Barry Island Steam Graveyard

[lokuli2]

5*****+

[TONYJUD57]

Sad to see when they were there!! But you may find most are now either restored or in the throes of restoration at Heritage Railways as they are now known.

[mrchrisniro]

there is something peaceful about that short video... brilliant thanks for sharing it... although not all could of been saved.. any machine that was once majestic and has now gone that way... is sad.

[dalrigh]

@mrchrisniro It was a peaceful place to walk round, only the sound of the birds and grass blowing in the breeze.

Thanks for your kind comments.

[Mrtrainfreak12]

0:51 did the engine grow a face like thomas according to rev.w.awdry engines only have faces on sodor

[stuartpatto1976]

It's so sad to see all them locomotives standing there rusting away. It would be good if people bought them and restored them back to their original glory.

[HurricaneHero27]

It's hard to believe that they were once living, breathing things....

[dalrigh]

@HurricaneHero27 The only thing you could hear walking round this place was the sound of birds and the grass blowing in the breeze.

[HurricaneHero27]

@dalrigh That's sad :(

[quiteobserver]

AMAZING STUFF

[tonyspieshop]

One of the lasting memories of my father was going round Barry in the 1970's climbing on the locos. So great to see so many now preserved.

[bernieholland775]

OK Dai Woodham was a businessman who took his opportunities - BUT - when all is said and done he was a very decent bloke who could have made a lot more money much quicker if he had disposed of all his stock on a more 'industrial' scale - the railway preservation movement owes him a great debt of gratitude and people who are too young to have known about all this should be educated to this fact

[MrROTD]

it's stuff like this that makes youtube cool

[dalrigh]

@MrROTD Thanks for your very kind comments.

[legomanfan111]

or i'll buy 15 of them.

[legomanfan111]

I do feel the same . when older and have money to buy old locomotive buy 5 from that scrapyard take them to USA and restore them to working order.

[Ynysybarri]

I grew up on Barry Island and the train graveyard was both my shortcut home from Barry and my general playground. It was absolutely fantastic having them there. Many were cut up for scrap but also quite a few were purchased by clubs and fully renovated. Every once in a while a train would go past my window, not on the railway track, but on a lorry. Very surreal.

[dalrigh]

@Ynysybarri The yard is now overgrown waste land with all rails removed.

Their is still around 9 or 10 locos in the nearby Barry Depot awaiting restoration.

The last of the locomotives left the yard around the early 90's.

[Ynysybarri]

@Ynysybarri

Although Dai Woodham was a keen businessman and saw a great opportunity, I think he was sympathetic to those who wanted to buy for restoration purposes. Even as rusting monstrous hulks there was something romantic and grand about wandering around and on them.

[KeeperStertoni]

i wish i was a multi billionair id restore a few of them good old steam engines :)

[penninefilms]

Wow there are still a lot of them around when this film was taken I wonder if any of them where saved.

[dalrigh]

@penninefilms most of them were saved. There was around 30 odd locomotive here when I shot them in 1986.

Back in the 60's there were over 200 steam locomotives here. The site is now waste land.

[penninefilms]

@dalrigh At lest this film has a happy ending to it then.

[XxEeveeNaturexX]

@dalrigh wasteland? i wonder where the poor trains went even though i have a fear of them

[dalrigh]

@XxEeveeNaturexX Most of them have been saved and at least one of them was scrapped.

[TheSteelBlinds]

i would get all of these in a heart beat

[nov3019892008]

5 of these locomotives went to my hometown of blaeanvon about 40 miles from barry, 4 of those been sold on and 1 been kept and is slowly being restored

[conncork]

Have a look at the films from KGKtransportch at the Greek scrapyards in 2011 there are still a lot of steam engines just rotting away.

[SittingMooseShaman]

... they're coming back- Perhaps bearing a different face- retro... will be up to the engineers who'll design them. Be happy for neodymium electrical applications!

They're coming back; Steam to make turbines whine as the dynamos produce

electricity for amazingly powerful motors in each wheel... An amazing age is again upon us...

[KateFan]

Very sad, but all the "sold" signs were very encouraging! I'm glad to hear most of them have been saved.

[ROCKSOLID19]

At 0:52, some motherfucker has sprayed a smiley face on the smoke box door!

