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|  Great Western Repatriation
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• The WSSRT have issued the following press release...
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Now GWR stands for Great Western REPATRIATION !
The West Somerset Railway’s Heritage Carriages project has got off to a flying start. Following the recent acquisition of an 1907 toplight brake from Sir William McAlpine, the WSR is repatriating a 1939 Collett Composite Brake from Steamtown National Historic Site in the USA.
The coach has been transferred to the Trust by Steamtown USA, part of the US National Park Service. BCK 6705 was refurbished at Swindon and taken to the USA by a private enthusiast, F Nelson Blount in 1967. After his death in the same year it was managed by a museum called Steamtown USA. In the 1980’s this became Steamtown Historic Site. The mission of Steamtown is to interpret the impact of steam railroading on the USA, so 6705 was out of place with the rest of the collection and not high on the list for preservation.
West Somerset Steam Railway Trust Director, Robin White said:
“We are very grateful to the National Parks Service for making the car available to us. It is central to our project and will get the best of care. This really shows that the Heritage Carriages Project is ‘going Great Western’. Car 6705 has often been regarded as the ‘lost’ GWR coach – until now. I expect to have other exciting announcements to make in the near future. I hope that all true GWR enthusiasts, or those who just love a simpler and more elegant age, will feel able to help us with the costs of repatriating the coach.
The coach requires work but it is totally recoverable and unlike the ex-departmental vehicles otherwise available, is complete with its fittings and fixtures. As a brake composite coach it is, in a way, a complete train on its own, and a perfect nucleus for us to grow the 6 or 7 coach train we will need for service on the WSR.
The formal offer of the coach was made in January and we had been offered to ‘hitch a ride’ at a favourable rate on the ship bringing Class 66 locomotives from Halifax in Canada to Newport. But then we found that he only ship likely to make the trip this year was to leave Halifax on 9 March! So we have had to move quickly. The staff at Steamtown, the shippers, road hauliers, crane and paperwork people have been magnificent in setting up arrangements to get the car moved. North America truly retains its ‘can-do’ approach and the special relationships which the UK has with the USA and Canada are alive and well.
We need to pay the shipping costs by the time the car is loaded on 9 March and I would ask all those reading this to see whether they could make a donation to the project. Forms are available on the Trust’s website www.wssrt.co.uk and we can recover a further 22% from the Inland Revenue on donations if you are a UK tax payer. Please also consider becoming a regular contributor to the Heritage Carriage Project.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to Stephen Doughty of the Swanage Railway Trust, whose repatriation of Pullman cars for the Swanage Railway has inspired us in our efforts to bring 6705 home.”
For comment on this release contact: info@wssrt.co.uk
West Somerset Steam Railway Trust
2 February 2007
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This page is not from the official West Somerset Railway website
© Stephen Edge
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