Hosking gives a bolthole to classic electrics at Margate

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JEREMY Hosking’s Locomotive Storage Limited has given an under cover home to two classic EMU sets that were forced to leave the Electric Railway Museum at Coventry after it closed.

The 4-SUB set No. 4732 and LMS Class 503 set, plus a spare 4 EPB trailer No. 5176 in BR blue, have followed Jeremy’s A4 Pacific No. 4464 Bittern into the iconic former Hornby headquarters in Margate’s Westwood Industrial Estate.

Bittern arrived on June 2 for storage and eventual public display, followed five days later by the EMUs.

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Gresley A4 Pacific No. 60019 Bittern now safely housed in the former Hornby warehouse at Margate, until its turn in the Locomotive Services overhaul queue arrives. LOCOMOTIVE STORAGE

Locomotive Storage, which bought the building in February last year, operates a storage and maintenance business for classic railway locomotives and for heritage rolling stock. Its main depot facility is in Crewe.

The main warehouse at Margate has undergone extensive engineering works in order to accommodate railway vehicles, with seven tracks laid and access loading docks installed for the unloading and loading of locomotives and carriages. It is estimated that the warehouse will eventually house 30 vehicles.

Hornby, which was based in the building from 1954-2015, still retains a presence on the site in the form of the Hornby Visitor Centre, but it has relocated its main business to premises in Sandwich. Multi-millionaire Jeremy, a long-term shareholder in Hornby, has also backed the 5BEL Trust, which is restoring a ‘Brighton Belle’ electric set for main line operation.

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