Re: Strategic Reserve.

["Exnarc" <gwrly@netspace.net.au>]

I must have been looking in the wrong place?

I checked out http://www.terran.org.uk/underground.html as suggested, (very
interesting site actually, but I was unable to see any evidence of Quote:

"he would have found photographs of a full-size train entering the tunnel he
said was too small, and not only that more photographs of the full-sized
underground station with military personnel loading trains of ammunition."
End quote.

All I saw was a few photos of HST's entering Box Tunnel, the enterence to
Box Tunnel, the boarded up enterence to the quarry tunnel etc.

Where is the photo of "A full size train entering the (quarry) tunnel, or
the military personell unloading etc.???

Aside from my comments, I'm not having a dig (sorry about the punn), I found
the subject quite interesting and will visit again, but there are no signs
of Dean Goods, or Stanier Black 5's sizzling away on the ready track waiting
the call.

Bob.





chris 'fufas' grace <chris@transdata.co.nz> wrote in message
37CEEC03.BD0B496A@transdata.co.nz">news:37CEEC03.BD0B496A@transdata.co.nz...
> Les Brown wrote:
> >
> > "Roger L. Traviss" <rogertra@islandnet.com> wrote in aus.rail:
> > >
> > >Rory Lushman wrote:
> > >
> > >> I am currently looking into the case of the Strategic Reserve here
> > >> in the UK. This is an alleged pool of locomotives stored away for
> > >> future use. Many of the alleged stories involve steam locomotives
> > >> being tucked away in secret.
> > >
> > >Oh God, not this red herring again!
>
> > I've heard of stories like this for over 30 years - some even
> > involving steam engines apparently put into long term storage here in
> > Victoria, Australia, but the only actual "storage" I ever saw was in
> > the scrap yard.
> >
> > Thus we find the strange appearence of steam engines apparently
> > "hidden" in storage whereas the reality was that they were merely
> > awaiting the scrapper's torch.
> >
>
> There are no doubt all sorts of things hidden
> round the UK, given a thousand years or so of the
> British passion for secrecy, but the guy who
> started this thread appears to be a UFO freak,
> and, not only that, his facts are wrong.
>
> He states that there was no underground railway at
> Box, and shows pictures to prove
> it, saying that the Quarry tunnel entrance is too
> small to accommodate full size trains.
> It's a pity he didn't do some more research at
> Subterranea Britannica or the RSG home site, or
> even better, if he had looked at:
>
> http://www.terran.org.uk/underground.html
>
> he would have found photographs of a full-size
> train entering the tunnel he said was too small,
> and not only that more photographs of the
> full-sized underground station with military
> personnel loading trains of ammunition.
>
> I have read stories in the railway press about
> steam engines being taken off tracks, put in
> barns, and covered with oiled sacking. How true
> they are I do not know. But remember the UK had
> stockpiles of all sorts of things, including a
> large number of WW2 fire engines which they
> brought out of storage once during a firefighter's
> strike. Give the size of Kineton, Bicester, Long
> Marston and Ludgershall depots, to name but four,
> and one of those is officially closed but still
> apparently in use, it's quite possible that all
> sorts of stuff is in storage. Remember that is
> wasn't that long ago that eight whole trains were
> brought into the light of day having been kept
> secret for years to be used as mobile control
> centres. SOme of these were stored quite openly -
> and nobody knew they were there.
> Given that until the last days of steam most
> scrapping was done in railway workshops it's quite
> concievable that some locomotives were only
> scrapped on paper. It's also possible that more
> locomotives were built for the MOS than were
> publically acknowledged. We're talking about 50
> years ago here and the number of people 'in the
> know' is rapidly decreasing.
>
> I suggest reading uk.rec.subterranea. There's all
> sorts of interesting stuff in that group and you'd
> be surprised what's hidden and where.