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Coventry Electric Railway Museum to close

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M28361M

M28361M

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The Coventry Electric Railway Museum has posted this message on their Facebook page.

*COVENTRY ELECTRIC RAILWAY MUSEUM SITE TO CLOSE*

The Trustees & Volunteers have met today to discuss the future of the ERM site in the light of a recent meeting with Roxhill who are going to develop the land for commercial purposes.

We have reluctantly decided that we will close the Electric Railway Museum at its present location after the open day on OCTOBER 8th 2017.

We will be actively working with the railway heritage sector to ensure that vehicles and locomotives currently on the site are not endangered with a view in the longer term to establish a new site for the ERM.

We would like to thank you for your support over the past ten years and continuing support in the future as we work to relocate the collection.

If you can offer the ERM any help with this transition then please contact us.

Our remaining open days for 2017 will go ahead as planned on the following dates:

Sunday August 13th
Saturday & Sunday September 9th & 10th
Sunday October 8th
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This has been on the cards for some time as rumours have swirled around expansion of the nearby airport. However the final confirmation is bad news for EMU preservation; there are a number of unique vehicles there including the last surviving Wirral Class 503 unit and vehicles from 307, 308, 309 and 312 units. Hopefully they will be able to find new homes for some or all of the stock.
 
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Cowley

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This is a shame. It's hard to see who would want a lot of the vehicles, hopefully they'll find homes though.
 
gimmea50anyday

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There is also the last remaining 210. Tyneside EPB. An APT power car along with the Hastings DEMU used to test the bogies, itself s hither green survivor.

Sadly tho there isn't enough interest in EMU stock as we have seen with the loss of 2 C1G units in the last year. I really don't want this brilliant idea to go to the wall and lose the stock but without the interest I can't see the dtock staying together. Between Finmere, Crewe and shildon and a couple of unit friendly pres lines there may be a chance to save the stock but I can't see everything making it out of there in 1 piece
 
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theblackwatch

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Ideally, what ERM needs in my view is a large warehouse-type building where tracks can be laid and the majority of vehicles stored/displayed undercover and taken outside for special events. The building and land need to be owned or on a very long-term lease. Realistically, I can't see this happening unless a National Lottery grant or similar was to be forthcoming. One would hope that the HRA will offer help and advice, given that it gave its Small Groups Award to Coventry in 2011 "in recognition of its excellence in the preservation of less fashionable stock outside the scope of most heritage railways".
 
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RichmondCommu

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gimmea50anyday said:
There is also the last remaining 210. Tyneside EPB. An APT power car along with the Hastings DEMU used to test the bogies, itself s hither green survivor.

Sadly tho there isn't enough interest in EMU stock as we have seen with the loss of 2 C1G units in the last year. I really don't want this brilliant idea to go to the wall and lose the stock but without the interest I can't see the dtock staying together. Between Finmere, Crewe and shildon and a couple of unit friendly pres lines there may be a chance to save the stock but I can't see everything making it out of there in 1 piece
Click to expand...

You've hit the nail on the head here. If I ask my wife if she wants to have a day riding behind steam engines (something we perhaps do two or three times a year) she's up for it. If I was to ask her if she wanted to go and look at some EMU's a hundred miles away she'd just laugh and say "We can see them at the local station so why would I want to do that?". Harsh but true I'm afraid.
 
trash80

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I agree a lot of people think like that but really its not much different to saying "no i don't want to go to the art gallery, i can just look at this magazine instead"
 
nat67

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I've been there and its full of interesting vehicles and is not far from where I live and it would be a shame for it to be stored up
 
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IanXC

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Seems to me that a key question is whether the Trustees are hoping to establish the museum in its current format, at a new location; or whether the museum may in effect become a rolling stock trust, locating its stock at various locations around the country.

I'm not entirely clear there is an existing preservation site that could accommodate such a collection together, and I'm not exactly flooded with ideas of potential new sites.

Should they decide to 'farm' their stock out there are some EMU sets which could realistically be placed for use as hauled sets, and small locomotives which are commonly taken up, however the future of the various single vehicles seems most precarious to me, even though these seem to be some of the most interesting items in the collection.
 
VEP3417

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might try and make a visit then as always wanted to go, hope the 4 sub gets saved as it was rumoured not to be in great shape

be nice if the Class 457 could be put back into mainline operating condition, well quite a lot of the other emus as well but that might be the "easiest"
 
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SERA01UK

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Can I just say that the response from the railway heritage community has been immense; my phone hasn't stopped in the past 72 hours with messages, calls, emails and notifications. The positive response has been very encouraging.

What are we doing in the way of plans? I can't go into specifics at this stage but we have spoken with a lot of sites who are willing to offer homes to a considerable number of items on a short or long term basis. Some have expressed an interest in taking ownership of items and each offer will be followed up and a best possible outcome for the vehicles/locos/buildings concerned will be decided upon.

Our biggest headache is how we pay for all this, hence the appeals.
 
yorksrob

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I hope the SUB finds a home. Had an enjoyable journey on it between Brighton and Seaford.

Hope all of it gets saved (particularly the southern slam door units).
 
SERA01UK

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yorksrob said:
I hope the SUB finds a home. Had an enjoyable journey on it between Brighton and Seaford.
Click to expand...

You'll be pleased to know that the 4-SUB was the first unit to get offered a new home, I can't confirm the location just yet as it is yet to be signed off but it's coming home.....
 
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cjmillsnun

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gimmea50anyday said:
There is also the last remaining 210. Tyneside EPB. An APT power car along with the Hastings DEMU used to test the bogies, itself s hither green survivor.

Sadly tho there isn't enough interest in EMU stock as we have seen with the loss of 2 C1G units in the last year. I really don't want this brilliant idea to go to the wall and lose the stock but without the interest I can't see the dtock staying together. Between Finmere, Crewe and shildon and a couple of unit friendly pres lines there may be a chance to save the stock but I can't see everything making it out of there in 1 piece
Click to expand...

Isn't the APT PC part of the national collection?

EDIT: it is... http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection...CollectionItem?objid=1988-7006/7&keywords=apt
 
yorksrob

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SERA01UK said:
You'll be pleased to know that the 4-SUB was the first unit to get offered a new home, I can't confirm the location just yet as it is yet to be signed off but it's coming home.....
Click to expand...

Well, that certainly is a relief. Thanks for the confirmation.
 
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Does that fund assist the 309s? They're all worthy to be saved, but I have a special interest in these as they were local.
 
SERA01UK

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bucoops said:
Does that fund assist the 309s? They're all worthy to be saved, but I have a special interest in these as they were local.
Click to expand...

The crowdfunding page covers the SERA items, the 309 units, 307 & 308 cars are owned by ERM and they are accepting PayPal donations to support these via a pinned post on the ERM Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/electricrailwaymuseum/posts/10155529483238624

This leaves the 312, 501 and 2-HAP units which are privately owned. Anyone wanting to help the owners can contact me on here directly and I will put you in touch with them.
 
Wivenswold

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Worth giving this a bump as EMUs types have been wiped out. There must surely be some interest in getting a 309 back on the rails.
 
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