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Vic Berry's Scrapyard was a large railway scrapyard situated in the former Great Central Railway Braunstone Gate goods yard in Leicester.

Operations

Vic Berry established his Leicester scrapyard in 1973 on the site of what had been the former GC Braunstone Gate goods yard, just south of Leicester Central railway station. Like Woodham Brothers at Barry, Vic Berry focused initially on breaking up redundant passenger coaches and goods wagons. The first locomotives did not arrive until 10 years later in April 1983 when three Class 76 electric locomotives arrived for breaking up.

The yard is best known for scrapping large quantities of Class 25 and Class 27 diesel-electric locomotives. This led to the infamous 'stack' of Class 25 and 27 locomotives which reached their peak in 1987 with 30 examples stacked. The yard did not exclusively deal with these locomotives, as examples of classes 02, 03, 08, 20, 26, 31, 33, 37, 40, 45, 47, 50, 82, 83, 84 and 85 were scrapped on site, along with a large quantity of BR DMUs. Vic Berry also scrapped a London Underground train and ex-CIE 201 Class locomotives 208 and 219 in 1990.

It was also involved in the refurbishing and repainting of rolling stock, with one London Underground 1967 Stock train refurbished in 1990.

Vic Berry also specialized in asbestos removal as well as scrapping withdrawn locomotives and rolling stock. This was of value to railway preservation societies, who sometimes would benefit from purchasing a locomotive from Vic Berry as it would have already been stripped of asbestos. As the scrapyard was connected to the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line, the yard contained a large number of locomotives, coaches, wagons, and DMUs which were held for either purchase or scrapping.

The yard moved from scrapping locomotives to DMUs and rolling stock in December 1990 when what was believed to be the last complete locomotive in the yard, 25213, was scrapped. Another 18 class 25s were broken up by Vic Berry at other sites; five were broken up off-site while the other 13 were also broken up off-site but with their cabs subsequently transported to Leicester.

Fire and closure

In the early hours of Sunday 10 March 1991, a serious fire broke out in the scrapyard which took firefighters several hours to bring under control, by which time serious damage had been caused. The cause of the fire, which led to widespread distribution of airborne asbestos across the city, has never been determined. As a result of the fire and after months of difficulties, the Vic Berry Company ceased trading in June 1991, the final straw being the failure to reach a deal with its landlord, British Rail, for the decontamination of 170 grounded bodies in the Western Boulevard which contained asbestos. The company owed creditors a reported £4 million. On 7 June, British Rail gave Vic Berry five days to begin clearing the site or it would bring in a contractor to do so. Vic Berry began to trade under his own name from 11 June 1991, employing around a dozen of his former staff, and began to clear the site on 14 June. The closed site was nevertheless left significantly contaminated from the disposal process.

Redevelopment

The site was re-developed as a part of the Leicester City Challenge project in 1996 / 1997 as Bede Island.

Diesel locomotives rescued for preservation

Despite being well known for scrapping various classes of diesel engines en masse, not all of the diesel locomotives, and some rolling stock as well, that entered the scrapyard were scrapped. Some of them were actually purchased for preservation owing to the asbestos removal facility. Eighteen diesel locomotives were rescued from Vic Berry scrapyard including one Class 24 locomotive, twelve Class 25 locomotives, one Class 26 locomotive, two Class 27 locomotives and one Class 40 locomotive were purchased for preservation during the late 1980s. One Class 03 shunter D2069/03069 worked at the scrapyard from 1984 until 1991 when it was sold to the Vale of Berkley Railway for preservation. Interestingly, most of the preserved BR Class 40 locomotives were sent here for asbestos removal before arriving at heritage railways.

BR Class 03 engines rescued from Vic Berry

• D2069/03069 is now preserved at the Vale of Berkley Railway.

BR Class 24 locomotives rescued from Vic Berry

• D5061/24061 is now preserved at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

BR Class 25 engines rescued from Vic Berry

• D5148/25035 Castell Dinas Brân now works on the Great Central Railway.
• D5207/25057 is now at the North Norfolk Railway.
• D5209/25059 is now at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.
• D5222/25072 is now at the Caledonian Railway.
• D7523/25173 John F Kennedy at the Battlefield Line Railway.
• D7541/25191 now works on the South Devon Railway.
• D7594/25244 is now at the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
• D7615/25265 Harlech Castle now stored at Burton-On-Trent.
• D7628/25278 Sybilla now works at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
• D7659/25309 now works at Peak Rail.
• D7629/25279 is now at the East Lancashire Railway.
• D7663/25313 is now at the Wensleydale Railway.
• D7633/25904 (25283) is now at the Dean Forest Railway.

BR Class 26 locomotives rescued from Vic Berry

• D5314/26014 now works at the Caledonian Railway.

BR Class 27 locomotives rescued from Vic Berry

• D5401/27056 is now at the Great Central Railway.
• D5410/27059 is undergoing restoration at Leicester.

BR Class 40 locomotives rescued from Vic Berry

• D213/40013 Andania now works at Crewe Diesel TMD and now does mainline tours.

References

1. ^ "Vic Berry Scrapyard". Derby Sulzers.
2. "This is… Vic Berry". Rail Magazine. No. 118. 22 March 1990. pp. 24–30.
3. "Intelligence". Railway Gazette International. No. June 1990. p. 416.
4. "Vic Berry: Fire destroys the stack". Rail. No. 144. 20 March 1991. p. 6.
5. Leigh, Chris, ed. (May 1991). "Rail report: Vic Berry". Railway World. 52 (613): 312.
6. ^ Leigh, Chris, ed. (August 1991). "Rail report: Vic Berry closes". Railway World. 52 (616): 503.
7. ^ "D2069 Class 03 Shunter". Vale of Berkeley Railway. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
8. Elliott, Edward. "D212 Aureol and the BR Class 40 diesel locomotives". Aureol 1951. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
9. "Welcome to the Class 40 Appeal Owners of 40012 Aureol". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
10. "The Forties 1958 – 2008. Part One". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
11. "The Forties 1958-2008 Part Two". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
12. "History of D212 - 212 - 40012 - 97407". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
13. "History of D213 / 40013". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
14. "History of D318 / 40118 / 97408". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
15. "History of D335 / 40135 / 97406". Class 40 Appeal. Weebly. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
16. "Class 40 Story". TrainWeb. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
17. "BR Class 24 No. D5061". North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
18. ^ "Vic Berry's Scrapyard at Leicester". Derby Sulzers. Retrieved 22 April 2006.
19. "D5185 – Castell Dinas Bran". Great Central Railway. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
20. "26014/D5314". 6LDA Class 26. WordPress. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
21. "26014/D5314". 6LDA Class 26. WordPress. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
22. ^ Devereux, Nigel (12 May 2017). "A Fiery End". Rail Express. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
23. "Class 27 D5401". Great Central Railway. Retrieved 10 November 2020.

External links

• Google Map Location
• railcar.co.uk - photos
• railpics.sweetp.net - photos
• Derby Sulzers - Vic Berry Page - photos and insight by a Derby Works employee.
• Three Leicester scrapyards - photos covering the history of the scrapyards located here.

52°37′44″N 1°08′42″W / 52.629°N 1.145°W / 52.629; -1.145

• Companies based in Leicester
• Railway scrapyards in the United Kingdom
• Renewable resource companies established in 1973
• 1973 establishments in England
• 1991 disestablishments in England