NRM GIVES LBSCR COAL WAGON TO ISLE OF WIGHT

A pre-Grouping coal wagon is returning to the Isle of Wight as part of the most recent tranche of disposals from the National Collection. LBSCR five-plank coal wagon No. 27884 is currently on loan to Yeovil Railway Centre from the National Railway Museum, but ownership is currently being transferred to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. It was used on the island by the Southern and BR from the 1920s to the 1970s, before being preserved on the mainland. The NRM told Steam Railway that the Tenterden-based Colonel Stephens Railway Museum, Bressingham Steam Museum and Bluebell Railway Trust were unsuccessful applicants for the wagon. Yeovil will retain the National Collection’s LSWR gunpowder van and ICI nitric acid tank wagon, and their ownership will be similarly transferred to the Somerset museum. The NRM added: “There are no current plans to transfer the ownership of any further items of rolling stock in the group’s collection. In fact, we have recently acquired (to be displayed at Locomotion), the hugely significant HSFV1 (highspeed freight vehicle) which showcases the best of British engineering in the 1960s. This was instrumental in resolving issues of rail vehicle dynamics that engineers such as George Stephenson had long wrestled with but were unable to solve.” The NRM’s disposed ‘28XX’ No. 2818 is now expected to move from Shildon to its new owner, STEAM museum in Swindon, this summer. York said: “We are working with STEAM in Swindon to complete the move of No. 2818 by the end of summer 2018.”