What would you have saved?

[A0]

Yeah but a 313 isn't a 507/8 and since i grew up with 507/8 i'd much prefer a merseyrail unit to be preserved.

I didn't say it was - however they are so similar that it doesn't need every variant to be preserved. Your average non-enthusiast would struggle to tell the difference.

The 313 makes most sense since it demonstrates both 'variants' in terms of overhead and third rail. Also, if (and it's a really big if) any preserved line in the future has an electrified section, it surely makes sense to preserve the unit which could run regardless of the electrification type adopted?

You're entitled to your preference that a 507/8 is preserved over the other options - I was merely pointing out what I believe makes most sense.

 

[90019]

...or great wodges of Cl37s. I feel much the same about those as I do about Bulleid Pacifics - too many are being "saved" because they are available, with little thought about the reason behind preservation, or the economics. Some things pass, and are best left as treasured memories.

IIRC, there are 43 preserved 37s, which I think is far too many. Especially as they're using up space and resources that could be better used to preserve other things.

 

[ChrisCooper]

We have similar conversations at work, we all wish we'd been born ten years earlier! In my case, I saw all 74 Westerns (sadly four of them were already on the dump road at Laira), about a third of the Hymeks and only two or three Warships in action. I'd love to have seen the D6xx's and D63xx's on the move though. I do remember on my earliest trip to Swindon Works seeing a couple of the latter minus their bogies, way out in the Con Yard amongst some Hymeks.

Nidge

All transport enthusiasts tend to wish they had been born 10 years earlier. My thing would be to have been an adult in the 1990s to see properly the excitement and variety of privatisation, slam door stock, 1st generation EMUs and loco haulage before it was on it's last legs (when it was even "boring"), when cab rides were more common, and where words like safety and security were not everywhere.

 

[Wikipedia]

Same, I would've saved a Cep, Cig and a Vep. I bloody adore the slamdoors, and always will.

Two 4CEP's are preserved at the Eden Valley Railway in Cumbria (2311 and 2315) and 2315 is still in use using two MLVs as power.

 

[greg tingey]

Two that very nearly made it.
The last "Claud Hamilton" - I have one of it's gauge-glasses, yet to this day!
And a "Sandringham"

 

[kennethw]

Two that very nearly made it.
The last "Claud Hamilton" - I have one of it's gauge-glasses, yet to this day!
And a "Sandringham"

Agree, seem to remember that it was scrapped by mistake, and although a Southern man locos of the London and Nearly Everywhere else Railway are rather thin on the ground, after all nearly 30 Bullied pacifics are preserved, although a coouple are listed as being in bits and doubts expressed whether they will ever be rebuilt

Of course this thread is subjective as I have little interest in first generation diesels, remebering that it was the cost of desilising the network projected in 1955 which caused the Beeching report and mass closure a decade later, especially as many of these machines had a short and unreliable life

 

[WL113]

Which the BTC were responsible for. Untried designs were ordered straight off the drawing board. Typical nationalised industry politics.

Some early diesels were actually reliable with correct maintenance. Carlisle Kingmoor developed a servicing regime for the Class 17 Clayton locos that took availability to over 90& by which time BR decided to scrap them. A waste of taxpayers money.

 

[LE Greys]

Two that very nearly made it.
The last "Claud Hamilton" - I have one of it's gauge-glasses, yet to this day!
And a "Sandringham"

I'd love to see both of those. IIRC, "Clauds" were once a mainstay on ECML outer suburban passenger services. I've only ever known EMUs. Got to travel behind a B12 (the other mainstay) on the NNR.

Mine are :

• Both your suggestions
• A Baby Deltic (obviously)
• One of the gas turbine locos
• A P1
• The "Hush-hush", to be returned to original form (the boiler was in Doncaster works for some time after removal)
• An O2
• Are there any K3s still going?
• And some of the Coronation articulated stock, enough for one complete train

You might notice the LNER/ECML bias there

 

[50Fan91]

50001 Dreadnought.

Yes, there are a lot of preserved class 50s, but having the "first" (technicality obviously) loco preserved seems quite an important thing to do. It's a shame the loco survived so long only to be cut up relatively recently..

