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The UK Alco Group was set up in July 2005 to help ensure the future existance of the 3 preserved ALCOs in the UK.
Offers of help were given to the owners of all 3 surviving ALCos; 801, 803 & 804.
Railworld, owners of 804 happily accepted help from the group and the first meeting was held at Railworld (next to the Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough). A few weekends were spent doing remedial bodywork and mechanical work, however Railworld mentioned that a new museum building and workshop was to be built. Work was temporarily halted pending completion of this building
Railworld received a number of spares with 804 which had been stored in 2 grounded van bodies on their site. Sadly however, 20 years of vandals using the vans, leaving doors open, and removing anything of value, resulted in most parts being of no use other than scrap. A few items were salvaged, and these were moved to the main Railworld site for safe storage during 2006.
The owners of 803 were offered help during 2007 by one UK Alco Group member, but sadly at the time this offer of help was not taken up.
801 was recently purchased by staff from Northumbria Rail Limited, who are also members of the UK Alco Group committee. It was moved to a private restoration site in Northumberland. Please note there is no public access to the site, however, if you’re heading North on the East Coast Main Line, look to the right just after passing Alnmouth station, and you may catch a glimpse of 801.
The owners of 801 are involved with The Aln Valley Railway project and it has been arranged for the line to be built to accomodate European and some American locomotives, and will be approximately 3 miles in length, with an ornate viaduct en-route when complete; so the “larger-than UK gauge” Alco will have a home where it can operate.
After starting up 801 we got back in touch with Railworld to find there had been a bit of a change in the management and attitudes and we were invited back to work our magic on 804. This has now been started and we are working with Railworl with a view to having the loco returned to working order soon.
We also contacted the owner(s) of 803 again and now they have seen what we can achieve they are interested in working with us on the restorartion of 803.