WORLDWIDE interest has been expressed in buying the rail equipment of the ill-fated York-based Jarvis Group.

Administrators Deloitte has handed over the task of selling the assets of Fastline and Jarvis Rail to Edward Symmons, a specialist surveyors and valuers.

Jarvis crashed in March with 1,000 workers losing their jobs, including 350 in York.

Jarvis Rail was recently heavily involved in track renewal work and upgrades on both the London North Eastern and London North Western sections of the UK rail network. Fastline is a supplier and operator of on track plant.

On sale include more than 100 major pieces of on track plant, many of which have been rebuilt and updated over the last few years, and include plain line and switch and crossing tampers, dynamic track stabilisers, track relaying machines, cranes and ballast regulators.

There is also a substantial stock of spare parts.

More than 18,000 items in the small plant division, ranging from small hand tools and lighting to much larger rail mounted inspection trolleys, will be sold in an online auction starting next month.

Some of the biggest items include two class 56 locomotives, fully rebuilt in 2005 at a cost of more than £700,000 each.

Steve Mason, 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.”