boilers and survived a bit longer than the other Eastern types?

Or a few Ivatt 4MTs? They would be handy for heritage railway operations surely?

 

a two cylinder mixed traffic loco sectioaned wouldn't make as displayable an exhibit as a three cylinder passenger type

 

Anything a B1 or K3 can do, a West Country can do better...! Bude knocked over 20 minutes off the B1 schedule for Nottingham to Rugby GCR without even trying... Ivatt 4MT (the Flying Pig) is bloody ugly, the Riddles version (and related 4-6-0) are much more handsome... but I'd swap them for some more Maunsell moguls (especially the extinct 3-cylinder types) or W or Z tanks, or LBSCR K Moguls... or even some more Swindon 43/53/63/73 Moguls!

Some of the first-ever 2-6-0 class in the country, from which the name Mogul originated, the GER Adams type, wouldn't go amiss either - but they didn't last long in service.

RG, why not? Doesn't matter what it is, really, just a 2-cyl type would be a lot more representative.

 

I would've just liked to have seen more Eastern types in preservation... and to be honest the looks of the Ivatt 4MT have really grown on me.

 

Or even a different balance between what survived at Woodhams & what was cut up there. What price now 3171, 1468, 1366 & quite a number of useful sized 53xx locos?

 

Of course it would, it's a class 7 and the others are class 5/6.

 

Except it's around a Class 5 axle loading, which was the whole point... it could go places no other Class 7 could.

 

Erm, there's no such thing as a "Class 5 axle loading". It's a power classification...
I presume what you mean is "most other types of comparable axle loading in the UK were not as powerful"?
I would be interested to know the comparative power per ton of Light Pacific against say Black 5 or B1 or Brittania. As it happens I'm reading van Riemsdijk's "Compound Locomotives" at the moment and it's full of power/ton comparisons, because he thinks British (simple) locos scored badly by international standards.

 

Well that's true, but it did it by accepting a factor of adhesion that no other designer considered acceptable. There's nothing very magic about that sort of thing. All designs are compromises, and its just that in a number of cases Bulleid chose to take quite different tradeoffs from other designers. As for the wisdom or otherwise of the choices Bulleid made, to my mind the record is adequately eloquent.

 

Andrew, what I meant was 'equivalent to' - a WC is broadly comparable in power to a Gresley V2 but is nowhere near as heavy on its driving wheels.

Jimc, the fact that 110 Light Pacifics were built and worked successfully, many right up to the end of steam, without any major remedial work in many cases (one could argue the toss about the necessity of the frankly backward rebuilds til the cows come home, given that many of the unrebuilts lasted well into the 60s and could outperform their rebuilt classmates)... whereas many Black Fives required much more extensive rebuilding, with new frames replacing cracked originals...