True, you can just stick the numbers and replica nameplates on the sides of another class 50, but it's not quite the same!

Could I also just add to avoid too much argument that I am of the "diesel" generation, but if I were to pick out some steam engines, I think it would have been nice to save a couple more GWR "Kings" and a "Saint" or two!

 

[LE Greys]

50001 Dreadnought.

Yes, there are a lot of preserved class 50s, but having the "first" (technicality obviously) loco preserved seems quite an important thing to do. It's a shame the loco survived so long only to be cut up relatively recently..

True, you can just stick the numbers and replica nameplates on the sides of another class 50, but it's not quite the same!

Could I also just add to avoid too much argument that I am of the "diesel" generation, but if I were to pick out some steam engines, I think it would have been nice to save a couple more GWR "Kings" and a "Saint" or two!

The "Dreadful Dreadnought" was the second, not the first. The first is D400 Fearless, which ended up as 50050, the last in the series, because of TOPS, the same way that Royal Scots Grey went from D9000 to 55022. 55001 St Paddy didn't survive either.

Still, I agree with you about the "Saints", and an example of each "County" class would have been good as well.

 

[50Fan91]

The "Dreadful Dreadnought" was the second, not the first. The first is D400 Fearless, which ended up as 50050, the last in the series, because of TOPS, the same way that Royal Scots Grey went from D9000 to 55022. 55001 St Paddy didn't survive either.

Still, I agree with you about the "Saints", and an example of each "County" class would have been good as well.

I am aware how the TOPS system works! But from a TOPS point of view 50001 was the "first" loco, therefore, in my opinion the loco should have been preserved. (That's why I mentioned "technicality obviously" in my original post!)

Technically you could apply the point that I have made to any loco class where the TOPS numbering "changed the order" (cosmetically) - I just happened to choose the 50s because these are the most important locos to me!

 

[LE Greys]

I am aware how the TOPS system works!

Sorry if I went a bit far.

On the subject of pioneers, another I wish I could have saved is Great Northern. In original condition as the first Gresley Pacific or in rebuilt condition as a warning to those who modernise for modernisation's sake. The Great Bear is perhaps another one.

 

[50Fan91]

Sorry if I went a bit far.

Don't worry - I've only got 11 posts so I'm a bit of a baby here right now! I'll just have to let grizzled ancients such as yourself put me in my place every so often!

 

[LE Greys]

Twenty-six and not a grey hair on my head. I just happen to like the LNER era.

 

[PinzaC55]

Which the BTC were responsible for. Untried designs were ordered straight off the drawing board. Typical nationalised industry politics.

Some early diesels were actually reliable with correct maintenance. Carlisle Kingmoor developed a servicing regime for the Class 17 Clayton locos that took availability to over 90& by which time BR decided to scrap them. A waste of taxpayers money.

Or the Metrovick Co-Bos. I've read that one of the main problems which dogged the class (crankcase failures) was finally solved on D5705 whereupon they withdrew it from service.

 

[Minilad]

87101 would have made a good candidate in my book

 

[Spam Can]

As I'm not a fan of "Oil burners" Locos sadly missed from the preserved list include a Clan pacific & a Patriot (both subjects of "new builds") A least one more V2, a "Super D", A Stanier 5MT Mogul, & a southern L1.

 

[ACE1888]

One off prototypes...
Kestrel and Falcon for starters
and from the WR, class 22 and 'original' Warships

 

[Anon Mouse]

Hmmm let me see

LNER 3rd rail North Tyneside set
South Tyneside EPB
Baby Deltic
Falcon
Kesterl
DP2
Transpennine DMU
Blue Pullman

 

[LE Greys]

Blue Pullman

Now that is a good idea. With some modifications to cure the ride problems (or just better maintenance) you would have an excellent little unit for dining excursions.