Tornado

Maybe it’s worth reminding ourselves what the Trust’s own website says about itself:

From the start, three vital decisions were made. Funding would be a priority; trustees would be professionals in relevant fields so that their work for the Trust would be to the highest standard; and, because of reasons of certification and the nature of the work being undertaken, the overwhelming majority of the manufacture of the locomotive would be undertaken by the engineering industry.

The organisation was based around four principles:

1. It would have to be run using the best business practices by people experienced in the appropriate areas.
2. The funding method would have to be simple, and capable of being understood and afforded by virtually anyone.
3. Because of the enormity of the task, there would have to be a single aim to focus on, the project’s mission statement – “The building and operation of an A1” – against which all proposed actions would be judged.
4. The rules of the organisation would prohibit cliques and any form of élitism. Everyone would achieve recognition based on effort rather than size of cheque book. This would enable all efforts to go into the building of the ‘A1’.

A nationwide management team was put together who freely give considerable amounts of time and expertise. The Trust has secured a reputation for being supported by a wide range of specialists, experts and enthusiasts from all walks of life. It is this team and the principles established constructing Tornado that are behind the building of No. 2007 Prince of Wales.


However, this is certainly no longer the case. The whole board has been churned in recent years with Huw Parker (2023), Graeme Bunker-James (2023), Paul Bruce (2023), Mark Allatt (2021) and David Elliott (2020) all leaving since the new chairman was installed and not all still yet communicated to supporters. There is now no professional accounting, legal, company secretarial, marketing, fundraising or operations experience on the board of trustees. If you compare that to previous incarnations of the board under the two previous chairmen it is a shadow of its former self.

Yes you are right as fundraising was (and still should be) front and centre at the A1 Trust. However, the current regime can apparently neither do engineering, raise money nor run profitable railtours.

 

Well LSL might like an A1 and/or need some spares for Blue Peter..

 

ABH.

 

Was this a productive fund raiser though ?

 

Perhaps you could explain this, somewhat (to me anyway), cryptic post?

 

At a guess, ‘anyone but….’

 

and who for...

 

I would think so, a play on the famous DfT position during the WCML tender of ABB
"Anybody but Branson"

 

How much would Tornado be worth, on the open market, if the Trust suffered some kind of terminal downturn, that meant having to sell its assets, and who would want to buy it, for instance, if funding were to dry up, and place the completion of the P2 in jeopardy In that situation, would an outfit like LSL buy into the trust, in effect taking it over, I can imagine, that Crewe would want to undertake the new boilers in house, and retrofit copper fireboxes at the first overhauls, The P2 would be quite a draw to LSL. and would be something that would be very useful especially if operations were to increase,

 

Should also be noted that LSL now have first dibs on the SRPS Mk1 set, currently being outfitted with CDL, the possibilities for stock rental, are disappearing fast.

 

It would indeed be a draw, but they already have more than enough Class 7 and Class 8 locos for the numbers of trips that they can realistically operate.

 

So a one-off boiler with a steel firebox from Meiningen would have cost more than the boilers with copper fireboxes for 4709 and 45551 from HBSS!

 

IIRC ( and its very hazy) The first one was £ 300,000 and the pair were < £ 500,000 each...

 

Not really. If you re-stay a firebox, the stay diameter is increased by 1/16". When you get to 3/4", the stays have to be copper as steel stays of this diameter will burn (or possibly because they are not sufficiently flexible). Usually at this stage, the copper box would have been re-built.

 

I think J H is not dumb enough "to buy in". He would want total control.... it's his money after all..

 

Yes, the same press release gives that figure for the second and third boilers as a combined order.

 

First one was £400k, that came from David Elliott, during a visit to hopetown, all those years back.

 

LSL would also seem to want to shove any loco on their roster about at any opportunity.

 

I've never met the man nor been on one of his trains (and I also can't stand his politics), but I'm reliably informed he has sunk money into at least one large loco he doesn't have control over, so maybe he is actually just an enthusiast with lots of money, at least on his days off when he's not being a ruthless businessman as well. Just a thought.