I was astounded when I saw the photo of 92219 in this month's Railway Magazine. Looking at this series of photographs of the loco:
92219 was built at Swindon in January 1960 and spent all of its working life under BR ownership based at Cardiff. It moved from Cardiff Canton to Cardiff East Dock a month before the former depot c…
preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com
It looked its best in July 1989, following a "cosmetic" restoration. It has spent 58 years out in the open and all that has happened in that time is that it has been shunted around the country, being foisted onto sites willing to accommodate it until they needed the space, whilst no doubt being relieved of some of its components here and there. I think it's a good bet to say that it will never be restored. It is missing its tender, connecting rods and almost all the other components of the motion. No doubt there's a lot of other parts missing which cannot be readily noticed.
Everything cannot be preserved. There are examples of 9Fs in full working order and others that have run since withdrawal and are waiting their turn for overhaul. I believe that the future of this locomotive lies in one of only two directions: it will either steadily rust away, every time it is moved being a little less onerous because of the reduction in weight, ultimately the owners (whoever they are by then) will be able to pack what's left into three tea chests and load them into a Transit van. Or the owners will run out of places willing to store 90 tons of rusting metal (seemingly without payment from what I've read) and they will either have to put it in their back garden or have it cut up.
They should bite the bullet, salvage anything of value which might be useful to owners of operational 9Fs, and put the remains of the locomotive out of its misery under the cutter's torch.