Shackerstone - Battlefield Line - Outside storage

Spent a lovely afternoon on the Battlefield Line yesterday and snapped these poorly machines stored outside the engine shed, out of shot to the left look to be 2 or 3 lathes under cover

Ouch. Painful to see such machinery so neglected. Might it be worth interested forum members mounting a rescue mission, or are they too far gone? (The machines, not the members!)

easy come, easy go...looks like.

supose better here than making artillery shell's in the 3rd world......!!!!!!!!!!!

Strange that a railway struggling for revenue hasn't sold these machines...

They may have been worth something BEFORE they were left outside. You'd struggle to get much over scrap value for them now, surely?

A crying shame it is too. The little one in the middle would be perfect for a home workshop. And the one on the right looks like some kind of jig-borer? A once ultra-precision machine left to rust away.

Edited By Hopper on 07/05/2019 09:46:42

They should be ashamed of themselves, a pot of grease and a few tarpaulins don’t cost that much.

Without knowing the full facts I think it wrong to be overly critical.

From personal experience I know well meaning companies have donated life expired machines to heritage railways.

Probably cost more to bring them upto usable condition regarding electrics and guarding to meet HSE requirements than they have the money for.

Jason may well be right. I am lead to believe my local railway has been banned from using their Kearns HBM by the HSE. True HBM's are fearsome machines that can catch the unwary in the blink of an eye but........ They have been around for a long time (including that one) and been operated quite safely with no dreadful disasters. Makes you wonder perhaps the latest generation of HSE inspectors with their main experience probably with fully enclosed CNC machines are no longer pragmatic enough to accept 'vintage' stuff?

Paul.

Even if there were insurmountable HSE issues -- which seems unlikely as vertical mills are still in use all over the place -- you would still think a railway restoration outfit would have enough mechanical sympathy to oil and tarp old machines and/or sell them on to a good home in order to pocket the funds for the railway. I know if I lived within a day's drive of that small mill I would be knocking on their door to enquire about the possibility.

Edited By Hopper on 08/05/2019 06:50:24

FWIW I have emailed to enquire about the machinery, no reply yet...

Keep us posted. Your enquiry will probably have to go to the committee and be directed to the correct sub-committee for discussion at next meeting etc.