Abandoned steam train found in a wood in Suffolk?

[009 micro modeller]

5 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

The chap who used to own B1 4-6-0 61306 has one of them in steaming condition on his own private (but short) line in his garden at a location to the west of London, so presumably that's the one you are aware of....

I know about that one as well but I think that’s fairly well known. One of the others is in Hertfordshire.

[Johann Marsbar]

38 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

I know about that one as well but I think that’s fairly well known. One of the others is in Hertfordshire.

 

That was mentioned on the thread about the "Abandoned Train" on the National Preservation Forum, assuming its on a farm and is #1151.....

 

 

...though it seems to have been repainted red since I took this photo back in 1992. That was the only operational loco of the batch when they arrived here in the early 1990's and was in steam on a short length of track at their Acton, Suffolk, storage location at an open day in March '92.

[uax6]

I thought that there was another steamable one on a length of track in a feild used for steam shows on the board of Norfolk and Suffolk...

 

Andy G

[Johann Marsbar]

10 minutes ago, uax6 said:

I thought that there was another steamable one on a length of track in a feild used for steam shows on the board of Norfolk and Suffolk...

 

Andy G

 

I don't believe the one at Weeting is at the steamable stage yet - It certainly looked a long way off the last time I was there (2017).....

 

[009 micro modeller]

51 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

That was mentioned on the thread about the "Abandoned Train" on the National Preservation Forum, assuming its on a farm and is #1151.....

 

 

...though it seems to have been repainted red since I took this photo back in 1992. That was the only operational loco of the batch when they arrived here in the early 1990's and was in steam on a short length of track at their Acton, Suffolk, storage location at an open day in March '92.

The Hertfordshire one is I think mentioned in the other thread as being ‘near St Albans’ with track visible on Google Earth. I think I know where it is but I haven’t been there, and as it’s almost certainly a private site I think it’s probably not appropriate to post a precise location on a public forum.

[Invicta Informant]

14 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

They did actually run one of them briefly on a short section of track at Ongar. I think at one point there was supposed to have been a vague idea of regauging the line itself to 5ft, since the locos themselves couldn’t be easily regauged to standard gauge, although surely the loading gauge would still have been a problem? Incidentally, some lines that became part of the Great Eastern did actually start out as 5ft gauge, although I don’t think this was one of them.

I remember coming across some footage of one the Finnish steam locomotives in working condition at the Epping Ongar Railway on YouTube. This was posted back in 2009 (though it might have been filmed before then) and it also gives some idea how much the railway has changed since then.

 

[009 micro modeller]

27 minutes ago, Invicta Informant said:

I remember coming across some footage of one the Finnish steam locomotives in working condition at the Epping Ongar Railway on YouTube. This was posted back in 2009 (though it might have been filmed before then) and it also gives some idea how much the railway has changed since then.

 

Does anyone know how far they got with the plan to actually regauge the line for the Finnish locos? It seems a bizarre idea, given that you would also need loading gauge enhancement and either regauged or broad gauge coaches.

[EddieB]

Amongst other considerations, I think it was clearance under the M11 bridge that caused the plans to be abandoned.  As it was, the track bed needed to be lowered to accommodate British loading gauge stock.

[009 micro modeller]

4 hours ago, EddieB said:

Amongst other considerations, I think it was clearance under the M11 bridge that caused the plans to be abandoned.  As it was, the track bed needed to be lowered to accommodate British loading gauge stock.

That bridge was built when it was part of the Central line, so was only high enough for tube stock originally. Wouldn’t the other structures (suited to full size British stock but not Finnish) have been a bigger issue in some ways?

[woodenhead]

On 18/10/2022 at 22:56, Grovenor said:

Does look to be a lot of rubbish in that back yard.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Acton,+Sudbury/@52.076332,0.7491264,68m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d854d10c5e86cb:0x8d6d3403ccefa366!8m2!3d52.071129!4d0.759399

Zoomed out and noticed there used to be what looks like an old WW2 airfield at Acton.

 

And indeed it was, RAF Sudbury, a USAAF heavy bomber site no less.

 

http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/sudbury.html

[Axlebox]

On 24/10/2022 at 08:28, Johann Marsbar said:

 

I don't believe the one at Weeting is at the steamable stage yet - It certainly looked a long way off the last time I was there (2017).....

 

...was there a couple of weeks ago, still the same condition.

