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A Garrett for the Vale of Rheidol


John_Hughes
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The VoR have got themselves a Garrett; video of its arrival here.

 

There was some talk of borrowing one of the WHR examples a couple of years back, but this one seems to be for keeps. Now they'll have to extend the headshunts at both ends of the line to accommodate it!

 

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The VoR have got themselves a Garrett; video of its arrival here.

 

There was some talk of borrowing one of the WHR examples a couple of years back, but this one seems to be for keeps. Now they'll have to extend the headshunts at both ends of the line to accommodate it!

 

Seems a bit over the top for the VoR.

 

Have they obtained it simply because they can or is there some wider requirement for it.

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Seems a bit over the top for the VoR.

 

Have they obtained it simply because they can or is there some wider requirement for it.

 

Not really over the top. The motive power situation has always been a little sticky; in the '50s and '60s it was quite common for all three locos to be working day after day in the peak season, with no spare availability at all - not even a diesel rescue engine.

 

Only two of the 'original' - i.e. GWR - three are available now, and even when the third comes back on line it still won't leave a lot of spare capacity; if I were the General Manager I'd be on tenterhooks all summer. Of course, in Cambrian days it was a regular thing to borrow Palmerston from the Ffestiniog in the peak season, and when this was re-enacted a couple of years back it proved very popular. And the little England engine proved surprisingly capable, able to take one coach more than its supposed limit.

 

And I'm sure it'll draw the crowds when it's put to proper work. I can't wait...

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Seems a bit over the top for the VoR.

 

Have they obtained it simply because they can or is there some wider requirement for it.

I think the railway has some substantial experience to draw upon (please correct me if wrong) as it was once owned the Brecon Mountain Railway.  There still appears to be some sort of link between the two.

Peterfgf

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The one T Garret is a loft,

The two T Garratt chuffs so soft,

But I wil bet a silken lariat

There isn't any three T garr(e/a)ttt!

 

(With apologies to Hilaire Belloc.)

 

Ogden Nash, surely?

From what i understand the engine is privately owned and the VoR is overhauling the engine for the owner, at which point it will be available for occasional use by the railway

 

I gather that this is indeed the case.

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From what i understand the engine is privately owned and the VoR is overhauling the engine for the owner, at which point it will be available for occasional use by the railway

They (or the notorious collection X) already have a NGG13 of course, maybe they'll use it as a learning exercise on how to fix one up? presumably this means that the railway is getting some cash paid in for the workshop time - anythign that keeps a workshop in operation can't be bad, regardless of where it ends up working.

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It is on extended loan from a group of volunteers running the Schinznacher Baumschulebahn near Zurich.

Ray.

 

I thought that corporal punishment had been banned or have I lost something in the translation of Schinznacher Baumschulebahn?

 

Regards

 

Ian

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