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Ownership of LSWR T3 no. 563 transfered to Swanage Railway


Paul.Uni
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Swanage Railway has launched a £2 million appeal to restore the T3. This may be a bit premature as I thought they were conducting a feasibility study to see if it can be restored to working order first.

 

For 2 million they could possibly build a brand new T3 and therefore be able to leave 563 as she is.

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For 2 million they could possibly build a brand new T3 and therefore be able to leave 563 as she is.

And do what with it? Any interest it might have for most of the railway's clientele would pretty much evaporate if placed up against a working loco that looks the same. 

 

The Swanage Railway is a busy, hard-working tourist line with little or no space to spare for anything that doesn't have an operational function.

 

If 563 was to be stuffed and mounted it should have been where it came from, but they no longer wanted it. If that's what the NRM expected, they sent it to the wrong place.

 

John

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I agree that 563 should not have been given away, if at all, without much more thought/planning.

 

The place for time capsules is the NRM, not a working railway. The latter needs working locos and the Swanage line doesn't have any facility for adequately displaying non-working ones under cover.

 

Even if a replica were to be built for operation, the issue would still remain of what to do with the original. 

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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I really hope it can be returned to steam. If it's not precious enough for the national collection (and it's not hugely remarkable of itself), then I'd love to see an elegant Edwardian 4-4-0 doing what it was built for rather than anything else.

 

The fact that it's LSWR is something of a bonus for someone of an LSWR/ SR persuasion such as me.

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I really hope it can be returned to steam. If it's not precious enough for the national collection (and it's not hugely remarkable of itself), then I'd love to see an elegant Edwardian 4-4-0 doing what it was built for rather than anything else.

 

The fact that it's LSWR is something of a bonus for someone of an LSWR/ SR persuasion such as me.

Agree totally but I think the chance of having a working Victorian 4-4-0 transcends what ever its origins

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The  Swanage Railway held a leaving party for the T3 yesterday on Saturday 11 November.  The army lorry was serving hot drinks, cakes and ice creams and the public were allowed to go into the cab. One of the members had repainted the boiler lining. On Monday it is due to leave Corfe Castle for the Flour Mill by the Dean Forest Railway where it will be stripped down and they will see if it can be restored to working order.

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The Flour Mill have great expertise and track record of restoring very old locomotives. We hope their report on 563 will be made public in due course so the best option for the loco's future can be determined.

 

Dava

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There is a stunning evening picture taken on Sunday 12 November of T3 563 with some Bulleid coaches and a couple on the platform wearing Edwardian clothes on the Swanage Railway Unofficial Facebook Group. It is now the group photograph.

 

It was a Timeline Events photo charter but it does not seem to be on their website yet.

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One of the South Dorset Modellers saw the T3 about to leave Norden for the Flour Mill yesterday at about 16:00. There is a picture of it on a low loader on Facebook. It looks like one or two people are not happy about the criticism of the gift of the T3 on this site. I think that the future of the T3 looks encouraging now.

Edited by Robin Brasher
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The sum of £2 million in the appeal for funds to restore the T3 was written in error. The likely cost of restoring the T3 is £500,000 based on similar projects.

 

The T3's tender is still on the Swanage Railway so it looks like the tender will be restored locally.

 

And there's a crowd-funding appeal for £50,000. Lots of wild 'shooting in the dark' figures don't exactly inspire confidence but the fact is, no one will know the true cost until they do the job. Think 'Flying Scotsman' and add 30 years to its age and ten times the length of time out of traffic. I wonder if they'll ultrasonically test the wheels, for instance? (CJL)

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Tough !! It's become a modern day British habit, someone makes a decision - there's always someone else who's gonna whinge.

Not necessarily just that...my gripe is that the whole process of gifting, as opposed to long term loan say, an artifact belonging 'to the nation' to a private enterprise and selection of the recipient enterprise is still not, to my mind, clear or transparent.

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Tough !! It's become a modern day British habit, someone makes a decision - there's always someone else who's gonna whinge.

And a good thing it is too that people do. Too many people appeart to sit back, make decisions, and expect people to be happy with them and get all upset when people aren't (this isn't a comment on this issue though, I don't know enough to have an opinion either way).

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Not necessarily just that...my gripe is that the whole process of gifting, as opposed to long term loan say, an artifact belonging 'to the nation' to a private enterprise and selection of the recipient enterprise is still not, to my mind, clear or transparent.

 

You're quite right. If none of us 'whinge' we let things go through that are wrong, without anyone to point out that it is wrong. In this case, WE the people, owned a locomotive which had come to the NRM through a historic decision that it was worth preserving. It was trusted to the NRM on our behalf. It had come into the National Collection at no cost, and had earned (even at the lowest of the NRM's figures) £119,000 through the 'Railway Children' theatre deal. Earned more than enough to buy it a refurbishment back to display condition. Instead, it was gifted to a Railway where its future is uncertain (will it be restored to steam, will it be displayed, if so, where. Can the railway actually afford to do anything with it?) Why should the Swanage Railway be lumbered with renovation costs, when the loco had earned enough to cover that cost? To express the view that what's been done is wrong, and that the whole issue has been badly handled, is not a 'whinge'. (CJL)

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Not necessarily just that...my gripe is that the whole process of gifting, as opposed to long term loan say, an artifact belonging 'to the nation' to a private enterprise and selection of the recipient enterprise is still not, to my mind, clear or transparent.

Absolutely. I'd love to see the loco restored and running, but cannot see why this couldn't be accomplished under a 25 or 30 year loan (or longer), or why the loco couldn't have remained under cover until restoration began, or why the process followed in giving away public assets to private groups or individuals is no more transparent than a statement after the fact saying "we chatted to our pals at swanage and asked if they'd like a free loco, so we signed everything in 10 minutes and we don't care if anyone isn't happy or has concerns, it can't be undone now."

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