Feel:ing sentimental for the steam era?

[heirflick]

from time to time i tend to get a little sentimental about the steam era so ihave a search through the net for some videos to relive the great days of stream... but found this instead. get the tissues...

 

this-

 

[video=youtube;pkJjKaJf-As]

 

also found this clip of vic barrys scrap empire. good info of the extent of the vastness of the amount of steam engines scrapped at the intro of the diesel engine in britian

 

Edited October 7, 2012 by Anthony

[burnthebox]

Fond Memories,

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Some great videos there Seamus

[Horsetan]

Woodhams at Barry scrapped comparatively few engines after the mid-1960s, preferring to work on cutting up and processing wagons. The engines acted as a sort of reserve in case of hard times.

 

A couple of engines were cut up in 1974, including a BR Standard 4 mogul, plus two in 1980 (GW 4156, and BR 92085, one of only two-surviving single-chimney 9Fs). Other engines cut up there in 1980 were some early BR diesels - again the last survivors of their kind.

 

Contrast this with Cashmore's of Newport, where scrap locomotives sat around for maybe a few months at most before being cut up. Buttigieg's were also a major scrap processor in Newport and accounted for a great many steam engines, though not quite on the scale and speed of Cashmore. In 1969 Cashmore cut up BR 73069, an engine which had been involved in hauling a few of the last steam-hauled services on the BR network in August 1968. I think that was Cashmore's last mainline steam victim.

 

There are loads of photos of Cashmore's victims on Google: click here

Edited October 8, 2012 by Horsetan

[minister_for_hardship]

What was the deal over this side of the water? Did CIE/UTA/NIR cut most of them up themselves or were there contractors involved?

 

Were locos marooned after lifting in closed branches and ng lines sold to the local scrappie or were they lugged all the way back to Inchicore for disposal?

 

Read somewhere that a number of old locos ended up in Spanish blast furnaces, CIE not being allowed export them as scrap described them as being working locos to get around this.

Edited October 8, 2012 by minister_for_hardship

[Horsetan]

What was the deal over this side of the water? Did CIE/UTA/NIR cut most of them up themselves or were there contractors involved?

 

In some of the GNRI/NCC loco guides that I bought recently, these mention that some of the engines were auctioned off after being withdrawn from service; presumably private scrap contractors then moved in to start cutting work, but the guides don't say which contractors were involved.

 

I think CIE were different, and - being a State body - kept almost all scrapping work "in house", although I have read in some cases that the Hammond Lane Metal company in Dublin did dispose of some railway items, including the former Glenties line bridge at Stranorlar.

 

Were locos marooned after lifting in closed branches and ng lines sold to the local scrappie or were they lugged all the way back to Inchicore for disposal?

 

In the case of the CDRJC, stock was auctioned off to private bidders (including scrap dealers) after closure. What is interesting is what happened to no.4 Erne, left at Letterkenny after being used to lift the S&L line into there. Like much other stock, Dr. Cox successfully bid for her but had no money to cover the shipping to the US. Erne is written down as having been cut up "surreptitiously" either in 1967 or 1969, but the question is: who did it?

[minister_for_hardship]

There was a Belfast scrapyard, the name escapes me, that cut up the Courtauld's Pecketts and had a miniature loco knocking around for years under a mountain of scrap until it was rescued.

http://www.rhdr.org.uk/pages/04.html

[heirflick]

good info there horsetan - thanks

minister. heres what happened over here.....

 

 

pic taken in '63 if 16 locos awaiting the cutters torch in mullingar....sad days!

 

attached pic of the old gantry...not much used now if at all!

Edited October 8, 2012 by heirflick

[Horsetan]

Scrapping of Irish engines seems to have had a lot less photographic coverage than in Britain. There are, I'm sure, many reasons for this:

 

1. Ireland was, on the whole, a lot less sentimental about disposing of its old / obsolete stock;

2. UTA in particular was very much the plaything of the roads lobby, and a lot of railway infrastructure went by the board in order to protect or promote roads.

3. It didn't have the same widespread tradition of railway enthusiasm, so there weren't roving bands of enthusiasts taking photos of everything;

4. In economic terms, there wasn't the money around for Irish enthusiasts to save stock from the cutting torch. By the time that there was, steam was long long gone.

5. Record-keeping of engines scrapped may not have been quite as exhaustive as it was in Britain.

[minister_for_hardship]

Would there have been much worthwhile to save that wouldn't need major rebuilding?

 

Ex CIE locos were a kinda clapped out lot, compared to the nearly new BR Standards that got rescued from the scrapheap.

