January 2013 LMS Class 503 unit - 75 years old and time to get to work!
	The class 503 celebrates 75 years since it was first introduced to mainline service during 2013. To mark the anniversary there will be a year of fundraising activity to get the restoration work on this unique item started in the hope it can be ready in time for its 80th birthday in 2018. You can find out more about the project from the 'Our Projects' link on the left.
October 2010 LMS Class 503 unit - Back together at last !.
	The unique class 503 Wirral EMU built for the LMS services in 1937 has been correctly reformed for the first time in over 20 years. The movement was hoped to be done in time for the recent open weekend at the Coventry Electric Railway Centre on the 25th and 26th of September but events transpired that there were too many other tasks that took priority and the reform had to wait until Sunday October the 10th. The unit was split up in the late 1980s after being retired from special duties and the unique nature of its couplings (the cab ends can only couple to another 503 unit) meant it was stored with the driving cabs coupled together and the unt was able to be towed from depot to depot using the screw couplings and buffers that exist between coaches and are compatible with locomotives. The three coaches were kept on different sites from 1996 until 2003 when the driving trailer was moved from Birkenhead to join the driving motor and trailer composite at Coventry. The coaches were stored on seperate parts of the site for five years and since they were re-united on the same siding in 2008 it has always been the hope to get the unit back in its correct formation.
August 2010 Coventry Electric Railway Centre Open Weekend.
	Electric Railway Museum Limited is delighted to announce that a public open weekend will be held at the Coventry Electric Railway Centre site on Rowley Road, Baginton on the weekend of Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th of September 2010. The aim of the event is to allow visitors the chance not only to view the extensive collection of electric trains present on the site, but also to find out more about the progress made in the nine months since Electric Railway Museum took over the site. Visitors can also meet the people behind the project and learn what the Museum’s future plans involve. Two locomotives on the site are celebrating significant birthdays. Ruston & Hornsby 165DE ‘MAZDA’ is 60 years old, whilst English Electric Overhead/Battery locomotive ‘Spondon No.1’ is celebrating 75 years of operating service. Both locos will be in operation on shunting demonstrations. The stock on site will be uncovered for the event and some items will be open for interior viewing. It is hoped to have the LMS Class 503 ‘Wirral’ unit reformed correctly for the first time in nearly twenty years in time for the event. The two car class 501, the last examples of which were taken out of passenger traffic 25 years ago, will be on display and the ongoing restoration work on this unit can be viewed. In addition to the trains there will be a display of contemporary artwork by some local artists who will be on hand to talk about their work and techniques. Also, the West Midlands Fire Service will have one of their fire engines on site with a full crew. Admission to the event is free. Opening times are: Saturday 25th – 10:00 to 18:00 Sunday 26th – 11:00 to 17:00 There will be on-site car parking available. If you are traveling by public transport, busservice No. 1 runs from the over bridge at the north end of Coventry railway station (bus stop is on the opposite side of the road from the station). The Coventry Electric Railway Centre is a fifteen minute walk along Rowley Road from the bus stop at Toll Bar Roundabout.
February 2010 Tyneside EMU Benefits From Scrapyard Raid.
	The South Tyneside 2-EPB Unit was a big beneficiary of a 'raid' on a Yorshire scrapyard by SERA members. With the blessing of the yard owners volunteers recovered numerous components from some of the last slam door EMUs to be scrapped after becoming surplus to a mainline operator. Doors, glass and numerous other fittings were recovered at scap prices to replace those that are life expired on our own EPB unit. The largest single item ever acquired by the SERA from a scrapyard has been secured in the form of an eight ton Mk.3 motor bogie that will replace the newer, but motorless Mk.4 one currently under the Tyneside unit.
December 2009 A New Direction For Coventry Site.
	The management and development of the Coventry site has passed from the SERA to a new organisation, Electric Railway Museum Limited. The move is welcomed by the SERA, some of our management team have been instrumental in setting up this new body as a logical next step to take the creation of a permanent home for electric traction preservation forward. Electric Railway Museum is well on the way to becoming a registered charity and that status will enable it to work far more effectively in the larger heritage movement. ERML has also taken on the responsibility for the Spondon locomotive as well as ownership of 2-EPB 6307. In time other items from the SERA fleet may transfer to either the ownership or care of ERML. Investment in improving the facilities on site is high on the list of priorities for the new site management. A new secure inner compund fence has already been errected to help protect the items on site from both vandalism and theft.
