ANONYMOUS BENEFACTOR FAVOURS RUTLAND RAILWAY MUSEUM

When the ironstone quarries of the Woolsthorpe system, just south of Grantham, Linconshire, closed in the early 1970's Rutland Railway Museum rescued the substantial engine shed for use at its Cottesmore site. Now an original inhabitant of that shed, the steam locomotive BELVOIR has been donated to the museum by an anonymous private collector.

Andrew Barclay No 2350 BELVOIR was built by that company in 1954 to a design which became associated with ironstone quarrying by Stewarts & Lloyds (Minerals) Ltd in the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire areas. Delivered new to their Harston site, the locomotive was named after nearby Belvoir Castle and spent its working life in that area.

When steam became redundant as part of the contraction of the industry in the late 1960's and early 1970's BELVOIR went to the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chapel & Wakes Colne Station in Essex. Recently the two museums have been working closely as part of a shared aim to concentrate on their chosen fields. This has led to a review of their respective collections.

Commenting on this unexpected and prized gift Simon Layfield, company secretary of Rutland Railway Museum said: "BELVOIR has an impeccable ironstone quarry heritage and we are delighted to re-unite it with its former home. We shall be undertaking restoration work and expect it to be a star attraction for many years to come. In short, she is a real beauty and we are thrilled to have her at Cottesmore!"

BELVOIR, as a central feature of the growing collection of east midlands ironstone quarrying exhibits, is on central display at the Museum and available for photographic purposes for the next three months.

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We were pleased to welcome a new vehicle to the Museum last week when a supporter of the Charity loaned his vacuum brake fitted, Southern Railway pattern 25-ton brake van for immediate restoration and use on passenger trains this winter.

The vehicle was built by the Ashford Works of the Southern Railway in 1941 as a batch of vans ordered by the Army. It differed from the mainline vans in having vacuum brakes and sanding gear. The van is in very good condition and has all of its original features including the unique boarding which Ashford seemed to specialise in.

The Trustees have been searching for a suitably authentic riding van for some time following a visitor survey in which it was clear that there was a need to replace our DMU trailer car. the search for a suitable vehicle with continuous braking systems has been thorough and has resulted in this very generous addition to our fleet.

The vehicle will be restored in the BR bauxite livery standard for fitted vans in the 1950's to correspond with the curatorial "timeframe" of the collection but will retain its original army running number. In order to explain the presence of a Southern Region van in the East Midlands we are considering a descriptive panel lettered "to run between Ashwell Junction and Cottesmore Iron Ore Sidings". The branch is steeply banked and the use of brake vans was essential in working days.

The van is now already in our workshops and the wagon restoration team are hopeful that it will be ready for service in late November. If you would like to join the restoration team for painting duty, please contact the curator on the link from this site.

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Unfortunately for a number of reasons the proposed Photographic day at the Museum on Saturday 11th October 2008 has had to be cancelled.

After a great deal of interest in the initiative from enthusiasts and photographers, the organisers have been unable to guarantee that the quality of the event would match their own expectations.

They have, therefore, decided to postpone the event until the launch of a suitable "gala" event is a realistic prospect. Given the news which we hope to release in the next two months, this is likely to be very soon!

If you had planned to visit the Museum for this event please contact us for further details and we will try to accomodate your requests if at all possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this decision may have caused.

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Rutland Railway Museum has enhanced its core theme as “the home of east midlands ironstone quarry heritage”, by taking delivery of a BR 27-ton Iron Ore Tippler wagon, on loan from the National Railway Museum.



The fully restored vehicle, B383560 was built at Shildon in 1954, and is an example of the unfitted, plain axlebox variants introduced as part of the British Railways “Modernisation Programme” of the 1950’s which saw the widespread adoption of the type for transportation of iron ore from the East Midlands quarries.



The wagon joins 9 similar Iron Ore Tipplers at the Museum and will see regular use in the demonstration Tippler rake. The collection of Tipplers includes examples of almost all design variations from early unfitted 9 foot wheelbase wagons through to the later fitted 10 foot wheelbase examples.



The Trustees and members of our Charity have been extremely pleased to work with the National Collection and for the support which the NRM has shown for our project. Simon Layfield, our Secretary said "we hope that visitors and enthusiasts will be keen to see this wagon operating in an authentic environment with other core exhibits when they next visit the Museum"

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Those who enjoy seeing Vintage and Classic vehicles found plenty to admire at the Rutland Railway Museum's Vintage Vehicle weekend. Organised by the Museum in conjunction with local vehicle enthusiast groups, this event was held at the Museum site in Cottesmore on 5th and 6th July.

