Hello, I'm Graeme Gleaves and for nearly 30 years I have been at the forefront of electric railway preservation in the UK. I started the Suburban Electric Railway Association in 1996 and also was the original Chair of the Electric Railway Museum and oversaw the closure and clearance of the site in 2018, making sure everything left there in one piece. Since then I have worked on various projects but this fundraiser is for one special project that is very important to me. The restoration of a Southern 'Bulleid' outline 2-EPB unit. Did you know there are only five vehicles of this type left in existence? I have gathered four of them together at Sellindge in Kent where the plan is to restore a two-car set to working condition so it can be used as stock on heritage railways working with either a class 73 or a class 33. Our initial working unit will comprise the driving trailer from unit 6307 coupled to the driving motor brake of 5176; both vehicles will be painted into corporate blue and grey livery representing how they looked in 1985. There is just one problem. That vehicle is in Northampton and we need the funds to move it into a safe storage location as it can no longer stay where it is. We have one other driving motor car and the open trailer from 5176 at Sellindge and they are being re-purposed as a stores and workshop facility where components ranging from woodwork to upholstery to doors can be removed and serviced ready for passenger use ready to be fitted to the restoration set. We would like to make these two vehicles more presentable and repaint them into the all-over BR blue livery it carried at the close of EPB operation that culminated in the End of an Era railtour. Whilst the vehicles have been re-purposed internally, externally they will look exactly the same as they did back then. We have a team of volunteers ready to go and make this happen, we have agreed the purchase of the car in Northampton and we have amassed a supply of spare parts and the tools and know-how. Can you help get us over the line and help raise the funds to get the car into a safe site and get the other 5176 cars painted? Thank you for reading this.
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