RAE Railway,Farnborough

Many thanks for this thread,, a great read and some excellent video.

This is a nice little fun music video – made by the Band Christie in 1971.
The guys definitely enjoyed making this little film,elfinsafety would have a fit these days but – what fun LOL.Jeff Christie has a great voice (listen to ‘San Bernadino’ lovely singing and jangly guitar)

Anyway the Steam engine is none other than ‘Invincible’ – ex RAE,I am assuming the video was shot on the Isle of Widget since the engine went to the I of W fairly soon after retirement from RAE,but I am not sure as I have never done any of the I of W railways.

Originally posted by Meddle
there is a small cache of completely unrestored Andrew Barclay tank engines in Kirkcaldy

There may be a slim hope of survival for one of these engines! Today’s Dundee Courier reports that a plan to commemorate the railways of Strathearn (Perthshire) may see an approach made to recover one to form the basis of a memorial –

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/perth-kinross/598011/elderly-engines-could-hold-key-to-crieff-railway-memorial-plan/

Thanks Meddle ref Leven rusting engines, you solved a puzzle as I saw them briefly from a train.

Originally posted by Malcolm McKay

Thanks for posting that – I have this strange affection for those little industrial saddle tanks.

Glad you enjoyed it Malcolm – I have a soft spot for the wee ‘Pugs’ as well 🙂

rgds baz

Pleasure Meddle 🙂

Methil = centre of universe LOL

Some years ago when I was still living/working down south,I was trying to get a train from Brighton back to a little place called Pulborough in sussex,but there was some problem (flooding on the line ) and all the normal trains to Pulboro were cancelled – they told all of us affected pax to go via Three Bridges but I thought to myself ‘blimey – all the pax in the sarf east will be converging on the replacement buses at 3B,which didnae sound very appealing) so I was chatting to the guard on the coast (worthing) train and saying to him that I would go with him to Barnham and hope to hop a bus there.He was getting all aereated and telling me to get on the 3B train,eventually the driver got involved in the discussion and he was agreeing with me LOL.Anyway I got on the coast train with the guard giving me the evil eye,got off at Barnham which is not even a 1 horse town and hey presto an empty bus came along after 10 mins,just a quick 20 min journey to Pulboro.

Barnham = centre of the railway universe in W Sussex 🙂 – great having a little local knowledge eh

Hello Mothminor! Thanks for the heads up. Lets hope they don’t re-open the Waverley Route, or that 26 will have to go on another journey. :highly_amused: I did a bit of digging into the likelihood of the Waverley Route being reinstated a while back, via a contact in Transport Scotland, and the message was basically ‘never say never, but there is a lot of things in the way at the Tweedbank end of the Borders line’.

Thanks, bazv, for clearing that up. I’m surprised that there were two separate heritage railway projects in Methil of all places! It seems that 26040 was stored at the back of Barclay Bros’ yard, boxed in on a very short length of track behind various commercial vehicles.

Hi Meddle,

The Class 26 moved from Methil in March 2016 destined for the Heritage Centre at Whitrope Siding south of Hawick. The move is shown on this Youtube video –

I don’t think the 26 has anything to do with the guys at Kirkland (happy to be wrong as always 🙂 ) – although they did used to store some of their stuff at Methil Power Station .
The Fife Heritage Railway really has developed from the closure of the Lochty Railway in 1992 and the guys have put in a lot of work at Kirkland to get as far as they have.

Regarding reinstating the Thornton line – I don’t think it would be a problem as the FHR have always been verboten from using the existing disused line and it is well clear of all the FHR track.

rgds baz

Hello bazv! That is a nice little setup they have there. I stumbled upon this website a few years ago (hosted on Stirling University infrastructure) that was documenting the recovery of a Class 26 from Springburn to Leven. The 26 then languished behind Methil power station for a while. Is it all the same outfit?

http://staff.stir.ac.uk/jeff.wotherspoon/jfiles/26040/26040_mov94/26040_mov94.htm

Of course there are those in Methil who wish the railway to be reinstated back to Thornton, at which point the collection would need to move.

Very interesting Meddle we will have a looksee – and it is not too far from the Fife Heritage Railway at Kirkland Yard,Leven.
They have a 1926 Barclay which is now operational and to keep it relevant to historic – they also operate the Ex RAF Leuchars diesel shunter – both of which can be seen in this clip…

I’m drifting the thread slightly, but there is a small cache of completely unrestored Andrew Barclay tank engines in Kirkcaldy, which you can see here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.1195563,-3.1565888,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7hZ1fS2oJVLyisS1HY-lTQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

You get a glimpse of them from the railway if you are heading North.

I understand that the scrap metal yard they belong to is full of all sorts of vehicles of all ages, including some military items. I’ve seen one post about it online, but (from memory) it was coming from a commercial vehicle/urbex angle. I wonder sometimes if there is anything aviation-related within the yard.

Still with us apparently although currently out of action awaiting attention…

Zeb

http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/invincible.aspx

Thomas, is that you??

(sorry, could not resist)

Thanks for posting that – I have this strange affection for those little industrial saddle tanks.

Yes a nice little Tank Engine 🙂

The Meteor looks like it may have been put out to grass but the Varsity looks to be out on the Airfield/Ramp.

A nice little railway line. Looks like the sort of engine you would have found at a colliery or similar.

Would the Meteor and Varsity (???) on the dump?