S&D Railway Trust

Should in 2026 or thereabouts the PLC (a) have an obligation to overhaul '88, (b) not have the cash to do it and (c) not be able to negotiate an alternative with the owners, then one thing they can do is realise ready assets. Rolling stock in the last WSR PLC accounts had a book value of £1.4m, less hire purchase costs of £188k. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that though.

Patrick

 

If the Plc continue to use the loco without having any intention of fulfilling their obligation to overhaul it, is that not effectively theft? - which they are stating publicly they intend to commit?

 

We've been round this already (last week?) Basically, because the PLC's obligations on overhaul don't come up until 2026, it's extremely hard to prove now that they haven't met those commitments, no matter what they say, even in public letters.

 

Even if they are being vindictive, their best course of action is to run the loco for the next five years and then default as that causes the maximum financial grief for the S&DRT. If the Trust remove the loco now, they can at least get five years' worth of steaming fees in the pot before the boiler ticket expires.
The only motivation which makes sense, assuming that there is any sense in the actions of the Plc board in the last few months, is to stampede the Trust into taking the loco away now, thus releasing the Plc from their obligation to overhaul by having the Trust break the agreement, as suggested upthread. This also ties in nicely with the otherwise pointless eviction of the Trust.

 

Who says that the boiler ticket for 808 expires in 2026?

 

Essentially boiler tickets are annual (or 14 months in reality) with a requirement for a complete internal and external inspection (generally necessitating a boiler lift) at intervals of ten years.

No. 88 returned to traffic in 2016 which suggests it won’t run beyond 2026 without a boiler lift, which in practical terms means a full overhaul. Of course it may be stopped for any reason (mechanical or boiler condition) before 2026, but it won’t run beyond without an overhaul.

Tom

 

I was led to believe that the full boiler overhaul was well before 2016.

 

Is the WSR flush with engines? So to lose one that's currently in ticket defies logic, especially as its one that can haul even the heaviest train the WSR could run, Is the Hall waiting in the wings? if so then that would expose the agenda behind whats been going on, basically a take over of the WSR by a very small clique , one of whom happens to have two GWR engines, that currently are too heavy for the line,

 

I'm only going by wikipedia here, so usual caveats, but it says 53808 ran from 1987-96, whereby it was withdrawn for overhaul, then ran again 2005-2014, whereby it was withdrawn for overhaul, and then 2016-present. I presume the boiler was "done" during the 2014-16 overhaul, simply because if not it would have had to have been done some time during its running period 2005-14, which in itself would I would have thought be noted as a major overhaul on wikipedia.
As @Jamessquared points out though, it doesn't mean 53808 will definitely run up to 2026, and if reports are to be believed the next overhaul will be a pretty major one, so possibly suggesting some bits are near life-expired. But it doesn't seem to be the case that the boiler is anywhere other than roughly half way through it's nominal 10 year period.

 

I think you will find that the dates in Wikipedia are incorrect.

 

T'was ever thus! Seeing as they're pertinent to the current discussion, and for general interest, would you be able to supply us with some correct dates please?

 

From what I read somewhere a while ago, the boiler was fully re-tubed and overhauled in 2013.

 

You are correct in this, and the boiler certificate expires (if no extension) in 2023, and this is the date published in 'The Pines Express' (the excellent quarterly SDRT Journal) from which I am quoting from the SDRT Chairman. So things accountancy-wise re the WSR PLC accounts have already been 'adjusted' in line with it's statement by it's board published 1st May that it is not going to honour the agreement and pay for the overhaul costs.

It isn't rocket science nor does it require any knowledge of legal matters to see that the WSR PLC board's approach is quite wrong financially, legally, and ethically over all this; 'you have free use of the loco so long as you return it to us at the end of the agreement in the condition in which it was when the agreement commenced ie overhauled and with a new boiler certificate'.

Cheers,

Julian

 

The decision to end the 25 year hire of 44422 had a certain level of logic to it, even if @Andy Norman has made a case for its retention, and of course the owning group got a loco back that had had money spent on it.

However given the noises being made about 53808, I wonder if any potential hirer might be either less than enthusiastic about hiring their loco to the WSR, or demand some fairly onerous terms?

 

Payment in advance would be mine, and that if supplying bog roll.


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On a lighter note.....

It would appear from the 'detail' of the latest Gov changes to the lock-down rules that it is now permissible to drive any distance to beauty spots etc. This would suggest that the concept of 'non essential' travel has been scrapped (at least in England). Combined with the fact that that we can now also go out for 'exercise' as often and for as long as we like in any one day, then maybe we can now see more people heading towards West Somerset? After all, people who can not 'work' at home are now being encouraged to go back to 'work' (subject to social distancing'), so what better than (say) some weeding of the platforms at Washford or cleaning the stock in the yard? OK, so Washford might not claim to be a 'beauty spot', but then 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' (as I remind SWMBO )

 

Passed Washford today in the car. Looks like work has already started

 

The following picture on Steve Edge's excellent website will go a long way to answer your question. http://cgibin.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/snap.cgi?h=Snapshot&p=2013/01/030113_2_pfl

88 went to Crewe for a few months in early 2013 for boiler work. Whilst there the opportunity to retube it was taken and the next 10 year boiler ticket started. The overhaul during 2015 (prior to the s and d anniversary gala) focused on the mechanical side of the loco. The boiler remained in minehead on a well waggon (and was still in ticket).

 

Have a look at Leaky Finders on Facebook and scroll down a bit to see some work they performed earlier this year on/in the firebox of 53808. Link here:
https://www.facebook.com/leakyfinders/

 

https://www.sdrt.org/images/files/n...rBLVatd6tG3MPsH26EbL722uNfoU5GzGHUFngahjUIVQc

The latest statement from the S&D trust. It is worth reading.