THE ‘SAVE THE CIGS’ PAGE

First uploaded 26 June 08

Image and caption added 29 June 08

The PBR and ‘Save the Cigs’

During April and May 2008 PBR and EMUPS established a working agreement for PBR to provide secure storage facilities for the EMUPS, with EMUPS effectively in the role of tenant. It soon became clear that the relationship was likely to flower into something more useful than that, with EMUPS demonstrating that they wanted to continue to restore the unit and for PBR to run it if possible. And so it was that PBR went looking for a second tenant. They had to look no further than Dartmoor again for more victims of the awful situation that had arisen there, and it was not long before PBR and the ‘Save the Cigs’ group were talking.

About ‘Save the Cigs’
’Save the Cigs’ was, until very recently, a Special Interest Group, formed in October 2006 and comprising about twenty members, scattered round the country, but broadly centred on London, and corresponding regularly. They had ambitions to save a CIG (Class 421) or a VEP (Class 423), and certainly had their eyes on CIGs with unit numbers 1881, 1884, 1304, and also a VEP, unit number 3536. They have an attractive website at:

http://www.savethecigs.org.uk/

Fate however sometimes deals an odd hand, and it was fortunate that one of their members was at Dartmoor when the awful events of early 2008 unfolded there. CIG 1399 was one of the victims, at the time privately owned by an individual unconnected with Save the Cigs. He, doubtless badly bruised by the situation at Dartmoor was happy to see 1399 go to the torch, however a deal was rapidly struck and unit 1399 was transferred to a member of Save the Cigs (though not Save the Cigs itself). However the member concerned made it quite clear that he would be happy to transfer 1399 to the group itself in due course.

The trouble was, that, at the time, Save the Cigs was no more than a group of like minded-individuals, and the group spent May and June converting itself from such a group to a fully-fledged properly constituted organisation with a democratically elected committee, capable of administering its financial affairs as well as restoring and maintaining 1399.

Save the Cigs is now an entirely conventional organisation and is regulated by a six-man committee, comprising Chairman, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer and three other members. At present the committee out-number the ordinary membership, but this situation is not expected to persist, as the level of activity at Blaenavon increases. Wheter Save the Cigs now concentrates all its efforts on 1399, or whether it will continue to explore the possibility of acquiring other units, only time will tell.

1399 at Blaenavon

The unit 1399 is now at Blaenavon. Like all preservation activities there is a perennial shortage of funds, and an equally perennial shortage of volunteers. If you would like to help with a donation to the Save the Cigs then click on the link above and then click on ‘Make a donation’. On the other hand, if you just want to get your hands dirty, then turn up at Blaenavon, ideally in ‘scruff order’ absolutely any Saturday or Sunday, make yourself known, and we’ll happily tear your arm off. Don’t worry about the formalities, we can sort those out in due course. We have a few local B&Bs, but for the real hard cases, arrangements can be made for you to kip in one of our Mk1s – but bring a sleeping bag. There’s loos and clean running water on site, so there’s no problem there.

Unit 1399 is seen at 9 o’clock on a Summer’s evening in its new home in the Down Exchange Sidings at Blaenavon. The unit arrived on 25 and 26 June, and was shunted from the reception sidings down to its final home in Down Exchange Sidings on the evening of Saturday 28 June, when this photo was taken.

Although full descriptions appear on Save the Cigs website, 1399 was built as a 4-Cig unit (TOPS Class 421) – a four car Electric Multiple Unit, since it was built it has suffered several changes of identity, and several changes (and losses) of vehicles. At Blaenavon unit 1399 appears as a 3-Cig (three-cars). The cars are numbered thus:

Driving Trailer Composite Semi-open with Lavatory (DTCSoL) No.76747 (at the northern or ‘uphill’ end)

Motor Brake Second Open (MBSO) No. 62385 (in the middle)

Driving Trailer Composite Semi-open with Lavatory (DTCSoL) No.76818 (at the southern or ‘downhill’ end)

The future

Unit 1399 has had a rough time of it at Dartmoor. It has been subject to several graffiti attacks. These are an irritation rather than a real threat to the unit, and these have been overpainted with primer so it doesn’t look TOO bad. It has some small tin-moth holes that will be easy to patch up. The problem is that during the two or three years at Dartmoor, it has become rather damp inside, and this has caused a lot of mould in the internal fabric, much of which will have to be replaced in due course. The damp seeps in through the window seals, and it is these which much be dealt with if the problem is not simply to endlessly re-occur. This work needs both funds and labour. But perhaps most of all, the unit needs a damn good clean, mainly inside, but outside too. Finally (provided we’ve not killed each other arguing about the livery) a gloss coat outside will cheer everyone up – and then we will be going places!

Although we have dreams of returning 1399 to the main-line, for the foreseeable future 1399 will remain at Blaenavon. Once she’s spruced up there is every chance that she’ll become a regular sight running on the services at Blaenavon using suitably fitted PBR’s locomotives to provide traction. 1399 is known to have a possible electrical fault, and there may be some ‘wire reversing’ to do on the control cables as a result of losing its fourth coach, but we have experts on hand, and this is not expected to be a major problem.

How to get involved

Easy! .Go to the Save the Cigs website and select either ‘Join online’ or ‘Make a donation’. Joining us is only ten pounds a year – and even if you cannot get to Blaenavon (or only very occasionally) there’s lots you can do since much of the business of the group is conducted on-line. On the other hand, if you’re more comfortable with a scraper and a paintbrush, want to make oodles of new friends and don’t mind roughing it sometimes, then Blaenavon is the place to come!