September 2007 Operation Clear Out Completed.
	The last vehicle to leave the Coventry site as a result of the planned clear out of redundant, surplus and unwanted items left on September the 7th. Class 419 Motor Luggage Van number 68008 departed down the M1 for a new life at the East Kent Railway. There it will join two other class mates that have been restored to operational condition. The movement brought to a close the clear out after nearly 18 months of activity which resulted in 14 items leaving the site and only items required for the core SERA collection plus supported private items at the site. The movement of the MLV required the laying of a 90 foot extension to the headshunt which now means track goes further down the site than ever before.
April 2007 More Departures from the Coventry site.
	4-CEP Trailer Brake Composite Corridor coach 70345 (pictured left) departed the Coventry site on the 10th of April, destined for Suttons Bridge in Cambridgeshire where it will be a rather impressive peice of garden furniture at the former railway site there which is now a private residence. The same buyer is also taking the shell of City & South London vehicle No. 163 which has been gifted by the SERA as it is unrestorable but too important to dispose of, Movement of that fragile item will take place in the summer. Another departure is buffet car 69339 which has at last moved to the Great Central railway at Loughborough to be formed into 4-CIG 1393 and return it to a 4-BIG. The movement took place from Coventry on April 21st and everyone at the SERA wishes the GCR team the best of good fortune with the 4-BIG for the future.
October 2006 501 Project Gets Second Vehicle
	The Driving Motor Brake coach of the class 501 unit has been delivered to the Coventry site, bringing to a close the eight and a half year project to secure vehicles of this class. DMBSO 61183 was unloaded on Friday October 27th at 13:30 after making the journey from Immingham where it had been in store for several years. It joins driving trailer 75186 and thus will make a two car unit of this class. The restoration of the driving trailer is to begin in November. The two vehicles were purchased and moved to Coventry with funds raised by a share sceme which was sucessfull in covering all costs of the project.
June 2006 Another Vehicle Leaves The Site !
	As part of the ongoing clearout of unwanted vehicles from the Coventry Electric Railway Centre, the class 103 DMBS, 50347, that had been a resident since 1999 has left for a new life in South Wales, departing on Monday June 12th. The vehicle has had three owners during its time at Coventry all of whom have been either unable or unwilling to make any realistic progress with the long term restoration needs of the vehicle. Hopefully this will change with the removal to the new guardians at the Aman Valley Railway. All of the team at Coventry wish them every sucess with the project. There are now only four more items of stock scheduled to leave the site; two MLVs, one BIG buffet car and a fireless loco. All of these are to be gone by the end of the summer 2006.
April 2006 The Class 501 Arrives !
	Class 501 driving trailer brake, 75186, was safely delivered to the Coventry Electric Railway Centre on the morning of Tuesday 18th of April. The vehicle had been collected from the Marchwood Millitary Railway on Thursday of the previous week and had spent the Easter holiday in Alleleys yard. The 501 preservation project was established by SERA nearly nine years ago to preserve the last unit and this is the first member of the class to enter preservation, 21 years after the last examples ran in passenger traffic. The 501 TSO which was sold from Marchwood at the same time was moved the same day to a metals recycler in the Andover area. The new owner claims the vehicle is for re-use and not scrap. SERA did bid for this vehicle too but at a scrap price which reflected the severe underframe damage that it has suffered. The bid was bettered by the new owner and the SERA felt the vehicles poor mechanical condition could not justify major outlay.
March 2006 The Coventry Exodus Begins!
	The clear out of vehicles from the Coventry Electric Railway Centre is well under way. In the last week of March four items have left, including Mark 1 TSO 3924 (pictured left on Rowley Road) which departed on March 28th for a new life at Torrington station in North Devon which has been converted to a pub. The coach will put a new attraction into the old platform as a reminder of the site's former use. Other items to have left are ex MOD 25t brake van, 2310, to the Chasewater Railway and the remains of two Ruston and Hornsby 48DS locos, 235515 and 349048, which were taken away for scrap. It should be noted that all of the vehicles to leave are private projects and the SERA core fleet is not affected.