5593 to be restored?

Railadvent is reporting that "Kolhapur" is to be restored for 2022. Good news if true!

 

Yes announced by Vintage Trains this morning https://kolhapur.co.uk/

 

Hopefully a proper red Jubilee!

 

Be nice to see old 'Coalhopper' back on the mainline.

 

+1

 

+2 but will it have to wait for 5043 to be outshopped though?

 

Excellent news about the return of 5593. The only experience I have of her is when she visited the MHR in the 1990's and IIRC she was a bit under the weather.

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What a wonderful opportunity, if only for a short spell, to be taken back to the summer of 1967.
45699 as sister loco 45562 with 45593, also in green, both with cabside yellow stripes, hauling trains over the S&C on the same day once again.

Mind you, if I can get this blasted time machine finished before 2022.........

 

How does this fit in with the other locos?
5043 is due back next year.

They had a similar scheme for 5080 which I believe is still open.
No immediate plans to overhaul 4965 or any of the panniers?

 

5043 is already in the works and was progressing well until lockdown. That will continue once workshop time allows as she already has most of the funding in place I believe.

The 5080 Club for “Defiant” is still open and donations are gratefully accepted. However, IMO the Jub needs less work (still plenty, but less) than Defiant and plus is more gauge friendly, more so in fact than any of the three beautiful Castles. Again, IMO, when time and funds allow, 5080 will hopefully get a chance as it would be interesting to compare a single chimney example finished to the same high standards as 5043 and 7029 to compare performance.

As for the Panniers and the Hall, I believe (not speaking officially) that everything is in the queue, it’s just where and it’s all time and money. 9600 is waiting her turn and 7752 is still at the WSR, though her ticket expires later this year I believe. Even the Peckett No1 is somewhere in the queue! Like anything, it’s time and money.

5593 has long been the Crimson beauty between several copper capped Western thoroughbreds so it’s good that the Midlander in our ranks is finally getting the chance. In the short term however I believe efforts will be concentrated on 5043 and pairing her up with 7029 to give two 7Ps for excursion work - it’s always nice to have a spare!

 

O how the mind wanders. All 4 jubs, throw in 46115 for an S&C plandampf style weekend.

Back OT. As I'm less than 2 miles down the Warwick road from Tyseley. It will be good to hear something other than a western whistle.

 

Does that mean there's a chance of all 4 Jubilees in ticket (or even in steam) together? Now there would be a thing to see.

 

One statement in the VT announcement which no one has picked up on thus far is:-

"It is a gauge friendly/go almost anywhere engine and in its day was a familiar class on most of the routes that VT now runs with its steam charter programme."

VT has more expertise than anyone else when it comes to devising itineraries for Great Western locos but gauging restrictions do seem to be getting worse. My wife & I enjoyed a very pleasant run from Gloucester to Cardiff and back behind 4965 in 2015. The next time VT attempted to run along the west bank of the Severn, 5043 was substituted because 4965 was deemed out of gauge somewhere or other. One lovely route not too far from Tyseley which hasn't seen a GWR steam loco for ages is the Worcester-Hereford line. I think that the big problem here is to be found with the platforms at Malvern Link. I travelled over this line in 2014, but with RTC and a gauge-friendly interloper in the shape of 34046. Hopefully 5593 will enable VT to run on stretches of line which are now out of bounds for their GWR fleet (Panniers excepted, or course!).

 

A nice big red machine charging around te Midlands, what's not to like? Just need to have a word with those nice people at the SVR and arranging a meeting with the LMS set... It's not going to look quite right with chocolate and cream behind it is it?

 

I do not think that a 5X is the most gauge friendly loco around, although they are certainly more gauge friendly than their GW cousins. I remember back in the day that they were barred for some sections of the Southern Region. In more recent times they have been prohibited from the Cumbrian Coast route and, closer to Tyseley, from Stratford-upon-Avon itself. The issue seems to have been the risk of the leading footsteps fouling platform edges. Carnforth has solved this on their two locos by moving the steps inwards a bit. Although it does not seem much, it does make using thse steps to gain access to the running plate surprisingly difficult now (or am I just that much less agile these days?).

It will be good to see 5593 out and about again whatever colour it is painted.

Peter

 

I think in steam days it was more to do with the paranoia of the Southern civil engineer. 5Xs were barred from Eastbourne but one managed to get through in the early 60s. Having safely arrived I suppose logically it would have been OK to send it back the same way but the CE insisted that the boiler was drained and the loco towed back to Redhill I think. For some reason they didn’t object to Black 5s