Restoration candidates

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks for your insight Ken.

I've supported restoration projects but never been able to commit the long term enough time to work on one. I have every admiration for the many 000s who do - including one friend from University who has done it since schooldays - so that's probably 40+ years. Others I knew also made a life-time commitment - to the Waterways Recovery Group who re-build whole canals! As a narrowboat skipper (volunteer - that takes a fair bit of time) and a trail walker I appreciate that work as much as steam locomotive or traditional narrowboat restorers.


I thought I'd try and find some data on the preservation scene from the UK.

There are many hundreds of ex British Railways locomotives, ex industrial locomotives, imported 
locomotives, locomotives withdrawn from service before the formation of 
BR in 1948 and increasingly ‘new build’ locomotives (e.g. Tornado, and now the new P2 locomotive 'Prince of Wales') - many restored to working order, others awaiting restoration, some conserved against the day when resources (people and cash) may be available to work on, and others that have been cosmetically restored. Some, though not now 4472 Flying Scotsman despite the millions it is costing, will likely never steam again even on a preserved/private line. And J611 - which I will support once they sort out a tax efficient channel for donations from the UK - is going to take some financing - for the running costs, servicing etc., etc.


There are apparently a total of 387 ex ‘BR’ locomotives operating or awaiting restoration based at over 115 heritage railway centres/preserved lines and the National Railway Museum (York) and Locomotion (Shildon) - and that's what has survived (some after decades of rusting in breaker's yards) from the around 20000 steam locomotives that British Railways operated at nationalisation in 1948.

Many of the locomotives are certified for mainline running, and increasingly preserved lines are being re-connected to the main network.


An estimated 18,500 volunteer supporters devote their own time and money to running, maintaining or developing their railway - together with an employed workforce - and these operate throughout the United Kingdom today with no direct financial support from central or local government.

Heritage railways make a major contribution to the economies of the areas they serve both in terms of attracting tourism and of substantial spending on local services. Research - though limited in scope - undertaken for a number of railways suggests a mean benefit to the local economy of around 2.7 times the railway’s turnover. In aggregate, this would suggest that the economic benefit nationally is just under £250m.

Add to that the major diesel, diesel-electric, electric and other preservation groups, the rail charter and tour industry .................... you've got a significant industry on top of the main freight and passenger operators.

Living history is invariably more attractive than static and cold displays ....... and we should be extremely thankful for those who have made this possible, and continue to do so, both the massive effort and commitment that provides live steam and also those well-cared for and occasionally not so well-cared for colder set-ups.

Dominic
London



 
I walked 12 miles for the Pirate Castle for the 4th time on June 22nd - please help bysponsoring me
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20131220/cc46faab/attachment.html>