Progress at Last!
It is great to be able to announce a significant event in the
first of a planned series of regular reports on the Swanage
Railway heritage coach fleet. However, progress has been made on
several fronts and we will review this first, leaving the best
bit to the end!
The steadily deteriorating state of the Bulleid and Maunsell
coaches, compounded by lack of any action, has been a concern to
a growing number of people. Equally, others have questioned the
need for them to be retained at all given the number of Mk 1
coaches available to the railway.
My personal view is that heritage coaches are a vital
component in creating a Southern branch line image and key to
differentiating ourselves and a potentially major attraction
unavailable to those lines limited to ‘standard tanks and
standard coaches’. However, the reality is that we need to
operate four and five coach sets for much of the season if we
are to adequately cater for our customers. Any viable
restoration of our heritage fleet has to be within the context
of this traffic pattern if they are ever to be much more than
static exhibits.
The situation at the beginning of this year was that the
railway owned or had operating agreements for four of the
sixteen surviving Bulleid coaches, three of fourteen surviving
Restriction 4 Maunsell’s (including a Push Pull driving trailer
conversion) and a single Ironclad. However, one Bulleid (4366)
and one Maunsell (2768) were in poor condition. This was not a
particularly promising starting point and, in part, explains the
lack of activity.
The first step forward happened earlier this year when the
Council of Management accepted a plan for the Maunsell coaches.
This plan involved the SR accepting two additional un-restored
Maunsell coaches from the MidHants plus an operating agreement
on a third. This will allow a four coach Maunsell set to be
established plus a push-pull set. The only other surviving
Restriction 4 Maunsell coaches are the eight at the Bluebell.
Importantly, one of the MidHants coaches (1323) is the only
surviving push-pull conversion of a Third Open which will
eventually enable a truly authentic 600 series push pull set to
be restored and returned to its ‘home territory’ on the branch.
The historic pedigree and its position as the only surviving
Southern push-pull set should make it easier to obtain HLF
funding in due course.
The other two ‘new’ Maunsells are a second push-pull driving
trailer conversion (6697 – also from the MidHants) and privately
owned Third Open 1346. 6697 comes with the components needed to
return it to its condition up until conversion in 1960 and will
allow interesting comparisons to be made with the push-pull set.
The combination of the SR’s Third Open (1381), plus 1346,
2768 and the ‘un-converted’ 6697 will eventually enable a four
coach Maunsell set to be established. This set could be
augmented with 1323 as required. Currently, 1323, 1346 and 6697
are being stored away from the railway.
The possibility of establishing viable four coach Bulleid and
Maunsell sets has given new emphasis to the practicalities of
restoring these vehicles. Paradoxically, the need to address the
increasing wear and tear on the Mk 1 fleet has also helped by
necessitating extensive outsourcing of this maintenance. This
has meant that the SR is now better able to cope with the
possibility of some volunteer effort switching to heritage coach
restoration.
Inevitably, cash and facilities play a key role. To date, a
little over £20k has been raised for heritage coach restoration
which will certainly enable a start to be made. However, the
shortage of facilities is not so easily addressed and work will
have to start in the open. A site has been prepared at the
northern end of No 2 siding at Swanage for at least the initial
phases and the exterior work. Lakeside siding at Norden may be
used when work moves to the interior and would also provide an
opportunity to display the externally restored coach.
A condition of any substantial HLF funding is that coaches
must be held in covered storage that is open to the public. This
effectively blocks any SR grant application until we are able to
acquire a suitable site. However, some other heritage railway
groups with a similar lack of facilities have successfully used
an alternative HLF scheme that makes smaller grants but with
less stringent conditions. We are investigating whether we will
be able to use this scheme but there are significant
restrictions.
The most important limitation with this scheme is that there
is a £50k maximum grant towards a project that must not exceed a
total cost of £100k. A further restriction is that you can only
apply for one grant at a time and that you cannot apply again
until you have completed work on a previous project. This is
especially significant because the same scheme is being explored
as a funding option for urgently needed work on the Goods Shed.
We will come to details of ‘the announcement’ shortly, but
there is one sad note to report: 2768 has been in a particularly
poor state of repair following nearly 20 years of virtual
neglect on the SR. Unfortunately, whilst only ever a shell, this
vehicle deteriorated to the point where it became unsafe and it
had to be dismantled. However, all the key components have been
salvaged and are being stored with the underframe to enable
rebuilding at a future date. This vehicle (along with the
Ironclad) very definitely remains in the plan.
The positive news is that the SR has agreed to the
establishment of a group of volunteers focussing on heritage
coach restoration. This group will operate within the Carriage
and Wagon department and will need to help out with the Mk 1’s
occasionally, but the focus will be heritage vehicles. This
group will primarily operate on Sunday’s from Easter through to
the autumn as these are the most suitable working months.
The first vehicle to be restored will be Bulleid 4365. There
are a number of reasons for this: it is internally complete with
fittings in reasonable condition, the SR is short of brake
vehicles and Bulleids can be more easily mixed with Mk 1
vehicles. One further reason is that the condition of 4366 is
giving cause for concern and the restoration of 4365 will allow
the cost of 4366 to be estimated more accurately. This vehicle
will then become the most likely first candidate for the more
limited HLF funding scheme.
It was felt to be important to kick start the 4365
restoration so a professional restorer, Lee Sharpe, has been
contracted to replace heavily corroded steel sheeting and to
address some issues with the framing. Work on bogies and other
running gear is also likely to be handled by third-parties as we
have to minimise impact on the SRs facilities and resources.
Whilst a start date will be dependent on Lee completing other
projects on time, the work on 4365 should start about the same
time as you read this. Most of the volunteer effort will be
directed towards the interior and it is hoped to have the coach
completed and available for traffic in late summer of 2005.
However, it could be very much earlier if enough new volunteers
come forward.
Inevitably perhaps, this report ends with some appeals!
Firstly, it will be important that we expand the total number
of C&W volunteers if heritage coach restoration is to remain
viable. Please contact me on 01962 850228 (after 7pm) or by
email to andyvincentuk@hotmail.com if you feel you may be able
to help with this project in absolutely any way at all. No
special skills or knowledge is needed and all help, however
infrequent, will make a difference. We will also try and find
ways of getting material to those who can perhaps help from home
even if they cannot get to Swanage.
Secondly, the Southern Carriage fund remains open and we now
need to start raising more money if we are to be able to keep up
progress on the heritage fleet. Anyone who feels able to make a
donation is asked to make cheques payable to ‘Southern Carriage
Account’ and send them to Jeremy Weller at Station House. All
the money donated to this account will be used exclusively for
tools and materials to restore a set of Southern coaches that is
second only in importance to that at the Bluebell Railway. |