By Neal Keeling
Copyright manchestereveningnews
Trains being late is part of the British way of life. But the delayed arrival of a piece of rail heritage at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station stretches the point. Enthusiasts have been waiting SIX years for it to appear. Ironically the hold up comes after a near two decade search to locate it in the first place after it vanished from the station during a major refurbishment. For 17 years, a retired train driver and his transport police pal hunted for the missing piece of Manchester’s railway history. In September 2019 the Manchester Evening News reported how the artifact, which recalls the Victorian age of steam, was finally on its way back to Piccadilly Station. The Manchester and Birmingham Railway plaque – a high quality replica of the 1839 original – was hung in the mid-1960s near the entrance. It was removed in 1998 when upgrade work began at the station. The original resides in the National Railway Museum in York. It never reappeared when the work ended in 2002. Railway enthusiast Mel Thorley, 78, then a train driver, noticed it was missing. Its disappearance unexplained, Mel, from Stockport , began a dogged pursuit – that would last 17 years. He studied railway auction catalogues and spoke to auction houses supplying them with a photograph of the plaque. He didn’t get a sniff until it turned up on eBay on August 17th 2019 for sale in Retford. The plaque was up for sale with a price tag of £3,700. The sales blurb recommended a forklift to load it onto a truck for collection in Nottinghamshire. But six years after Mel tracked it down it has still not arrived at Piccadilly depsite a pledge from Network Rail. Mel said: “It’s a dead donkey at the moment. Someone sent me a link to it in 2019 but he did not want to get involved, he probably thought ‘I don’t want to upset a scrap man’. “I had the number of an ex British Transport Police copper, Dave Smith, who I used to meet up with at reunions. I said he must have the authority to make a noise. He too had been trying to find out what had happened to the plaque over the years. “He went to see a young woman BT officer who said ‘right leave it to me’. Mel also sent emails to alert people in the know, including experts at Railway Magazine. The magazine had previously run a piece from Lord Faulkner of Worcester, co-chair of the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board (RHDAB), requesting readers keep their eyes peeled. Chris Milner, editor of Railway Magazine, contacted Lord Faulkner, also president of the Railway Heritage Association. He brought in Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail, and together they asked BTP for help. They got hold of the local BTP and the local police in a Nottinghamshire town and went to the scrapyard where it was seized after they cited Network Rail as the rightful owners. Mel said: “I then contacted Sir Peter Hendy by email and he pointed me to someone in the regional office who came out with an absolute belter. They said to me ‘there is no way we can have any nostalgic ceremony at Piccadilly. It could lead to ridicule and a field day for the press. Imagine the unveiling of the plaque on platform 1 just as 4 cancellations are announced for other platforms ‘ I did see his point, just a pity the situation was such.” He added: “The next thing I heard was that Wilmslow station was getting it to add to their 180th celebrations in 2022 but nothing appeared to happen. “Then I heard it would have a place in the Piccadilly platforms 13/ 14 upgrade. But it never appeared. “One person I should like made aware of this farce is Andy Burnham , whom I suspect is totally unaware of an important part of Manchester’s rail heritage lying in a Network Rail yard somewhere waiting for somebody on a nice salary to make a decision.” “I think as all these Network Rail people change jobs there is no continuity. The plaque was installed at Piccadilly in 1959 I believe ready for the opening in 1960. It was on a wall outside the station as you come up the approach near the taxi rank. “People used to say ‘meet you at the plaque’. In 2019 I was chuffed, I thought my mission was complete. But it is taking a bit longer. I hope Network Rail will do the right thing and sort it out.” Back in 2019 Tim Shoveller, then Managing Director of Network Rail’s North West and Central Region, and now CEO of Freightliner Group told Rail Technology Magazine“Thank you to Mel, Dave and others for hunting down our missing plaque. We will get it cleaned up, painted and put back up where it belongs, at Manchester Piccadilly, as soon as possible.” Margaret Edge, Manchester Piccadilly’s station delivery manager, said: “We know it’s been a long time coming, but we’re pleased to say the lost Manchester and Birmingham railway plaque will be returning to its rightful home in the station this autumn. “We’ll be reinstalling the high-quality replica of the 1839 original in a prominent position on Platform 10 near the War Memorial. None of this would have been possible without the perseverance of Mel Thorley and Dave Smith, whose dogged detective work in 2019 saved this important piece of the station’s heritage from being lost forever.” The frame and base for the sign are being made in Derby, and earlier this month the concrete base was cast. Network Rail say in the coming week or so there’ll be trial assemblies to make sure it all fits together, and then the sign and superstructure to hold it up will be painted, with installation on the platform due on a series of consecutive week nights at the end of October.
