I think we are in a golden age of preservation - a glut of early diesels which all came available at the same time when people felt wealthy and which are relatively easy to maintain. But how long can they all survive? There will need to be a consolidation at some point - how many 50s are there? Look at the Deltics - I love them, but already we’ve effectively lost #16 for spares, how long will the skills / spares exist to keep the others running?
And the next generation of diesels to come available are so much more complex - eg the class 60s..
I didn't know about D9016/55016, but I have been wondering about poor Alycidon for a while now. I saw it depart Waverley for the last time, so I feel something of a personal connection there. How much effort would it take to restore it back to running condition? How much money and effort does it take to rebuild traction motors? Surely some of the problem is the reliance on a dwindling source of NOS parts and fading knowledge as well.
I've documented it a fair bit on here it seems, but I'm mildly interested in all the 'McRats' that are "preserved" up here in Scotland. It seems that anybody with a low loader and some cash could pick one up from Eastfield, etc, in the early '90s. A lot of these haven't really done much in preservation up here. Bo'Ness has a good example of both a 26 and 27, and a second rougher example of both. As our national railway museum this makes sense. Pretty much every other preserved line in Scotland has a few dead Scottish Type 2 locos rotting away to nothing.
I visited the 26 on the Whitrope line a few weeks ago:
Up close it is rough! The paintwork creates the illusion of it being in okay condition, but there are sections around the cab door that are rusted through. At this point do you break out the car body-filler? Do you find another 26 in worse condition and rob it for parts (a problem, I presume, is that they all corrode in the same weak spots?). Do you fabricate new parts?
The group I was visiting with talked about 3D printing parts, but that seems very optimistic. Plus, I couldn't really get any of them that excited about a Class 26 in the first place!
In general this looks like it needs a lot of work for a loco that is stored uncovered up the top of a moor in the Scottish borders.
Likewise this MK1 coach has some issues.
Presumably this will be a common issue, like that Peak on the Battlefield line. Too expensive to restore, too expensive to move. The weigh-in value wouldn't pay the transportation costs, the gricer community would flay you for scrapping a "perfectly good" loco and the owner probably has some half-delusional plan to have the thing running in like-new condition by summer 2021...
Steam locos seem to be able to drift between Barry Scrapyard condition and fully polished running condition. A lot of these stored Scottish Type 2s seem to be on a common downward trajectory.