Swanage Railway General Discussion

I wonder if Swanage long term are looking to have two steam services again?? If the long term view is that they dont, and they dont plan to have a another steam set of dinning in the day, then Swanage really dont need many steam locos at all. Perhaps only 3 max in service - 1/2 in overhaul.
Two bullieds, 4MT, T3 and the T9 and thats all you would need otherwise we will have too many locos ruinning too little

I'm hoping and expecting a return to two steam services at least at the weekend during the summer! God knows what and if the Wareham service will return but during the summer it seemed busy.


I'm starting to get very excited about the return of the T3, hopefully a big short term money maker

 

Why?

I’d say the engine’s best future would be somewhere under cover.

Tom

 

Sorry, I should have added as a working engine

 

I’d still suggest somewhere it can be stored under cover between working periods …

Tom

 

I agree, but how about some variety - return the T9 to the NRM ands let's see the NER R1 go to the NYMR, for example. At the moment just about everything that's out on loan are ex-SR locos. Other companies did exist!

 

If you look at the number of 4-4-0's former Southern types outnumber the rest, If by chance the T9 was found to not be viable for further active life, then the SECR D class should at least be examined to ascertain if it is thiesable for a return to steam. that way the balance of the collection on display would not be upset.

 

Why the clamour to deaccession locos from the NRM?

Doing so doesn’t create more capacity to overhaul them, nor does it create more need for steam locos. So it would appear to me to have two impacts:

1. It weakens the overall national collection
2. It consigns a loco that may have had an operational future to the back of the queue as people prefer the “new thing”

These things come with an opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of getting another loco out of the NRM is the impact it has on other locos.

Tom

 

Tom, i think you may have misunderstood what i meant, which was If its found that 30120 is beyond being repaired and its decided that she goes back to York, as a static display, then might consideration be given to releasing another engine from the national collection, like say 737, or C1, so that can have another working spell, the engine would still be owned by the NRM, but loaned for a period of time, part of that could be returning to york, as a working attraction, giving brake van rides on the York demonstration line .

 

Absolutely.

A further cause of concern must be SRT SRC's ongoing ability to resource (funding and labour) the maintenance and overhaul of the fleet. Restoring the (now) magnificent T3 to running order has come at a very significant cost - not just the cost of the T3 restoration itself but also delaying works on the two Moguls which AIUI still involve the payment of sizeable rental payments to their owner.

It seems like only yesterday that members of the SRT were heavily promoting the long term (25 years?) hire of the 3 "Bunch" Moguls as being an essential part of the long term fleet plan. So essential that 8? years have gone by with still only 1 in steam.

As others have alluded to, if compared to pre covid, the number of loco steaming days is significantly reduced, then just what is the long term fleet plan? How many locos and which ones?

 

I think some people are maybe (yet again) looking at certain locomotives as if they’re something in a ‘00’ gauge manufacturer’s catalogue and thinking ‘ooh I want one of those to play with this time’

 

Well if a guy who works at Swanage who was chatting on Discord a few months ago is right, they thinking of breaking the contract on the Moguls early and getting rid of them, so they not part of the long term plan anymore.

 

Who was saying it, and what on earth is “Discord”?

 

Well I get the impression he should kept his mouth shut, although me and him have crossed swords several times I not dropping him in it as I don't like dropping people in it. I don''t mind dropping my self in it but that's another thing...

Discord is another form of social media linked to video games to start with. Normally you join a group and chat to them. This was in a railway centric group.

 

Breaking a contract is not something you can just decide to do. The contract may have a break clause at a certain point that lets either party terminate it, likely with some form of financial penalty. Both parties may negotiate a mutual termination, but that again is likely to come with some form of financial penalty, in this case for the railway as they I presume are paying some form of monetary figure for the locos.
Unless you want some days in court and probably a large legal bill you cannot just decide to break a contract.
In my working life I have terminated many contracts, some by agreement, some due to non performance by one of the parties. We never "broke" a contract and as I said such things normally come with a cost.

 

If that happens, it will be interesting to see where they go next.

 

Video games are one thing. Dangerous games are whole different matter…….

 

That would be very interesting, i know where they won't go, and if Swanage were to decide to end the contract, that's another location off the list, thing is this, one engine fine, you still have a degree of flexibility over use, but 3 engines, might give the owner a unfair advantage over other smaller groups.

 

Not that I do that but if the fleet was (had to be) 5 strong I would like 2 X BoB/WC, 1 T3, 1 T9, 1 4MT. If 6 strong I would either have the M7 or another 4MT in addition.

I do like the Mogul but realistically it has to be 1 Mogul and not 3 but because the owner probably wants all 3 in the same location I have ruled it out of my wish list.

 

Why would the owner want them all in the same location? So long as they are all looked after and he gets the best income he can, I doubt he is adverse to splitting them up. He owns other locos in different locations.It just so happens Swanage wanted all 3, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that any future location has to take all 3.

 

I thought they came as a package deal. If I am mistaken in that belief then that does put a different complexion on it. I still find it hard to believe that SRT SRC would lease 3 locos 2 of which were not in working order without having a very well worked out (and funded) plan in place.