Potty Training

I couldn’t resist, it should be Potable Training more of which below.

For the last few years LMSCA members have helped Peak Rail at Rowsley by ‘watering up’ the various charter trains that arrive from the main line. Given that these are much longer than the normal Peak Rail rake there is much laying out of hoses and reels to reach the far end of the train which is well out of the platform. The priority is always to get water into the kitchen car which can take from 45 minutes to over an hour depending on how much they have used on the inward journey. The charters usually stay for about two hours so it’s a rush to get water into every coach and the procedure is to give each tank 10 to 12 minutes ‘on the hose’.

However, I wonder if our services will be surplus to requirements in the future as we hear that the new TOC Saphos Trains is using potable water in all its vehicles, with a tanker of such being sent to servicing points on the journey. We don’t know if the other charter operators will follow suit, but it’s a possibility.

What of the three chaps in the photo? Well my keen photographer wife took the picture while waiting for 70013 Oliver Cromwell to leave Rowsley with the RTC Peak Forester last October, and left to right are myself, Ben Riley and Harvey Coppock – unfortunately my baggy overalls disguise my racing snake figure! We don’t usually get time to watch the loco being turned and serviced but we do get a grandstand view of the departure – and as you see have to be kept behind barbed wire to protect the public.

Incidentally when my wife first showed me the photo I said “Ah, the three amigos”, to which she replied “More like the three reprobates”, honestly, what a cheek!

Best Wishes

Dave Winter

 

Doubly Good News for 2018

It’s a doubly good start to 2018 for us as we have just finished the restoration of CCT E94630 which will become our upholstery workshop, plus after a bidding process, ownership of Medical Examination Car 10825 has been transferred to us from the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

The CCT is one of three donated to us by in 2001 by Jarvis Rail, and had been kept in the goods shed at Wakefield Kirkgate for many years along with a LMS BG which was also donated – unsurprisingly they were known as ‘the Wakefield Four’. E94630 was used for storage at Peak Rail and although we were keen to restore it events overtook us, and it was left on the back-burner. Then an idea was put forward to use it as an upholstery workshop and work started in earnest, especially as much rotten steelwork had to be cut out and new steel welded in. Everything has been done to a high standard including the interior which has new LED lighting and a full electrical installation. It was wheeled out of our workshop on 30 December and is now in its new position just awaiting the access steps to be built. The video shows the rollout and some of the team involved.

The Medical Examination Car 10825 was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway as a corridor third at Newton Heath in 1910. It was converted to a US continental ambulance staff car in 1917, then rebuilt by the LMS as a staff medical examination car numbered 10825 in 1923. It would have toured the LMS and London Midland Region conducting eyesight tests etc. It was eventually withdrawn in 1971 and initially preserved by the Historic Rolling Stock Group at the Severn Valley Railway, it then moved to Dinting Railway Centre in the care of The Bahamas Locomotive Society, then to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in the early 1990s. A group of museum volunteers carried out a high-quality restoration, and a full repaint in early LMS livery. The then museum management wished the public to see how a carriage was constructed, and one end and a 10ft length of one side were therefore left unfinished.

10825 will be transported to the Rowsley to complete its restoration. Fortunately many drawings, including the bespoke furniture, are available, and as much as possible of its history and fabric will be preserved. It has one large central saloon and two smaller saloons one of which has longitudinal seating, while the other has transverse seating. The large saloon has no fixed seating so is a completely flexible space, it also has double doors each side. There are two toilets, one of which originally contained a stand-alone Dargue-Griffiths heating boiler, and two small changing rooms. The flexible large saloon will have appropriate seating and in conjunction with the smaller saloons will allow daily running with disabled access, dining, private parties, education and training, hospitality, and filming contracts. The disabled access provided by the double doors means we will not have to modify another of our vehicles.

So as always, plenty to keep us busy!

Happy New Year.

Dave Winter

eBay for Charity

The LMSCA is now registered with the PayPal Giving Fund and the connected programme eBay for Charity. This enables you to donate a percentage of proceeds from your eBay sales to the LMSCA, or if you are a buyer to make a donation to us when you purchase an item or at any other time. Please pop along to http://www.ebay.co.uk/egw/ebay-for-charity/charity-profile/?NP_ID=66082 and add us as your favourite charity.

The Droplight No. 26

The Winter 2012/13 (no. 26) edition of The Droplight, Newsletter of the LMSCA, has recently been posted to members.

Contents:

  • The Chairman’s Ventilator
  • Membership
  • Important Gift Aid Changes
  • Seeking Volunteers for Promotional Activity
  • Digital Donations
  • Website News
  • 27001: The Fundraising Challenge
  • AGM Report
  • 27001 Update
  • BG Parts Recovery
  • 7828 Update
  • The LMR Overhead Construction Vehicle
  • The Design and Construction of Carriages and Wagons

If you are not yet a member and would like to receive this, why not consider joining us?

Happy Christmas 2012

I would like to take the opportunity to wish all our readers and indeed rail enthusiasts everywhere (especially carriage restorers!) a Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Thanks to Pete Stanley for the image which is Christmas 1937 edition of the LMS Magazine – LMS Christmas puds for all!

Happy Christmas from the LMSCA
Happy Christmas from the LMSCA

Rowsley Carriage Shed open on 27th May

The LMSCA Carriage Shed at Rowsley will be open for visitors to see our restoration work during the visit of steam locomotive 70013 Oliver Cromwell to Peak Rail on Sunday 27th May 2012.

LMSCA Carriage Shed
The LMSCA Carriage Shed at Rowsley South

Further information on the railtour can be found on , and

Please be aware that car parking facilities at Darley Dale and Rowsley South will be subject to a small parking charge for this event.

Update: Peak Rail have advertised there will be an admission charge of £2 to either Matlock Platform 2, Darley Dale Station and Rowsley South Station and Site, which will be redeemable off the price of an all day rover ticket.

LMS Weekend at the NRM, Sep 2011

Over the weekend of 24th-25th September 2011 the National Railway Museum in York, UK, held a London, Midland & Scottish (LMS) Railway weekend. The LMS Carriage Association was invited to attend to put on an exhibition for the event. This video provides a record of the event on the Saturday showing the LMSCA exhibition and the activity in the museum yard.

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