35018 British India Line

It does make you wonder, if he has a thing for LMS Steam, why buy 2 Southern engines ? if an LMS 8P had been availible my feeling is he would have preferred that .

 

Southern pacifics are plentiful, LMS ones are not.

 

6201 might be available to an appropriate charitable trust? :-o
Not sure whether there was any rivalry to acquire 46203 and 46233 back when they came up for sale. There were several other interested parties for both 46115 and 45699. 44932 was already 50% owned by the Steamtown Museum business acquired.
The southern stuff seems more like a pragmatic set of acquisitions due to business demand. After all he has been a loco owner since 1975 and would have had largely the pick of Woodhams so why wait until relatively recently to diversify? The business needed more 7s and 8s, the Southern stuff is all thats available. Would not be surprised to see some overhaul work contracted out to speed up the fleet development.

 

The paradox being he is manifestly an enthusiast himself so it could be seen as a form of externalised self loathing. Perhaps he just despises those that have not enjoyed the same opportunities to indulge the interest in common?
Whatever, it is a great pity and needless spite but if it makes him happy .........

 

Probably because the requirements of the business are very different now from 1975. How many long-running businesses now are servicing substantially the same core demand to what they were doing forty years ago? I don't know his business well, but as I understand his core business is, or was, as a coal merchant, and the rail business has developed over time. So in purely business terms, there probably wasn't the justification in the 1970s to invest the level of capital and resources in operating steam locos that is now required by a markedly different business model.

As for Woodhams - he may have had the pick of the scrapyard had he wanted it, but did that include any LMS Pacifics? If you had wanted a class 7/8 in the 1970s from Woodhams, the likelihood is that it would stilll have been a Bulleid Pacific (or maybe something GWR), the only difference being that it would probably have been in better condition than buying the same loco 40 years later.

Tom

 

OR a mindset that sees Enthusiasts as being freeloaders, The " I have spent a lot of my own money restoring these engines what have you done? " thought process, of course what he doesnt know is some of those he appears to despise might happen to be involved in steam preservation them selves, putting their hands in their own pockets to restore engines them selves .

 

I didn't know about the Thomas face, but I seem to recall the vest was his being at the end of his tether with demands from photographers to "make smoke" at various points, rather than being left to get on with running the engine. I think I'd have had the hump too.

 

..

...and a hall (2nd loco David bought???)

 

Think our perceptions are in agreement Tom. The Southern Pacifics being bought are out of pragmatic business needs more than any sentimental or nostalgic reasons. The earlier LMS acquisitions were driven more from an enthusiastic passion for those types due to familiarity. I think this difference explains in part why 35018 is seen as suitable for novel treatment.

 

Two? has it ever actually been confirmed that he has bought Bodmin or it just more unfounded speculation (and now ham psychology) which has been keeping this thread going for the last 5 pages?

 

On which side does the anymosity begin though? What is the cause and effect?
My take is that there is a lot to admire about WC as a business and delight at its product. From what is reported, objectively and independently, the MD could be seen as a [too?] powerful yet flawed custodian of something we all want to see thrive. I genuinely think that criticism is generally without malice but borne of frustration that the manner in which some things seem to be actuated undermines much of the other positive work.

 

Wikipedia has David Smith listed as owning Tangmere, Bodmin and BIL. Note owned by the individual and not by WCRC.

 

and 34073 as a donor? Four Bulleids altogether?
It is entirely understandable and respectable that the business is run behind closed doors in a private manner. The owner has the absolute right to run it as he wishes. With that, however, comes an inevitable degree of speculation and comment by the many people who are simply interested in the locos and stock because of what they are. If that interest peeves the owner then it is an insolluble problem because the very nature of the business will excite curiosity.

 

Isn't Tangmere owned by a known 3rd party and managed on their behalf by WCRC, I seem to recall a name circulating in SR when she changed hands?

 

Is Tangmere jointly owned? Maybe once was, now isn't? Seem to remember one half of the ownership passing to DS.