Visitors were able to explore a range of more than 50 vehicles from a 'Routemaster' double-decker bus to a utility electric car, taking in tractors, motor and pedal cycles, an 'R type Bentley' and several 'Austin' and 'Vauxhall' cars along the way.

Model engineers showed off their skills as they demonstrated their machines, both in the marque and by parading round the site.

For the children, there were swing boats and, for the ladies, craft and charity stalls.

All of this activity was in addition to the Rutland Railway Museum demonstrating some of their fleet of steam and diesel industrial locomotives on their three quarter mile demo track - with visitors being offered the chance to 'ride with the driver' in a Ruston Hornsby diesel electric locomotive.

There was also a chance to learn about open cast iron ore mining in the photo museum and replica open cast mine and to see the Ruston Bucyrus excavator and dragline in operation.

Wish you had been there? Well, there always next year!

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Two items of rolling stock have left the Museum bound for new homes.

The LMS 20-ton Brake Van is going to the Nene Valley Railway and is due to form part of their authentic brakedown train when paired with their steam crane. The van arrived at our Museum some years ago from its industrial life at the NCB Ashington system. It had originally been built for general traffic by the LMS and worked all over the system. It may well have visited Cottesmore on iron ore traffic in those days!

The second vehicle to leave the site was a "Dogfish" ballast hopper. The item was surplus to operational requirements at the Museum and has been acquired by a railway maintenance company for use on contracts in the Manchester area. We hope that its new lease of life will be fully reported in due course.

The Trustees of the Museum are very pleased that another two vehicles which are surplus to the collection have been found new homes with appropriate owners. Our collections reviews are now showing positive effects at the site and the process is close to completion.

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The Museum received a welcome report from its boiler insurance inspector last week when he was able to confirm the operational capability of locomotive "Singapore" until September of this year.

In what had been expected to be one of its last duties before expiry of its boiler certificate, former Far Eastern Prisoner of War (FEPOW) steam locomotive Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST "SINGAPORE" was steamed to mark the anniversary of its wartime capture by Japanese forces on 15th February 2008.

During the day a number of members of COFEPOW visited the museum to remember their relatives on this special memorial steaming. The locomotive's nameplate was adorned with jungle orchids which are the flower of remembrance for the conflict in the Far East.Two COFEPOW members are seen being photographed by the local press.

The museum staff had been working on the assumption that the locomotive would have to come out of service in April, but after detailed inspection work, our boiler inspector has now confirmed that its current working "ticket" will run until September 2008. It is envisaged that the locomotive will then be stripped ready for boiler retubing and other remedial work.

We are now seeking to raise funds to repair and return the locomotive to working order. Any donations to the Singapore Appeal Fund should be sent to the museum , cheques being payable to Rutland Railway Museum.

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The Museum has been able to secure a viable future for one of its exhibits and it left for its new home on 20th May 2008.

Yorkshire Engine Company No.2688 spent its working life in the Sheffield steelworks industry before coming to the Museum. The 45-ton locomotive was too heavy to operate at the Museum and the Trustees decided that it did not fit with the focussed collecting policy.

After a long period of discussions with a number of relevant parties, the Museum has established a transfer to a well know railway engineering company who will commence investigations into its return to working condition immediately.

The Museum is extremely pleased that the future for the locomotive is now far more secure than in the recent past.

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For the last two years, our Museum has been working with the local Student Force initiative.

We are extremely pleased to have been awarded a certificate to record our work with "Community Check" run by Student Force.

The scheme concludes that "Rutland Railway Museum has made positive steps in improving their sustainable consumption and enhancing their local community".

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On Monday 12th May, a new exhibit arrived at the Museum. This is DE278482, a four wheel lowbed wagon, which has come straight from operational mainline use.

The wagon was built by the LNER in 1945 as E278482 and was a heavy duty version of the famous "Lowmac" design. It is fully vacuum brake fitted.

The wagon has been bought by two members for storage of the boiler from Hawthorn Leslie No.3135 "Holwell No.14". This will not only allow the main site to be cleared for visitor access but will also allow the boiler to be worked on in the workshop whenever required.

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