Where asbestos can be found in heritage trains and older carriages

Steam locomotives that have never been overhauled since their working lives ceased including museum exhibits can still contain asbestos. This includes:

• lagging/insulation around the boiler;
• in piston packings /glands / boiler fittings (for example clacks and water gauges);
• brake and possibly piston cylinders where the outer casing may never have been removed;
• asbestos string where it has been used as a seal to stop minor steam leaks (whistle valve, pipework);
• pipework lagging; and
• joints/gaskets on mudhole doors of out of use engines. Cylinder cover joints, dome cover joints, belly manhole cover joints.

Diesel locomotives, particularly those fitted with steam heat boilers and associated pipework could contain lagging. They may also contain asbestos in cab insulation, or electrical equipment arc chutes though these are very dense material.

Older versions of Mark 2 carriages (A-F) may have lagging around:

• external steam heat pipework,
• millboard under/rear of heaters,
• rope/tape insulation at calorifiers.

A few Mark 1 carriages may have had it as the primary insulant between the outer and inner skins of the vehicle – but the vast majority of preserved stock uses rockwool or glass fibre.

Last updated: June 2011