[samtron2000]

To be fair to the owner of the scrap yard, he could have cut all the engines up years before this. Around the same time as replacing steam, BR was also replacing many thousands of wagons. The scrap yard was sympathetic to engine preservationist causes so busied themselves with the wagons instead. The occasional engines was scrapped, but this was done as a salvo to reaffirm the position that they were in the scrapping business at the end of the day, not preservation storage!!

[MailReverse]

Shame really. Yes running costs today would be sky high and health and safety would have field days on a steam train. But there hasn't been any real progress. We still use Desiel Electric and Hydraulic In It's bacic form. Hey, some even use on board steam generators. The electrics today rely on their power source from Powerstations which still 80% burn coal. So In the long run, steam trains are still efficent In the long run. It's just not practical. But I'd happily go Into debt rebuilding one.

[SuperActionstudios]

god this is sad, now all we see is modern diesel rubbish don''t you agree?

[dalrigh]

@SuperActionstudios It is a shame the way the railways have gone, but I suppose that is progress for you.

[TOKYOSCORPIO1964]

Hi

Excellent photos of the trains.... any idea what happened to them? Presumably all gone / moved now? Im very curious.

Alan

[dalrigh]

@TOKYOSCORPIO1964 The land is now waste land and most of the locomotives have been saved. There are about ten locomotives from the site in the nearby shed at Barry.

[donani2796]

hey i found thomas he's dead ? :(

[MrTerryKay]

I'm lucky enough to have a railway museum on my doorstep at what was once Woolwich Station. They're quite a sight to behold when their hearts are pumping. Have they still got that shelled one on Barry. Smells like it's used as a public toilet, but at least you get to stand in it.

[dalrigh]

@MrTerryKay Not sure whats at Barry anymore as it has been some 24 years since last visited.

[MrTerryKay]

This is so sad.

[dalrigh]

@MrTerryKay It was a sad to see how these locos had deteriorated, but most of them now have a brighter future.

[MrTerryKay]

@dalrigh

Glad to hear it.

It reminded me of an elephant graveyard, or those pictures of dead gorillas with no hands, feet or head.

These once majestic beasts of power and beauty reduced to rotting shells.

[matanuialive2010]

i hope there is still an E2 tank locomotive in there ,rusting away waiting to be found and when it is found i can breath easy knowing that Thomas the tank engine (yes you heard me right) isn't the only one of his class left.

[bigbadbronco86]

it makes me extremely sad to see old structures cars and trains left to rot, and i guess its partly the waste, but it seems like the spirit of the said has kinda disappeared

[ryan4859]

pisses me off people have the fucking nerve to tag these things and paint faces on them

[matanuialive2010]

@ryan4859 maby it was to stop people scraping them XD

[TheOdstfox]

lol thomas the tank engine 0:50

[Mikal2475]

A lot of engines from Barry are stil unrestored. Perharps community ralways might want them to run ocasional excurisons?

[dalrigh]

One of the Barry Ten was scrapped in 2008, Stanier 8F 48518.

[loghead19]

@dalrigh how come?

surely a preservation group would habe tried to help!

[zicoproudictions]

were is barry island

[dalrigh]

Barry Island is about 10 miles south west of Cardiff.

[ROCKSOLID19]

@dalrigh Are some of these trains still there??

[dalrigh]

The last locomotive left the site in January 1990, the ground is now waste land and no longer has any track in situ.

The last ten locomotives to leave the site are now at the nearby Barry Depot.

[ROCKSOLID19]

Are they for sale, in prigress of resto or just rusting away???

[ROCKSOLID19]

in PROGRESS i meant to say, sorry. What do you think of light oil conversions (cooking oil)?? The Swiss do it due to the lack of coal reserves there.

[dalrigh]

The Barry Ten as they are known as, are under restoration and owned by the local council. As for the cooking oil thing, I do not think that will be a problem in the UK as we are sitting on a mountain of coal, does seem crazy though that we have closed down most of our mines and are importing coal.

[ROCKSOLID19]

@dalrigh It is Insanity. This nation has an ample supply of it. Hmm Thatcher I suspect is to blame for that.

[disneyrangerblue02]

@dalrigh But that sucks.  Why did they close down all those mines? Wait, don't tell me, enviromental issues.

[stratline7]

THAY SCRAPED THOMAS?  Those ruthless @#$%^&*!

