News - April latest
28 April 2008 - thanks to Peter Hall, Napster, Dave Denton, Brian Stanway, Simon Bendall, Jon Tooke for this article
Some latest snippets from the world of departmental stock!
Disposals
395802 has now been scrapped on site at Llanilar. This is thought to have happened at some point last year. The wagons here (including 024507 and possibly 023215 are thought to have been scrapped at the same time.)
975670 had disappeared from its former storage location near Crowborough by April this year. Further enquiries revealed that it was apparently scrapped on site around December / January along with the industrial shunter that occupied the same yard.
977654 and the other five coaches that were previously used by the MOD have been scrapped on site.
No other departmental disposals at Booths recently - 72702 & 042233 remain on site during April.
Moves
The Network Rail coaches formerly stored at Old Oak Common were moved north to Wigan at the beginning of February. 975481 went as far as Bescot before making a brief visit to Toton. It has now been returned to Warrington Arpley yard but it is apparently due to also end up at Wigan eventually. NwR are now using the old Springs Branch site as a storage and maintenance depot for their fleet of coaching stock.
975464 & 975486 were also sent there by road during February after spending many years stored at York. Its not clear yet what the future holds for all of these vehicles.
As previously reported, the former Crewe BTU set is also here at Wigan. It is thought this is being stripped for spares with the remains of the coaches to be scrapped.
Four of the Siemens barrier vehicles 6321, 6322, 6323 & 6325 were used at Old Oak Common during February to turn the 332 units. They have subsequently returned north, being seen at Bescot by mid-April.
Margam BTU 975494, 975573, 975612 moved to Newport ADJ yard on 8th March. It is thought to be being used in the Severn Tunnel area for the forseeable future but its not clear yet what it is doing! If anyone knows please get in touch. It is apparently still returning to Margam weekly for tests.
Iris II unit 977693 & 977694 has made it into preservation and was towed to the West Somerset Railway on 18th March. There is no firm news yet on any of the other vehicles on the NwR sales lists.
975535 has finally moved at Carnforth - photographed at the WCRC site during March. However it was not present during an April visit and it has now been established that it was taken to EMR Liverpool for scrap towards the end of the month.
975023 has moved north to the East Lancashire Railway.
975607 has moved to the Bluebell Railway.
321100/041554 has moved from KWVR to GlaxoSmithKline, Ulverston (a storage location for Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway.)
72641 has moved for further storage at Dalton to join 977591.
The story of what happened to 977254/061094 now seems to be a bit clearer. The remains of the body were scrapped and the underframe was converted to 6-wheel using components from wagon ADB998051 (083652). This work all happened at Swindon Heritage Engineering workshops. It is now used underneath a replica Queen Victoria’s Royal Saloon and is now at Ballater Station in Aberdeenshire.
Other news
395328 is for sale at the Caledonian Railway.
998901 is being repainted into the old RTC colour scheme to match 999507 at Middleton Railway.
083624 has been found still on site at Hoo Junction. Its thought the other two tanks have been scrapped or removed.
Related Photos
Your comments
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Michael Howard Teasdale
9 April 2014, 16:03:29
On 28th March 2014 I saw 67020+027 heading to Swansea in the same path a the Network Measurement Train.
The stock for this was 6263, 5981, 72631, 72630, 977986.
Also I was at Bristol Temple Meads on 2nd April 2014 I saw 37402/682 Top "N" Tail the following coaches:
977986, 72630, 977997.
Can anyone tell me what these coaches are used for as 72630 has no windows or doors (at least on one side) and nor corridor connection.
Any help with this query would be very much appreciated.
Apologies for the delay in informing everyone but I am having problems with my PC.
Cheers
Mike