Fastline railway plant being sold by administrator

UK asset valuation and auction company Edward Symmons is selling more than 18000 items of small plant from the railway plant rental business Fastline following the appointment of administrators at Fastline and its parent company Jarvis earlier this year.

The rental business, which had revenues of around €57 million in 2009 and was included in the IRN-100 listing of the largest equipment rental businesses in the world, is now being broken up and sold on behalf of the administrators, Deloitte LLP.

The small plant division ranges from small hand tools and lighting towers and linklights to much larger rail mounted inspection trolleys. Edward Symmons said it intended to hold a series of ‘online' auction sales starting in June. (see www.edwardsymmons.com).

Online auctions of equipment based at different Fastline depots are scheduled as follows: June (Glasgow & Darlington), July (Peterborough), September (Chiswick) and October (Nottingham & Doncaster).

In addition to the small equipment for sale, the auctioneers are selling much larger, specialist ‘on track' rail plant operated by Fastline and Jarvis, including dynamic track stabilisers, track relaying machines, cranes and ballast regulators.

Steve Mason, the partner at Edward Symmons who is managing the disposals, said: "It is rare for such a diverse range of high quality track plant to come to the market in such quantities. As a result we have already received considerable interest from around the world and are in the process of evaluating initial offers."