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An LMS Garratt? At Guildford?


sem34090
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I was recently told on an LMS Garratt appearing at Guildford shed sometime between 1955 and 1966...

 

Can anyone prove this? If so I would be very interested in doing myself a model of it! I doubt it happened, but the person who told me says they have a photo of the event at home and will show it to me at some stage.

 

C. Urious, SE England

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That I gotta see, considering the full-size LMS Garratts had all gone by 1958. Someone's having a wind-up, probably a railwayman's model perhaps ??  I've seen Wellingboro' 8F's & 9F's at Feltham, but Garratt's.  :sungum:

Edited by bike2steam
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It was probably the one used for the little-known trials on the Isle of Wight, which were highly unsuccessful, and led to electrification and old tube trains.

 

The loco involved was in good fettle, so once it had been chiselled out of Ryde Esplanade Tunnel, it was transferred to the Strategic Reserve Depot via Marchwood Military Railway.

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It was probably the one used for the little-known trials on the Isle of Wight, which were highly unsuccessful, and led to electrification and old tube trains.

 

The loco involved was in good fettle, so once it had been chiselled out of Ryde Esplanade Tunnel, it was transferred to the Strategic Reserve Depot via Marchwood Military Railway.

 

Ah, now your are pulling our legs, everyone knows the SR is somewhere inside Box Tunnel.

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It was probably the one used for the little-known trials on the Isle of Wight, which were highly unsuccessful, and led to electrification and old tube trains.

 

The loco involved was in good fettle, so once it had been chiselled out of Ryde Esplanade Tunnel, it was transferred to the Strategic Reserve Depot via Marchwood Military Railway.

 

That was after it  was exhibited on the canal wharf at Leicester one weekend for a transport themed carnival, after successfully managing to negotiate Glenfield tunnel as test to make sure they could get the others in. Ooops, shouldn't have said that. Of course the ends are all sealed up now so the secret is safe.

Edited by Dick Turpin
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“Ah, now your are pulling our legs, everyone knows the SR is somewhere inside Box Tunnel.”

 

I was careful to say “via” Marchwood. If I was to divulge the location of the SR, I would probably have to shoot myself, or spend the remainder of my days in some obscure part of Paraguay, forever looking over my shoulder.

Edited by Nearholmer
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Probably a Saltley driver after getting a bit of overtime in, I can see the thought process now....  What loco can I use on the Guilford Freight that the SR driver probably won't sign, so I can helpfully offer to drive it the rest of the way while he conducts?

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Probably a Saltley driver after getting a bit of overtime in, I can see the thought process now.... What loco can I use on the Guilford Freight that the SR driver probably won't sign, so I can helpfully offer to drive it the rest of the way while he conducts?

A Saltley man would probably have made it right through to the seaside.
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“Ah, now your are pulling our legs, everyone knows the SR is somewhere inside Box Tunnel.”

 

I was careful to say “via” Marchwood. If I was to divulge the location of the SR, I would probably have to shoot myself, or spend the remainder of my days in some obscure part of Paraguay, forever looking over my shoulder.

Be careful what you wish for.  There's still a few wood-burning North British steamers capable of operation in Paraguay - but no Garratts, unfortunately.  (For that you need to go to Bolivia).

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Maybe what the OPs friend saw was the Bullied Leader at Guildford? Or had that gone by 1955? Or more of a possibility the LMR 2-10-0 which was known to have worked on the mainline at times.

Edited by roythebus
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OK, abating from mocking for a minute, and assuming that the guy wasn’t mistaken or leg-pulling: where were the garratts scrapped? Or, is there any conceivable reason why one might have been passing through? I don’t mean hauling a train, I mean being taken somewhere.

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OK, abating from mocking for a minute, and assuming that the guy wasn’t mistaken or leg-pulling: where were the garratts scrapped? Or, is there any conceivable reason why one might have been passing through? I don’t mean hauling a train, I mean being taken somewhere.

 

Can't think of anywhere south of Guilford, apart from which 'LMS2968' sez, where it'd go to, apart from Pompey Dockyard, now just a shadow of it's former self, which at one time was huge, and had it's own internal railway system.

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The only surviving U.K. industrial Garratt at this time was 0-4-0+0-4-0T William Francis which worked at Baddesley colliery in the Midlands until 1965. By 1968 it was in preservation at Bressingham in Norfolk, seems unlikely it went via Guildford shed.

 

 

Seriously, rather than asking here, just get your mates photo, the one “he’ll show you at some stage”. If it exists not only will it answer the question definitively, it will be photographic gold dust. Every magazine will snatch his hand off wanting to print it, and it will add to the known history of the Garratts.

 

Pending the production of this mythical photo, I think the current phrase is Fake News.

 

Happy to have my scepticism proven wrong.

 

.

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