Is there a "special reserve" of steam locomotives?

Question

Call me a conspiricy theorist, but I heard a rumour that there was a secret store of steam locomotives (possibly in Wales) that the authorities have preserved for use in a national emergency, such as an energy crisis.

The story is that many locos that were supposedly scrapped years ago, are in fact in full working order.

Any opinions gratefully received.

Answer 1

Yes the British Army (Transport section) did have a collection of rolling stock in store for use in the event of a Nuclear exchange or catastrophic failure of the National Grid network. It was reported to be in 3 locations, Wales, close to the Shrewsbury area, Salisbury area and In the area around Glasgow.

However nothing has been heard of the stock now for a number of years and certainley as the stock of Drivers qualified to work Steam Locos diminishes each year and the opportunities to run Loco haul falls as the cost of excertions rise, I doubt if they still exist, or if they do a very well kept secret.

Mind you, you never know how much truth there was in the rumour in the first place.

Answer 2

If you travel on the London to Bristol Great Western line,look to the right just before you enter Box tunnel.

You'll see a tunnel enterance leading under the hill in a different direction.

This leads to an underground arms and bomb storage area.

From what i have read in the past this is quite an extensive store mostly unused and empty now but extended for "several" miles.

It was rumored that in the mid to late 1960's that locomotives (BR standard classes which had less than 10 years working life at the time) were being moved to here.

In all probability the locomotives passed there and acually ended up in the south wales and Bristol scrapyards they were intended for.

Even if the "reserve list" locos still exist,there is'nt the infrastructure to service and run steam locos on a modern railway.

If diesel became scarce or extremly expensive I could imagine the incumbant govenment would divert D.E.R.V from road users to railway use and increase the use of bio-diesels with the next available option being more extensive electrification of main routes.

See link below for info on hidden tunnel system.

Answer 3

there's probably a few hidden in the tunnels to the side of micheldever station too somewhere in hampshire

combining conspiracy theories brings us to the possibility that some may (still) be on the moon

Answer 4

This theory was propagated many years ago - probably at least 20 years or more ago, and was said then to be a fallacy. There was, so far as I can recollect, lengthy correspondence in Railway Magazine about it. As was pointed out then, the fate of all steam locomotives in BR ownership has been fully documented and there are no large, glaring gaps as to the fate/whereabouts of a number sufficiently large to provide a viable 'special reserve'. And what would be the purpose anyway. There is no infrastructure to support a large scale use of steam locos - coaling and waterin facilities in particular.

Answer 5

he majority of preserved railway engines be it steam or diesel do have certificates to run on ain lines, however there was many years ago a sufficient amount of preserved locos which could have been called up for duty in a oil crisis. There have been many rumours recently about this happening again, especially with the price of oil now shooting through the roof and more importantly coal prices are lower than oil. However the eco system I dont think could cope with vast volumes of coal dust being omitted again.

Certainly railways like the ffestiniog and welsh highland in wales are converting beack from oil run to caol fired, but they have had to spend vast amount upgrading the line to prevent forest fires. I would love to see the return of the steam railways in UK, but wouldn't want to commute from yorkshire to london everyday at a snail pace when a 125 takes just 2.5 hours.

The royal mail are scrapping hundreds of moving post offices from the rails as well, a good friend of mine has just bought 2 carriages to preserve at his railway in Kirklees west yorkshire and I know that EWS are sending all their 68 series diesels to germany and bringing back the 60 series diesel. Originally the 60 series still used steam heaters but alas watering facilities are few and far between nowadays, so the introduction of steam back on mainline is just not viable.