MGR HAA's

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

I'm curious to know whether there are plans to save any HAA's from the scrap yard? I'm aware that they are all now out of service and i dare say are being snapped up for scrap. Given that several class 56's and 20's have been saved it would be nice to see a few running behind them.

Cheers,

Richmond Commuter

 

[sprinterguy]

The NRM has preserved the first built HAA, 350000 I think.

Other than that, I'm not aware that any HAAs have been preserved, which is a crying shame as they were such an integral part of Britains' railways for so many years. Plus, as you mention, there are a few preserved class 56s and one (for now) class 58 preserved, and it would be good to see a representative rake of HAAs preserved for them to haul at diesel galas and photographic charters, in the same manner as the Great Centrals' "Windcutter" mineral rake, as those loco classes are synonymous with the wagons, and look rather incongruous at the head of a rake of mark 1s.

Unfortunately, I rather fear that the opportunity to preserve a rake of HAAs has passed, as I haven't seen any floating about stored in any yards around the country. I don't know for sure though.

Additionally, the Class 58 Loco Group set up an “MGR Wagon Fund” to preserve a number of HAA hoppers as an annexe to its main operation, but while they have been concentrating on purchasing and restoring 58016, this has gone very quiet:
http://www.c58lg.co.uk/html/mgr_wagon_fund.html