| Barry scrapyard was really my reason for visiting Barry. Its the outer end of the Barry Island branch, of course, but with a direct two-track (I dont know if its considered mainline) connection to Cardiff. In the 1960s, when British Rail were scrapping the last of their steam, Barry Scrapyard, or Woodham Brothers, Ltd., was given most of the work. Although BR initially didnt want any of the steam preserved (for a variety of reasons, but mostly an ideological hatred of railway history), in the end the majority of it was, and Dai Woodham (1919-1994), the owner of the scrapyard, became well-known as a key figure in the history of British steam preservation. In the end, 213 steam locomotives were rescued from the yard, and 100 restored to operation. This operation took over 20 years, with many locomotives remaining in the yard into the 1980s, and as you can see here, at least two remain there today. These two appear to be BR #92245, a 9F Class 2-10-0 built at Swindon in 1959, and BR (ex-LMS) #44901, a Black 5 4-6-0 built at Crewe in 1945. Neither is likely to be scrapped, but restoration has been put off literally for decades. Woodham Brothers does little with metal recycling today anyway, having decided to rent out a large portion of their land for office units. Their website states that: "Today our main activity is providing affortable business units to Businesses in the Barry area on keyside at Woodham Barry, Barry Docks. We have 25 units up to almost 5000 sq feet, which were built in the 1970s under the leadership of the late Dai Woodham MDE, BEM." |