Project: Petroleum
Ensuring the story of Fuel Oil by Rail lives on in preservation
In the latter stages of 2022, the Dean Forest Railway approached Chris, one of the board members of the NWPG, interested in giving a home to our TEA Tank wagon. The conversation quickly turned to finding more fuel oil tanks to join the lonely TEA Tank.
As fortune had it, VTG wagon leasing company were taking the last of their 2-axle TTA Tanks off-lease and putting them into storage and subsequently awaiting scrapping at Gascoigne Wood Yard. VTG has initially offered one wagon to the group for preservation but a paperwork blunder lead the wagon to be sold for scrap by accident.
The NWPG sprung into action and tracked down the site owners, contacting them regarding the tanks in the hopes of preserving some. The initial estimate was that we would preserve 4 TTAs to join the bogie TEA, however the crowdfunder was more successful than initially predicted and, along with an angel investor dropping £15,000 on the project's fundraiser.
This resulted in 11 tanks being preserved and, after weeks of paperwork, exams, reinstating the wagons to TOPS and hiring a FOC, the tanks were moved via the main line for their swansong journey and into preservation on March 7th 2023. Two of the tanks, 60591 and 60875, are owned by individuals associated with the NWPG