[jhb171achill]

The Belfast factory was Eastwoods, now itself long gone. CIE and the UTA scrapped locos in Belfast, Dundalk and Dublin; Mullingar also, and possibly at other locations. Both did a lot of scrapping themselves.

[Broithe]

vic barrys scrap empire.

Those videos are of the scrapyard at Barry, near Cardiff - Vic Berry's scrapyard was in Leicester -

 

 

 

Vic's "stack"....

[heirflick]

Those videos are of the scrapyard at Barry, near Cardiff - Vic Berry's scrapyard was in Leicester -

 

 

silly me....i thought they were one in the same:o thanks for pointing that out broithe.

[heirflick]

a bit about Barrys scrapyard, owned by a lad called David Lloyd Victor Woodham- interesting reading..

 

http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/barry1.htm

[Mayner]

Would there have been much worthwhile to save that wouldn't need major rebuilding?

 

Ex CIE locos were a kinda clapped out lot, compared to the nearly new BR Standards that got rescued from the scrapheap.

 

Judging by the RPSIs experience with 184, 186 and 461 compared with 171 & 85 an ex CIE loco was probably a better prospect than restoring a Barry wreck.

 

Most preserved steam locos require heavy mechanical and boiler work every 10-12 years often amounting to a complete re-build.

 

The main drawback was that most CIE steam locos would have been scrapped by the time the RPSI got off the ground in the 1960s and they seem to have been disappointed that 186 (MacArnolds "its only a J15") was the best that was on offer.

 

In contrast to the more modern locos the small GSWR locos were simple, rugged and capable of high milage between repair.

 

Build a time machine and travel back to 1954 and there was a nice choice of CBSCR, DSER, GSWR & MGWR types. Take a trip to Kerry have a word with Jackie Healy-Reays Grandfather to have a word with Dev about setting up the Kigarvan Flyer as a Tourist Train complete with native "Kerry Bogie" on the Kenmare Branch

Edited October 11, 2012 by Mayner

[minister_for_hardship]

I did hear of one Cork-based enthusiast offering to buy a Bandon Tank off CIE but it got scrapped anyway.

 

The W&TR Fairbairn was a great loss, seen pics post-derailment just a dome knocked off and minor-ish damage.

Didn't seem justified to scrap it, the GSR were said to be toying with the idea of preserving it.

[Horsetan]

....Build a time machine and travel back to 1954 and there was a nice choice of CBSCR, DSER, GSWR & MGWR types. Take a trip to Kerry have a word with Jackie Healy-Reays Grandfather to have a word with Dev about setting up the Kigarvan Flyer as a Tourist Train complete with native "Kerry Bogie" on the Kenmare Branch

 

....and some interesting work on ex-Coey "K3" no.356, the ......mental Turf Burning Locomotive.

[minister_for_hardship]

....and some interesting work on ex-Coey "K3" no.356, the ......mental Turf Burning Locomotive.

 

Tell them, "lads, it's a waste of time"...and..."Buy GM" as a parting shot.

[enniscorthyman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRTIzqP7zYo

[heirflick]

good vid there eamonn - nice find and what looks like a good series!

[enniscorthyman]

good vid there eamonn - nice find and what looks like a good series!

I remember watching it in 1988,and love the opening scene with

the train fading away to that nice music.

[leslie10646]

The real reason to have a Time Machine would be to buy a second tank, while we had the chance. AND, No.207, of course!

 

However, we we're to know that hyper-inflation was three years away in 1970 and that any loan would have been easy to repay with devalued currency.

 

Having the faith to keep 207 in 1966 would have been a longer bet, but, boy, am I sorry someone didn't find a way to do it!

 

Not a day goes past without me thinking about her! (207 - not my wife!)

 

Leslie

[Mayner]

The real reason to have a Time Machine would be to buy a second tank, while we had the chance. AND, No.207, of course!

 

However, we we're to know that hyper-inflation was three years away in 1970 and that any loan would have been easy to repay with devalued currency.

 

Having the faith to keep 207 in 1966 would have been a longer bet, but, boy, am I sorry someone didn't find a way to do it!

 

Not a day goes past without me thinking about her! (207 - not my wife!)

 

Leslie

 

 

 

I would second that about 207 I have vague childhood memories of a big blue steam loco with smoke deflectors storming across the viaduct at Gormanstown with a long passenger train, 10-15 years later I was pleasently surprised to discover that I may not have been imagining things there were indeed large blue steam locos.

 

Along with the time machine you would also need a stasis machine to keep rust and corrosion at bay, though I suppose you could keep going back in time and contracting the maintenance to Dundalk or Limerick.

 

John

Edited October 13, 2012 by Mayner