[EddieB]

3 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

That bridge was built when it was part of the Central line, so was only high enough for tube stock originally. Wouldn’t the other structures (suited to full size British stock but not Finnish) have been a bigger issue in some ways?

Of course, I don’t think the scheme was ever practical - just that the bridge was the final straw.

[009 micro modeller]

Perhaps this will be of interest. Today I had a short shift at work so decided to visit the Blumsom Timber Finnish loco near Barking in the afternoon. To be honest it wasn’t a great use of time, especially as there is pretty much nothing in the area immediately surrounding the loco that would particularly make you want to stay longer, and my photos don’t really show anything not shown by those already published online. But I did get a couple of photos showing the current state of the loco. The front of the loco is visible, but I didn’t get a good angle to photograph that (it would probably have required me to go into the private yard alongside). The fence and banners mean that the wheels and motion are not very visible.

 

 

About a minute after the photos were taken, I got soaked by a passing lorry (the road is covered in silt and standing water). Despite this, I might see if I can see some of the other Finnish locos at some point, although this is probably the most publicly accessible of all of them at the moment.

[Virgil]

On 24/10/2022 at 07:06, 009 micro modeller said:

I know about that one as well but I think that’s fairly well known. One of the others is in Hertfordshire.

I don't recall the B1 4-6-0 but this must be the loco, named "Lady Patricia".

[009 micro modeller]

6 hours ago, Virgil said:

I don't recall the B1 4-6-0 but this must be the loco, named "Lady Patricia".

It wasn’t me that posted about the B1, although I don’t think the B1 was at that particular site. There’s a video here that someone seems to have taken on an open day or similar: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0N-Rh6aF-U

 

 

As I said, I think Fifield is relatively well known. There’s a location in Hertfordshire where one of the other locos might be although it’s probably not appropriate to pinpoint the location more specifically anyway, and I’m not sure if there’s much that can actually be seen there anyway.

[Virgil]

The photo is of a private garden railway somewhere west of London and it's probably not appropriate to highlight where exactly it is, but the loco is floodlit at night so that the owner can admire it from his bedroom window! 

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, Virgil said:

The photo is of a private garden railway somewhere west of London and it's probably not appropriate to highlight where exactly it is, but the loco is floodlit at night so that the owner can admire it from his bedroom window! 

He did take the Peckett on a bit of a tour several years ago and ran on oneof the remaining lines of the Ipswich Dock system, though there wasn't a lot left to run on by that stage.

The arrival was delayed by quite a bit so I had to get back to work before the loco arrived, which was a bit annoying.......

https://www.railwayherald.com/imagingcentre/view/244417/LC

The loco is the next(?) builders number to the Peckett that used to run at Cranes Works in Ipswich until around 1970 - hence the Owners interest (he's originally from Ipswich) in obtaining it.

 

[Virgil]

30 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

He did take the Peckett on a bit of a tour several years ago and ran on oneof the remaining lines of the Ipswich Dock system, though there wasn't a lot left to run on by that stage.

The arrival was delayed by quite a bit so I had to get back to work before the loco arrived, which was a bit annoying.......

https://www.railwayherald.com/imagingcentre/view/244417/LC

The loco is the next(?) builders number to the Peckett that used to run at Cranes Works in Ipswich until around 1970 - hence the Owners interest (he's originally from Ipswich) in obtaining it.

 

That's really interesting, thanks.

i lived in Ipswich in the 70's and recall the O4 tram engine crossing the road at Stoke Bridge under the crossing keeper's red flag and with a string of 4 wheel wagons.

I had no idea that Cranes had a railway system though, I think that I must have missed that by about a year.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Virgil

[Johann Marsbar]

16 minutes ago, Virgil said:

That's really interesting, thanks.

i lived in Ipswich in the 70's and recall the O4 tram engine crossing the road at Stoke Bridge under the crossing keeper's red flag and with a string of 4 wheel wagons.

I had no idea that Cranes had a railway system though, I think that I must have missed that by about a year.

The Peckett left Cranes in November 1970. It's seen here in a 1968 shot from the Ipswich Transport Museum archive.......

 

 

I remember seeing it on display at one of their Open Days back in the late 1960's and it is preserved somewhere, I beleive in Jersey (Palliot Steam Museum).

An Andrew Barclay diesel worked the Cranes lines up until they closed in 1976, the adjacent Ransomes Sims & Jefferies works rail network (with their own diesel loco) remaining in use until 1980.