Coventry Railway Centre

Coventry Railway Centre is located in Warwickshire, south of Coventry city, outside Baginton, and near to Coventry Airport.

Overview

The site is managed by the Suburban Electric Railway Association (SERA), and is home to their sizeable collection of preserved electrical multiple units, which is the most diverse and historically significant collection of EMUs in the UK, containing unique items that are the last survivors of once typical and numerous classes. There are also some other railway vehicles on site which are owned by third parties.

Details

The site was originaly established, as the Coventry Steam Railway Centre, in 1986 by a group who set out to preserve Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 tank loco number 1857. The group established the site and located the loco and other collected items of motive power, rolling stock and infrastructure including Little Bowden Junction Midland Railway Signal Box there. The land was previously used as part of the municipal water treatment works and there was never any railway infrastructure there until the creation of the Centre.

Never blessed with a large membership progress was slow and by the mid 1990's had slowed to near stop. The late nineties saw one of the original founders retire due to ill health and he sold his interest in the site to a consortium of Suburban Electric Railway Association (SERA) members, except the tank engine which was sold to another railway. By 2004 the other founders had called it a day and SERA took over sole running of the site's future.

The centre is not currently open to the public, although group and individual visits can be admitted by prior arrangement. The site purely serves as a storage and restoration base for the eventual Electric Railway Museum project and is not to be mistaken for an operational heritage railway, which it has never been. The SERA, as operators of the site, have considered developing it into a museum but are unable to commit to a long term undertaking until a lengthy lease on the site can be secured.

The track layout comprises of four sidings (one of 6 coach lengths and three of five) at the end of the site adjacent to the Midlands Air Museum with a headshunt that runs through a 40 metre cutting that was excavated by the members of the original steam centre in the early nineties. The sidings are protected by an inner fence to create a secure compound to deter unwelcome visitors.

tock

The vast majority of items not being actively restored are sheeted over to protect them from rusting, vandalism, and other damage.

Electrical Multiple Units

*BR Class 405 4Sub unit 4732
*BR Class 414 2Hap unit 4311
*BR Class 416 2EPB units 932053 and 6307
*BR Class 457 unit 7001 vehicle 67300
*BR Class 501 2 car unit formed DMBS vehicle 61183 + DTBS vehicle 75186
*BR Class 503 unit 28690+29720+29289

Locomotives

*Diesel Locomotives
**Ruston & Hornsby 0-4-0 Diesel Electric 165DE b. 1950 Wks. No. 268881
**Ruston & Hornsby 4wd Diesel Mechanical 88DS b. 1953 Wks. No. 338416
*Electric Locomotives
**Spondon Power Station No. 1 = 4wd battery/Overhead Electric Loco b. 1935 English Electric Wks. No. E905
**Kearsley Power Station No. 1 = Bo-Bo Overhead 550vDC Electric Loco b. 1928 Hawthorn Leslie Wks No. 3682

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.emus.co.uk/ SERA]