By Hugh Dougherty
WORK has started on the restoration of ex-BR Class 311 103 at Summerlee Industrial Museum as part of the site’s 30th birthday celebrations which fall in March next year.
Originally a three-car unit built by Cravens in 1967 as one of the second batch of the famous Glasgow ‘Blue Trains’, two cars, the centre motor coach and one trailer car have survived long- term outdoor storage at Summerlee, with the second trailer, No. 76414, scrapped after vandalism and deterioration at the industrial museum.
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Curator Clare Weir said: “We have carried out an asbestos survey of the surviving two vehicles and plan to restore them to their original condition.
“They are particularly significant as they still have their original interiors, despite the fact that the unit was withdrawn from service in 1990 and had worked after passenger use as a Sandite unit. The ‘Blue Trains’ are very much part of the railway heritage of Coatbridge and the Glasgow area, and we are situated within sight and sound of the line that this train used to run on.
“When completed, we hope to move the train nearer to the entrance to the museum as its current location, where it has lain for some decades, makes it seem almost hidden away.
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