Wroughton Store

I was at a club meeting last night and someone was telling me about No. 1 Hangar at Wroughton, which is one of the one used as a store by the Science Museum. Apparently its roof is in such a poor condition that no-one is allowed inside, but peple claim that there is both a "King" and an A4 tucked away in it! (lthough they haven't seen them for themselves, apparently!). Now, I tend to believe these stories about as much as I believe in fairies, but is there anyone who really knows if there is anything of interest in there? AC are you reading this?

 

Pull other, bells on. For some people, like your source perhaps , it's always April 1st.

What sort of club was this, were you in a minority there with your railway interest?

 

The GWR restaurant car, now at the Pontypool & Blaenavon, used to be at Wroughton when it was still part of the National collection.

 

5" gauge maybe.

 

The meeting was a gauge 1 railway group. If you assume that I don't believe in fairies then you'll understand that I don't put any credence in the rumours, but I do wonder what there might be in there - buildings that have been locked out of use for many years with even employees supposedly forbidden to enter (on safety grounds) are bound to generate a certain amount of interest!

 

The tender for Columbine is in one of those hangars but the NRM deals with the railway national collection not the science museum so i'm guessing someone has been telling porkies. The innard of some of the hangars can be seen here http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/laceygreen/days/wroughton/hangard3/index.htm

Tim

 

There is a Lockheed Super Constellation in one of the hangars.It is a freighter conversion and had been left at Dublin Airport,(possibly under arrest),it was carried from Dublin to Fleetwood in several large pieces aboard a freight ferry and hauled by road to Wroughton by.I saw it on the ferry and later at Wroughton after it had been re-assembled.
Colin.

 

There is certainly some gear in those hangars!

They held an open day a couple of years ago and showed a small part of the holding.

The NRM passed a Midland Railway coal wagon from their collection into ours some years ago and that sat at Wroughton until recently. I went in the hangar to see it when we took ownership and it shared space with such things as Caledonias boiler, an entire vintage BBC outside broadcast unit, a full set of roadmaking machinery and wagons in the livery of Limmer and Trinidad Ashpalt plus other classic 1960s special use vehicles of all types.

I wish I'd made notes and that was only one building.

 

The Nrm do use wroughton to store some items However remember that the Nrm is part of the Science museum family so they will deal across the board with them . I wouldnt mind getting my hands on that foden steam waggon

 

I've a feeling the bullet train spent a while there when it first arrive in the UK, but I'd imagine that as we have the NRM which is railway specific, plus now Shildon, it likely that most if not all of the rail collection is at those two places. By contrast the Science Museum itself covers a lot more fields so much of the road collection for example can't be accomodated in the Kensington museum.

 

I had a tour round one of the stores at Wroughton a couple of years ago (when we were inspecting Cuneo's 'Waterloo' painting prior to transportation to the NRM - the painting was in store at Wroughton for nearly 20 years). The store I saw was full of science related artefacts - nothing railway related in whichever hangar it was.

IIRC the former spare boiler for 4472 was stored at Wroughton for a while in recent times.

More interesting is the mass of railway artefacts in store at Bristol Industrial Museum including GWR nameplates and station running in boards etc.

 

If "Flying Scotsman"'s boiler was there, you can perhaps see how the "there' an A4 rolling chassis" rumour might have developed. It is interesting there are no shots inside hanger 1 in that collection!

 

I've been round Wroughton and it certainly holds a fascinating collection. I can remember a Comet and the hovercraft but I can't remember an A4 or anything like it.

 

If you put "science museum: wroughton store" into Google it will give you the part of the science museum website that deals with Wroughton.

Although, it doesn't appear to give you a list of what actual "large objects" are stored there!

Does tell you how to arrange group tours though.

 

So did you mean 'gauge 1' Kings & A4s might be tucked away in there, not real ones? I believe the national collection does include a number of interesting models, not sure what gauge though!

 

(Sigh) No, the question was about full size engines. I've looked at the Science Museum website and there is no catalogue of what is there, nor does it say that all hangers are open to the public. Clearly there is nothing of railway interest in the ones that are accessible, its the ones that aren't (if they even exist) that are of interest. I've heard the rumour of various engines being there from two sources, the other being from someone at Andover MES, alhough that doesn't make it any more likely to be true. The version from Andover suggested that there are some underground rooms there as well.

 

If only someone hadn't upset A Coulls, maybe we might have got an answer.

 

Ah I see... so the underground rooms must be where the Str*****c R****ve is kept:crazy:

But seriously, Anthony Coulls recently posted this link to a list of all locos & rolling stock in the National Collection which also shows their current locations - sadly no A4s or Kings shown at Wroughton.

 

I was in a hangar at Wroughton in 1982, having been involved with returning replica Rocket from loan to star at an open day that was to take place the next day. At the time I thought it was a terrific store, both massive in size and versatile, without pillars of course, permitting free vehicle access throughout. My recollection is of mainly road vehicles, street furniture, lots of stuff. I don't say there were no railway locos but can confirm no King or A4 were present at that time. It was the first of several hangars, cannot say it was definitely number 1 though, it was nearest to the buildings. With defence cuts imminent expect more modern hangars elsewhere to become available if Science Museum has enough clout to arrange an exchange of sites.

 

The only rail related items there are half a unit of an underground electric post office loco, no 807 (other half at NRM York) & a Glasgow double Deck Tram, no 585.
Steve