6201, her new lease of life.

I sort of inherited one of those from my cousin Michael, along with two coaches.

 

I remember sending mine away to Tri-ang to have a smoke unit retro-fitted.

 

Ian Riley has a good stock of black paint I believe....

 

Its the only stock!!!!

 

Not true, there's also smaller pots of Red and Grey for lining purposes.

 

How forgetful, but ar'nt they transfers!!!!!!!

 

Crests maybe, but I doubt you could use transfers to line out a tender on anything bigger than 00 guage

 

The A1 Trust has appealed to a wider audience, they give presentations to groups of business people and those with connections. A lot of the components have been acquired by corporate begging, otherwise known as sponsorship. To give an example of the wider audience, an old work colleague of mine who was a schoolboy spotter but had only a passing interest in steam went to one of the seminars and became a covenantor having had his interest reignited.

I think this is the way forward, 'an A1 for the price of a pint' was the original slogan. In other words rather than an appeal for funds and hope for the best ask a lot of people to pay a modest amount on a regular basis, no one will miss £20 a month and it gives a regular ongoing income stream. The other method used by the Trust for larger amounts are the 'clubs', the founders, boiler club etc used for the P2. It gives the donor parts of the loco to identify with and a feeling of being part of something. I became a founder but I don't think I would have been motivated to write a cheque of the magnitude I did if it was just a normal plea for funds. This must be the way forward rather than get to the end of a boiler certificate and then appeal for support because there isn't enough in the kitty to pay for the overhaul. Even MNLPS found they had to put out an appeal after some extra unexpected expense in the form of a new front tubeplate.

 

I'm not sure BIL is 'finished' given it's yet to haul a revenue-earning service and was last seen struggling around the Carnforth Loop with most of the steam going to the right cylinder leaking out before it got anywhere near the piston...

 

You obviously don't have a grudge against West Coast then?

 

I have nothing against or for them - I am neutral either way (although certain well-publicised incidents and reports thereon already much-discussed elsewhere on this forum pertain to some extent). However, when the loco first ran, it had a big steam leak from the right-hand cylinder. It then went away for a month and came back with an even bigger steam leak from the right-hand cylinder, and sounding distinctly off-beat, with lacklustre performance. I am not aware of it having run since. Meanwhile, the boiler ticket is ticking... methinks WCRC need to hand the loco over to MNLPS to sort it out properly and get it running as standby for Clan Line.

 

Without wishing to comment on the competence of WCRC one way or the other, there does seem to be a common theme widely expressed on NatPres (and it has been very prevalent in this thread, with reference to several different locomotives) that basically goes "Organisation X needs to hand their asset over to Organisation Y", without ever thinking either (1) what is in it for Organisation X (who may well have sweated blood and tears to get thus far) or (2) what is in it for Organisation Y (who may well have issues enough with what they already have on their plate without doubling that workload) ...

Tom

 

Steaming fees? That and getting the loco sorted by people who are familiar with the type...

 

You can think what you like - but those who own the loco don't give a toss what you think.

 

Indeed. Or what anyone else on this forum thinks, and that's the way it should be. If they need any help from third parties, then I'm sure they'll ask for it in their own good time.

 

Unless said 'anyone else' extends to operators and statuatory regulatory bodies of course!

 

Quite, and well caught!

 

What has the above got to do with 6201?!

 

Most grown ups are perfectly able to offer an opinion without simultaneously pedalling an agenda. I accept though that it seems impossible to make even factually based observations about WC related activity on NP without it drawing this kind of spurious remark.

 

It does seem curious that any post which might, however unreasonably, be construed as attacking WCRC, inevitably attracts a highly defensive response.