45050 L&Y Dynamometer Car

45050 was last used on riding tests with fly-ash wagons between Derby and South Wigston on 22nd August 1967, and was finally withdrawn in November 1970 and about to be cut up at the nearby scrap metal yard of Albert Looms at Spondon near Derby. However, Raymond Smith, a Testing and Performance Section Engineer and Brian Radford, a Senior Technical Officer from the C.M.E.’s Director of Design staff both thought that it deserved to be preserved as an historic vehicle. The latter wrote a letter asking that it be made available for future display in a proposed museum then being set up by Derby Museums. The request was passed to the then Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer. T.C.B. Miller who agreed to the proposal, following positive support from R.G. Jarvis, Mechanical Engineer Design (Derby) and members of the Testing & Performance Section.

After storage in the Derby the vehicle moved to the Midland Railway site at Butterley in September 1975 where it was re-painted in its original LMS maroon livery by S. Huson and members of the Project Group’s Carriage & Wagon Department, who also began some restoration work.

By 2002, being very conscious of the major historical importance of the vehicle and its relevance to the P.R.C.L.T’s ‘Acquisition & Collecting Policy’, an approach was made to the Midland Railway Trust for their formal agreement to 45050 being removed from their list of vehicles, since at that time it was nominally listed as being leased to them by Derby City Museums. After discussions, this was eventually achieved and the vehicle was moved into the P.R.C.L.T.’s West Shed on 15th January 2005, where it has since been on static display in its current state. March 2008 saw the award of a Heritage lottery Fund grant be awarded for 45050's restoration to its 1930's condition.

Working Life - Restoration - Preservation