CONSERVATION NAIVETY

In his comments on the Ffestiniog Railway’s restoration to working order of Welsh Pony (Mailbag SR509), Graham Vincent is being unrealistic and financially naive.

Long experience has shown that the only way to conserve steam locomotives is either in working order or in a heated shed with a dehumidifying facility for the inside of the tank and boiler. Even then, pistons and valves will seize.

A dead locomotive cannot properly exhibit its purpose, so restoration to working order to earn its keep is the best option.

The suggestion that Welsh Pony should have been restored to its 1940s as-withdrawn condition and stored in the Waggon Tracks Shed to conserve its existing condition is unrealistic.

The Waggon Tracks Shed is out of bounds to visitors and who would have paid for this restoration? Furthermore, it is not heated, so every time a mild, damp spell of weather follows a period of frost, it would drip with condensation leading to further corrosion, and every time it was necessary to shunt the shed to rearrange vehicles, it would be necessary to ensure all bearings, pistons and valves were properly lubricated.

On the wider scene the assertion “each case is taken on its own merit with little coordination, thinking or debate” is not true.

The National Railway Museum works to strict conservation standards and the private railways are all democratically managed, so conservation views are not restricted except by financial constraint. Any ad hoc committees set up to apply such constraints would have to be prepared to fund the long-term consequences of that constraint, which could be significant.

I have many years of practical experience in the steam locomotive preservation scene and, in my view, the Ffestiniog Railway’s policy of restoring and modernising its aged fleet with superheating, piston valves and improved draughting has produced the efficiency that enables the railway to attract the revenue which keeps this historic fleet in such splendid mechanical and external condition. Welsh Pony as a dead exhibit would be a drain of money on this policy.

Instead, with the limited Covid-19 service, it is presently the highest mileage locomotive on the railway this season. A remarkable tribute to the quality of the care the FR takes of its rolling stock both old and new.

The fact that the old worn-out frame and boiler has been retained instead of being sold for scrap shows the Ffestiniog management is as conservation-conscious as it is practicable to be when running a commercial business.

David Ward, Cambridge