P2 Locomotive Company and related matters

In the not too distant past one of the admin team or a trustee would have replied to every enquiry and paid special attention to the concerns of covenantors. Not any more apparently, they don’t matter.

 

Well, it would appear the tender frames for the P2 have left Ian Howitt's place in Wakefield and are on their way to Darlington.

https://mailchi.mp/a1steam/the-tender-club-775308

 

Good news but still very late and as I understand they are still incomplete. In the Mikado Messenger of November 2021 it said they aim to complete them in early 2022. On The Tender Club webpage it says delivery in early 2023. This project continues to slip at an alarming rate. I wonder how much Tornado’s overhaul has ‘borrowed’ from an already declining P2 income how how/when that will be repaid?

 

Away from the somewhat depressing nitty gritty... how about a Name Change ! nothing drastic, but should now be considering 'Princess of Wales ' perhaps.

 

Doesn’t it have to tie-in with the Trust’s military obsession though, PoW being a carrier?

 

Given the propulsion problems not perhaps an auspicious association...

 

It could, and IMO should, carry the alternative name it has - "Duke of Rothesay".

 

Personally I’d name her David Elliot CME

 

P2 completion now 2027/28 earliest, funding permitting ……

Just catching up with the latest issue of Trackside magazine, which hit the doormat whilst we were on holiday, and found this lurking in news updates at the back ….. I’m not aware that we Covenantors have been informed of this?

 

We've already had another of his titles, Lord of the Isles, presumably the royal connection brings in the donations from the general public which offset those missed from enthusiasts who are put off by the royal/military obsession.

 

I think - like all recent pronouncements - that 2027/28 is a date plucked out of the air. The trust hasn’t got the engineering, marketing or fundraising capabilities to do this and it certainly doesn’t have the leadership.

 

I’m sure this is one of those cyclical questions that crops up from time to time in these threads of strong criticism and entrenched opinions, but… what are you doing about it other than wanging on about it on a discussion forum?

Simon

 

Duke of Rothesay is the title given to the heir to the throne in Scotland - and as P2s were primarily intended for use in Scotland it seems a more appropriate name for it.

 

The name I think it will carry when working in Scotland. The choice of name is irrelevant until we have a working locomotive, something I would like to see in my lifetime.

 

Me too, having invested a chunk in it as a founder. As I've passed the three score and ten mark, I only hope it will be finished before I go to landfill. It's a loco I've always considered to be the most elegant.

 

Same here.

 

There are a lot of us in this particular small boat, hoping we stay afloat long enough to see our financial and emotional investment eventually grace the tracks

 

That’s exactly the position I’m in!

 

I call it death row.....

 

I’m a bit more positive than that! Luckily so far I’m still in good health. I always think of the only person I’ve known personally who got his telegram from the Queen. He was the grandfather of a friend, at his 100th birthday party he was asked the usual silly question, what’s your secret to reaching a grand old age. Without hesitation he replied; ‘ I’ve spent my whole life making damn sure I didn’t die before I got here’.
I asked one of my farming clients what he intended to do after he sold up and retired, he said he intended to enjoy life and aimed to live to 95, the same as his father, with the ambition of departing this world by being shot by a jealous husband!