50211 Class 101 Driving Motor Brake Second (Cab Only)

Home Railway	Private Site: Denbigh	Location History	Private Site: Swansea Dec 03-Jul 07
Current Location	Private Site: Denbigh		Private Site: Denbigh Jul 07-Present
Current Status	Under Restoration
Current Livery	BR Blue & Grey
Owner	Richard Thornton
Website	www.recycledrailcars.com
Record Last Updated	1 October 2020
Preservation Modifications None, other than the obvious fact that the cab has been sliced off the original (scrapped) vehicle!
Preservation Information NE 50211 was built as a class 101 Driving Motor Brake Second by Metro-Cammell of Birmingham, entering traffic in June 1957 at Sunderland depot. By 1960 it had transferred to Darlington, becoming E50211 in January 1965 with the demise of the North Eastern Region, and remained there until the late 1970’s. The car was then transferred to Heaton depot, undergoing refurbishment at Doncaster works in 1982, and renumbering to E53211 in April 1983 - to avoid confusion with class 50 locomotives on TOPS. Following a brief stay at Neville Hill in the early 1990’s (where it became 53211, losing its ‘E’ prefix with the abolition of the regions) a final move to Longsight came in 1995, remained ther until withdrawal in January 2002. After 44 years service, 53211 was scrapped in December 2003 by Gwent Demolition. Fortunately, the cab had been carefully removed from the body, however the driver’s desk had been completely stripped, and both doors damaged when it was lifted away from the body. The buffers had also been removed ‘for ease of transport’. It then spent time in storage in Swansea and Denbigh. In April 2015, a start was made on the cab's restoration some 10 years after the original preservation. Initial work saw the cab stripped out and the components assessed and their restorations started. The restoration work was intended to act as a trial run for the much larger project of rebuilding Class 103 56160. By July of 2015, new cab window surrounds had been machined from sapele, a new handbrake linkage cover had been fabricated, and various ceiling components had been restored ready for refitting. During the late 2010's, the restoration slowed as the owner also had a full size Class 103 vehicle in the collection. As the restoration of this vehicle gained momentum, understandably less time was available to dedicate to 50211. The socially distanced times of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 allowed a burst of progress to be made on the cab's restoration. This focussed on the exterior, and doors were returned to the cab before the outside was prepared and repainted into Blue & Grey livery complete with full yellow end and red bufferbeam. Restoration work on the interior of the cab continues as time allows.
Future Plans To complete the restoration work, which will mainly concern the interior. The cab will then be suitable for some form of static display.

	53211 after the exterior restoration of the cab was completed. It now carries Blue & GRey livery, 20/8/20. Richard Thornton

	53211 carries a poppy for national rememberence, 10/11/19. Richard Thornton

	The cab just after restoration had started, 4/15. Richard Thornton

	The cab just after restoration had started, 4/15. Richard Thornton

	53211's set number, 14/1/12. Richard Thornton

Interior

	Restored ceiling components, 7/15. Richard Thornton

	The stripped out interior shortly after restoration had started, 4/15. Richard Thornton

	53211's unrestored interior in storage, 14/1/12. Richard Thornton

	The unrestored cab area inside 53211, 14/1/12. Richard Thornton