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Locomotive Restoration & Overhaul

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EbbwJunction1

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It's well known by now that the failure of the engineering part of the Llangollen Railway was a serious part (if not all) of the decision to call in the receivers.

By coincidence, I've been reading in the "Great Western Echo" about the problems that Didcot Railway Centre have had finding a company to carry out work for them recently. It's prompted me to ask this question: "How many specialist places / companies are there that carry out this type of work?" I know of Rileys and some others, but are there a lot of them, or just a few?

Thanks.
 
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Ploughman

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A number of railways around the country and also some engineering firms do work of this nature.
The Railway works tend to make use of spare capacity to do contract work.
The engineering firms are in it for the work.
 

Flying Phil

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Locomotive Maintenance Services at Loughborough do contract work for all sorts of heritage locomotives. I believe they did Tornado 3 years ago and 92 Squadron has just gone there.
 

fgwrich

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The South Devon railway have done rather well out of it's engineering business for a number of years - more so after they purchased the former wheel workshop equipment from Eastleigh Works after Alstom had sold it and left the site. For a while, they were the only company in the UK who could produce new tyres.
 

paul1609

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Thank you; very interesting.
Theres quite a few concerns, they all tend to have different specialisations. At the K & ESR alone we currently have a engine under overhaul in Norfolk, boiler being manufactured in Liverpool and a coach being modified at Eastleigh.
 

EbbwJunction1

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That is interesting ... I vaguely remember hearing something about them, but I'm not sure whether I have known where they are.

Thanks.
 

BigB

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LMS at Loughborough and others are involved in making good the "repairs" done by Llangollen on D49 Morayshire - there are a good number of experienced and high quality companies out there, but few who can do everything in house, as we found to our cost - literally.
We have used Assenta in Hamilton for crash pillar work and repaints, though in some cases the foibles of Mk1 coaches mean some tweaking is inevitably required once we get them back and refit parts.
We buy gangway parts from South Devon who also manufacturer (I assume so rather than buy in) formed support sections for sides and roofs for Mk1 and GWR stock.
We recently approached a local upholstery firm when redoing an entire coach and were pleasantly surprised to find not only their prices very competitive, but they even drove to the site to pick up and drop off the seat parts which were done well, so it often pays to look locally.. we can see their premises from the station... we also have the advantage of a foundry "next door" for the odd casting.
 
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