Titanic link for old carriages suggested

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, roythebus1 said:

With some of these projects it's a case of remove door handles, 

 

With these projects, if you've got the door handles you're home and dry!

 

You'll want a specialist brass-founder who can make patterns up from the original drawings.

[adb968008]

Whilst berating rusting hulks..

 

If they weren't saved, they wouldn't be here today.

Theres no more coming where they came from.

 

Despite 2019 being the biggest rolling stock change since the 1960’s, comparatively very little is being preserved (giveaway pacers and mk3 sleepers mostly )... few people today are doing what those guys did decades ago.

 

Preserved railways are going to need to preserve their rolling stock at some point, unless they are planning to drag preserved Pendolino or Azuma coaches about in the future.. trouble is even if they did plan on mk3’s, mk4’s or 2nd gen units in the future.. they need someone to buy them initially .. yet no one is interested in saving any of the PEP units, so victorian skeletons like these are going to go up in value... i remeber when mk1’s cost £500... Llangollens are currently for sale starting at £12k... because after mk3/4’s there is no hauled rolling stock left to buy and very few are saving anything a side of locos.

 

Those 100+ year old LSWR coaches are still here, for some to moan about... in 1 year, forget 100 years their ex-works freshly overhauled 2021 peers (class 442) wont be... going for scrap without even being used.. and no sign of preservation either.

 

Another sad thing about preservation is how those saviours are cast aside.. many people no longer with us are completely forgotten of their contributions that made it possible for todays self-importants to feel self-important... perhaps thats why many today now just dont bother.

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by adb968008

[IWCR]

These situations are always difficult.

Any rare item (such as these) should be restored. However it needs the finance , location and personnel to do it.

For an individual this is a big ask unless they are relatively wealthy, it is also hard for owners to accept that this is actually now beyond them and it is better to allow the item to move on, (for these specific vehicles this has been accepted).  For a preserved railway stored stock such as this without a realistic future and not really relevant to their operation or museum is a liability and a waste of vital siding space, many railways are in part responsible for this themselves in allowing such vehicles to be brought onto the site in the first place, however much of this was in early preservation days when there was a need to grab anything potentially useful.

These can be restored and I hope they do find a suitable home, scrapping would be unfortunate, once something like this is gone the opportunity for its preservation is over.   For common vehicles this is not so relevant and the loss of some could be beneficial (parts recovery). 

My local railway is now underway with the restoration to operational use of a carriage  which has been on site stored for 46 years, this is a very rare vehicle and of relevance to the locality, it meets the collecting policy and will be a useful operating vehicle when complete, its time has now finally arrived.  On several occasions in the past there was pressure to dispose of it, fortunately this was resisted.  This vehicle would have been of little interest to anyone else in its condition and disposal would have meant destroying it.   

The 2 LSWR bogie carriages would not fit the collecting policy for this railway (which has more than enough future projects anyway) but there are other locations where they would be very suitable but it will need a realistic restoration proposal to encourage such sites to accept them.

 

Pete

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Although there is also a big question as to how long steam railways will be allowed to operate. Apart from the increasing difficulty in getting suitable coal, I am sure that there will in the medium future be a ban on anything which burns a fuel, whether coal, petrol, diesel or other.

But I heartily approve of trying to keep what historic material we have. Better than starting from scratch, as with a good number of steam loco projects.

And on the topic of replacement parts, when I was at Swansea University the public transport society organised a trip to Aberystwyth and Portmadoc in a preserved bus belonging to one of the members. The boot of the bus was full of castings made by engineering students as part of their course, which were for the use of the Festiniog Railway. I assume that one of the Engineering Department staff was a Festiniog supporter.

Jonathan

 

[roythebus1]

One of the railways I belong to has a number of items of rolling stock with no record of who owns them! Other items have been dumped on site over the years and have been stored in open locations exposed to the weather for many years, including a couple of main line diesel locos. None have really fared well and a few items may well be dismantled for spares for other items of rolling stock. shame really. But there's not enough workshop, storage or engineering capacity on the line to restore them all in the foreseeable future.

[Forward!]

This week Historic England has published its annual update to their "Heritage at Risk Register". This schemes designates our heritage that is at risk of loss if no action is taken. Once designated as at-risk Historic England works with owners and other stakeholders (such as local councils, societies, etc) to find sustainable uses for these buildings. This opens up funding pathways via grant schemes or gets the owners help in securing viable commercial funders. https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/heritage-at-risk/. It has been hugely successful over the last 20 years or so. It has actually saved many important railway buildings- most notably in the last year, Wingfield Station, one of the earliest surviving in the UK. The problem is, the scheme is limited to buildings, ancient monuments, landscapes, parks, battlefields and even protected shipwrecks, but NOT historic vehicles.

 

Perhaps it's about time something similar was considered for our at-risk railway vehicles? Arguably, they are as important a part of our heritage as any building, and the modern preservation/ newbuild scene proves that, managed correctly, viable commercial uses can be found for these vehicles. 

 

Will 

Edited November 4, 2021 by Forward!