Repatriating Sea Lion's tank

 

Last Friday, I took a trip to Liverpool, and in the car park of a Costa drive-through, swapped some heavy good from one car to mine. .

The car in question belonged to Graeme, who was coming to my rescue. 

Back in 2018, I bought some bits of the best little steam engine in the world, Sea Lion on the Groudle Glen Railway. 

The tank and cab back lived for years in the Port Erin railway museum, where I visited them a couple of times. 

All was fine, until the Manx Steam Railway Supporters club took over responsibility for the museum displays. When I read this, I contacted them about the Sea Lion parts, and discovered they had been removed to Port St Mary good shed. I was assured they were safe, but dear reader, I wasn't convinced. 

The parts have been replaced in the museum by an old lathe. 

Anyway, a bit of time spent on a van hire website, and the Steam Packet one was an eye-opener. Van hire isn't difficult, although I hadn't checked if the IOM counts as "abroad". The Packet though, won't actually give you a price for taking a van over. You just have to click a link marked "You're buying us a new boat" or something. Cheap it won't be. 

Would the parts fit in my car? Measurements from a plan of the loco suggested that the answer was "maybe" for the tank and "no" for the cab back. Hmmm. 

Anyway, I explained my dilema on a IOM Steam Railway chat group, and after a few suggestions of "man with van" people, which also looked understandably horrific price-wise, Graeme offered to collect the bits in his can and bring them over, as he had a meeting in Liverpool. 

So, I took the day off work, booked and van, and crossed my fingers. 

The Sunday before, he went to collect the parts, and the cab back wouldn't quite fit in the car. The tank would, and best of all, he sent me a photo to show it was OK. I agreed that we'd sort the tank and worry about the cab back another day. If I'm honest, the tank is the jewel in this collection - it has the name painted on. Had this been badly damaged, I'd have called the whole thing off, bit it's perfect. 

Just to make things even more entertaining, the day before the trip, Enterprise rang me to say I'd been allocated an electric van. Now, I'd love to have a go in one of these, but the range is a bit less than one-way to Liverpool, and I needed to do this quickly in order to complete in a day so I wasn't in for two days hire. A bit of grumbling, and the suggestion that a large estate car would work saw me given a bright read Ford Tourneo, and me having a sleepless night wondering if the tank really would go in the back. I'd remeasured the plan, and thought I would be OK, but you can't be certain. 

At the Costa, we moved the tank over to my the Tourneo, and it fitted. 

In fact, it would almost have fitted across the back. 

So, after wrapping it up, a slow drive down the M6, and a bit of help from a mate to extract it from the car, Sea Lion's side tank resides in my storage. Safe and sound. 

What next? 

Well, for the minute it can stay where it is. Long term, I'm wondering if a loan to Amberley Chalk Pits museum would be the best bet. They have a nicely laid out railway museum where it could live, and most importantly, Sea Lion's sister loco, Polar Bear. 

And the cab back? That's still work in progress. I'd be happy for it to hang on a pub wall, but if required, and we can find a van coming over to Liverpool, then another van hire and trip north beckons. 

Lots of people are owed thanks for making this work. Graeme for collecting a heavy lump and transporting it over the hardest, and wetest, bit of the journey. He admitted he was glad that customs hadn't come poking around as the tank was well wrapped in towels and bungie corded down!

Also, Tim for the lift at the other end, and all those on the chat group who helped with suggestions. Railway people are nice people. They appreicate and help each other. Now it's time for me to think about how I can pay my assistance forward...

Note: The tank has been repatriated, and it's English, not Manx. These parts were build by British Nuclear Feuls apprentices, when they restored the loco.