ha, yes, 'boat anchor' was what i was thinking. A cursory google failed to find any second hand parts available in the UK, so i suspect the bits needed may be hard to come by, though i would think if you broke it up, for the current price there's got to be a bit of profit in it, and if it could be fixed it would be a decent lathe for the money.
OTOH it's buying work, and i've got plenty of that already without buying more. There's some decent looking triumph lathes in an i bidder sale ending this week, a chipmaster and some triumph 2000s. will be a fair bit more expensive and further to go and collect but might be easier in the long run.