Hospital train Achan 79 RCT

Dose anyone know of the details of the train that is ment to be just sat in the railway sidings. There was a article done about it on the site. I just want to glee more info as I still support the Imperial war museum at Duxford and this train should be saved.

Regrads

steve

http://baor-locations.co.uk/Hosptal_Train.aspx

Steve,
Very happy to answer any queries you may have about this stock. I have a post on page 6 of the thread: 79 Railway Squadron Ambulance Train rotting away in Montzen sidings. In it I identified the stock and its role having had some 15 years involvement with ambulance trains and 9 years in command of the Ambulance Train Squadron RAMC(V) and susequently the Ambulance Train Group (V). If you need more information or cannot find my contribution please let me know.

Kind regards,

Brian
Colonel L/RAMC (retd)

I spoke to the head of collections the Imperial War museum, and hes going to look into it for me. So if i get the nod that the Museum would be interested, I well need to get in contact with DB to see if they can actually have it. But it is a shame seeing history just waste away.

So if they do want it i will be picking your brains lol.

Regards

steve cleator

There has been a full discussion about this on
79-squadron-ambulance-train-rotting-away-in-montzen-sidings
started by me after finding this train.
Unfortunately the link to the webpage with my photos no longer works (or at least not for me)
On the above forum you'll find links to other interesting stuff as I've also got photos on flickr.
I did try to get interest from the Imperial War Museum without success. The problem is that it would be enormously expensive to recover and restore one of these coaches and then it needs to be stationed under cover, otherwise just the Forth bridge, the rot starts again! This is what happened to another ward coach which I believe is at the museum at Mytchett. It was restored by apprentices when it was first recovered - and now it's in a very bad state and possibly hidden away under tarpaulins.
There will be an article in Steam Railway Magazine which is out on December 7th (Friday!)

Tom,
You have hit the nail on the head - money! It took 8 years to get the Byg coach back to Keogh Barracks and at the time I tried to preserve a Bymk (the type at Montzen) as well. However there was neither the will nor the money so I had to be satisfied with saving the smaller. The Byg was restored by staff from the Ambulance Train Sqn (V) and 275 Railway Sqn (V). You are quite correct that it is now rotting away - inevitable as it could not be stored undercover. Even the panel of track it is standing on has historic significance. I fear that it will not survive the move of the Army Medical Services Museum to wherever it is decided to move.

Kind regards,

Brian
Colonel L/RAMC (retd)

The Byg was the Umbau, basically a passenger coach with new body on a prewar chassis, and was refitted as a ward coach, whereas the Bymk was purpose built as a ward coach - in some ways the more significant of the two.
It amazes me that people and preservation societies shell out serious amounts of money to buy, transport and renovate these coaches - and then they leave them out in the weather to rot. It just seems to be extraordinary carelessness! All that's needed is to build a carport type shelter over them to keep the sun and the rain off them, but allow them to breathe. Like they've done with the old wooden Wagon Lits coach at Bochum Dahlhausen (which also needs some TLC) I'm sure that could be done for a fraction of the cost of the coach!
Any attempt to save a Bymk would require a sheltered piece of track and preferably workshops where it could be restored at a reasonable rate by a dedicated team to an achievable project plan. Too many of these projects founder and turn into sad abandoned millstones when an inadequate team find they haven't the resources or lifting gear, and the coach is rotting faster than they can restore it.