The things you collect!

You know how it is. After more than a quarter of a century "in business" restoring engines, things happen along the way. People come and people go, as they gain interest, or as they move away from the area, or get married and have their time consumed. There aren't that many people who have been with us all the way through; there's no surprise in that. What is surprising when you look at it, is what you acquire as you go along. I had to ask around to get an insight into what came from where, quite a detective job at times. Some of the information is second hand, but its the nearest I could get! Lets get started.

This is the PMV. That's a Southern Railways parcel van. They used to be so common place that you could get them for next to nothing, and people stripped them for "bits" like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, as we all know, there is a tomorrow, and now they are becoming rare. Our van now actually has a value... more so because its in pretty good shape really. Maunsell introduced this design whilst at the SECR and then made it a widespread feature of the Southern Railway with a 30 year production run. PMV means "Parcel and Miscellaneous Van" by the way. They are wooden bodied vans, and ours is number 2186, painted in the colours that would be typical of the early 1930's, in Maunsells preferred olive green. Like most (but not all) our example was built at Ashford, centre of the Southerns wagon and van operations.

PMVs would have been tagged onto trains to carry a variety of goods. Ours was transferred to the service fleet of BR in 1956 as no.KDS150. It was brought to the Bluebell in 1979, but not by us. We had a Great Western van (still at the Bluebell, used as a mobile workshop at Kingscote), which was bigger though not in as good condition. A better van and a Maunsell one as well was seen as a good swap. Inside there is a work bench and a colossal variety of bits, such as tubes for boilers, spare springs, spare castings for various motion pieces, lubricators of a range of types and small parts too numerous to mention, which is just as well as I'd have to look up what everything was, and I've plans for next year!

Another item worth a look at came by an uncertain route. N Class no 1850 was selected by the Maunsell for experimental work, involving the Marshall valve gear. That's another story entirely, but it lived its final years out on the North Downs lines near Redhill where she was finally broken up. It seems that the man who was involved in cutting it up had a bit of a soft spot for this engine and so kept the (left) cabside as a memento. Later he donated it to us, which was nice of him, but what we should actually do with it is an entirely different matter. Its still in its original British Railways lied out black livery and has the cab door support frame attached. take it from one who has dragged it to the door of the van, it weighs a ton! (well feels like)

The ones that got away!

Some members have been with us a long time. Mr Woods was one such person. When he passed on during the year 2000, he was kind enough to bequeath us, not just a sum of money which is helping substantially to speed up the restoration of 1638, but also this nameplate. This brass nameplate is about 2½ feet long, and I'd guess about 30lbs in weight. It is a left hand side plate for King Arthur class No.795. Its marked 795, and left on the back with a centrepunch; it carries also, cast in, the number from the place it was made i.e. Eastleigh works. This was no mean gift. Prices of "railwayana" such as this have risen dramatically in the last 2 or 3 years, and when we went to auction with it to help buy Stowe it fetched £13,000. Thanks Mr Woods, we wouldn't have got Stowe without you!

We have actually sold an engine too. Originally bought as spares to service the 847 restoration, and the subject of various restoration ideas, 830 was sold on during 2000 to the Essex Locomotive group, who despite their name are base their operations at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. We needed the money to buy Stowe, though we had decided to sell before that came up as the project would have been a step too far for us, being a major undertaking. Stowe confirmed the obvious to us and away she went. We still have the 930 profile on the site though, so if you want to read up a bit about her then follow this link.

Finally, as we are talking about oddments, here's a picture of our esteemed leader, the man who does know what everything is and where it goes, our own Ray Bellingham, posing with our name plate. its fair to say that steam engines have been his life, though his passion for Alfa Romeo cars merits a mention also!. No-one is indispensable of course, but Ray tries to challenge that saying. God bless you Ray!