[SodorProductions]

Yes, the LBSCR E2 class, the engine which Thomas was based on, has been scrapped. I only wish I could find one in a scrapyard, purchase it and have it restored.

[ROCKSOLID19]

@SodorProductions Its so rare to find one in poor condition, i would imagine.

[SodorProductions]

I wonder where one can be found. If I had enough cash, I'd buy it and have it restored to its former glory, or make it into a proper Thomas for DOWT events, seeing as other engines are used in place of the E2s, and none of the really look right.

Or even better, rebuild it with no curve in the front of the running plate, like Thomas had after his accident in the books. This redesign, from what someone told me, would be properly called the E2-X.

[disneyrangerblue02]

@SodorProductions @SodorProductions So would I. But hey, if the A1 Trust can build a new A1 Peppercorn Pacific class, and a new Gresley P2 Mikado Locomotive on the way, I'll bet they can build a new line of LBSCR E2 class engines. Can't they?

[matanuialive2010]

@SodorProductions i hear you and i was just talking about the E2 i think there such an iconic tank engine

[SodorProductions]

@matanuialive2010 Well no thanks to the star-billing blue puffball, yeah. I honestly think he should have been depicted as he was intended to be: an LNER J50.

[360Nomad]

@SodorProductions You could by the rights to the blueprints of the LBSCR E2 and use them to build new locomotives.

[matanuialive2010]

@stratline7 lol to that comment but you are right i say fuck them

[dragonmasterlance123]

i find looking at old rusty steam trains very fasinating

anyone else feel the same?

[davidgwr]

It's a pity that there wasn't more scrapyards like Barry in the north of the country, as then we would had more LNER and LMS locos in preservation.

[VaderNES]

I would buy all of these if I was rich, then have them repaired. All rusted-through spots would be replaced with new metal, all surface rust would be wire-brushed or replaced if too thin, and every single one would be brought back to life. I would then build a tourist railway and run some of them. The rest would be sold to other railways.

[ROCKSOLID19]

@VaderNES I would do the same. What do you think of light oil conversions?? (cooking oil) The Swiss use it on their heritage lines coz they don't have any coal reserves. Its doesnt have the old romantic hard grafting image of a coal fired steamer but its STILL would be a steam train.

[VaderNES]

Maybe in Japan (since Japan has no natural resources), but it would be useless in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, where coal is readily available.

Plus, for heritage lines, they can also try wood or charcoal, since the engines aren't being used for either fast or heavy trains.

[disneyrangerblue02]

@VaderNES What about propane?

[VaderNES]

@disneyrangerblue02 But that still leaves the ugly blue boxes on UK's railways. Railways are not the same when ugly boxes run the rails instead of nice steam engines.

[disneyrangerblue02]

@VaderNES That was a joke, but you know, that's a very interesting bit of railway trivia.

Meanwhile, in the US, most people don't care enough about steam engines to actually do something to, pardon the expression, "repopulate" them.

[VaderNES]

@disneyrangerblue02 The Americans are trying to preserve their steam engines, but they aren't like Britain, where the A1 trust built a whole new steam engine.

However, the best country for steam preservation is Japan, where over 170 D51s still exist (compared to a much smaller number of British and American steamers), and where many other classes still exist in large numbers. And many of them still run regular routes (mainly weekend trains).

[zozey1231]

This is really sad to see. D:

[IBTwist]

0:56 lol we draw faces on the trains too

[IBTwist]

poor thomas lol

[dalrigh]

I went round Barry Yard during my Butlin's days too. Sad to see there is no Barry Yard or Butlin's anymore.

[megacrab]

Absolutely! :) Brought back the memories of climbing on them during the Butlin's days.

I've just seen the clip of Dai Woodham speaking about it and there's another of a loco taken away.

[megacrab]

The Woodham brothers had these locos on their land for years but barely made much money from them :(

[dalrigh]

Hello megacrab, I think it was 1990 that the last loco left the yard. It's good to know that they were all saved in the end.

[Northstander]

Maybe not, but their inactivity undoubtedly resulted in many locomotives entering preservation for future generations to enjoy, so indirectly they have made a massive contribution to retaining relics of our industrial heritage.

[megacrab]

Yes, the locos saved are priceless examples of good ol' British engineering :) Shame the

[megacrab]

Shame they don't make them like they used to anymore!