Flying Scotsman

Thanks for that info, it's much appreciated although it's a disheartening read

I was greatly saddened to see D8000 sat around for so long with the cylinder heads off; I wonder what state that's in now?

 

Is the opening statement correct? I would have said the NRM as owner/principal are seeking a contractor to maintain the loco in operating condition for operation by one or more TOCs and heritage railways in accordance with the NRM's policies.

Has the NRM ever had TOC status during the privatisation era? What was its status back in BR days? Who prepared Mallard, Compound 1000 etc and declared them fit to run back in the 80s?

 

D8000 moved into the decontamination compound in the Great Hall last week to undergo further asbesdos removal. Pity there is no longer a workshop available to do this work in, especially as there is a long queue locos and stock waiting to follow it in there, but hay, what do I know?

Peter

 

I have said it before and I'll say it again.....

If we want young people to gain an interest in steam and railways we need to engage them with it young, and practically.

One of my most vivid memories was driving a 7 1/4 wren up and down the little yard where the dining car used to sit at the NRM, that stuck with me.

We are lucky that a member of the local model engineers has taken our 5 year old under his wing a bit and lets her light up, clean, oil round and drive his loco under supervision.

She's quite happy to look at static, dead exhibits for a while, but she will spend most of a day "helping" given the chance.

Chris

 

Is there something wrong with BIL ?

 

Other than that it's been running on the mainline since May 2017 and its ticket is presumably due for expiry 0r renewal, seemingly not.

 

I think this is a problem that faces many railway 'museums', its keeping the not immediately engaged occupied for a prolonged period of time.

Case in point for me is Didcot, I'd not been for years but a friend of mine said his kids managed about 40 mins before they were bored and had enough, I wasn't sure of that but then went the other year with my wife and daughter (both of whom will happily spend a day at a preserved railway or wait on the side of the mainline to see a train through) they managed about an hour before they were bored with it (and I as an enthusiast didn't manage that much longer TBH), a decent cafe manages to drag things out for those who are not that interested but it still wasn't great.

I think the problem the NRM has on here (as do MK2 carriages, diesels on the back etc etc) is that enthusiasts are only a small (and I suspect shrinking) part of their clientele and they have to appeal to everyone which includes joe public and the bored partners/offspring of even enthusiast visitors. last time I went to the NRM was with my wife (pre child days) and she had faily recently had surgery and the cafes etc were a godsend as gave her a chance to take a break whilst I did my thing.

Edit - I should have added bearing in mind as admission is free (so unlike pretty much every other railway attraction in the UK) unless you can get some secondary spend out of punters via cafes or shops the NRM will invariably struggle for money, which will in turn I suspect affect its ability to ever bother restoring stuff to steam in the future.

As for the Scotsman thing I suspect we will never know what went on between NRM and NSO so we will be left probably 5 versions to debate, the NRM version, the NSO version, the pro NRM version online, the negative NRM version online and the truth. I notice we have already managed several pages on this thread off the back of no apparent hard evidence.

 

Depending on what West coast decides as its policy moving forward, either 35018 will have a retube, giving it another 3 years, receive air braking equipment, so it can be used with the air braked stock, or it will see out its ticket just in use at Carnforth, and West coast will just hire in the engines its needs to operate its charter workings, the three black 5's, and possibly 34028, and eventually 34007,

 

Now, that's interesting: I was given one of these "experience" gift thingys by my sister in law last Christmas for Didcot, so a few months ago I got in the car and drove there. Now, in no way am I a GWR man: I'm a GNR/LNER man through and through but I hadn't been there for about 45 years, when I went with the village model railway club run by our vicar. I found Didcot utterly absorbing and fascinating and I actually ran out of time there; I plan to go back next year, in fact.

 

Ooh, thanks for that Peter, that's good news indeed. I have a soft spot for D8000, mainly because of Hornby-Dublo

 

I suspect in that era of a joined-up, nationalised railway the engines would have gone to one of its workshops to be overhauled, where there was probably still some expertise available to do the work.

 

Digressing, it's also worth bearing in mind that free admission is part of a trade-off for the national museums that get central government funding.

 

Torgormaig can give chapter and verse but I would imagine that the locos would be prepared by the NRM/support group and examined by a BR examining fitter. There was still a boilersmiths department at that time with boiler inspectors.

 

Tempus fugit.

 

But you are an enthusiast not a 10 year old girl nor (as far as I am aware ) a woman in your late 30's with at best a passing interest in steam trains to humour their soppy old dad/husband!

It is, but there is a finite amount of money associated with that and any secondary sales help to top that up and finance what are, I suspect at best, WIBN projects....

 

Quite - my point being that a shift towards charging admission might reduce income further.

 

I think we are at cross purposes here, I was making no suggestion of charging, more noting that the proliferation of secondary income sources was a necessary weevil to make things like restoring Scotsman and operating her on the mainline possible.

 

Understood - and agree with your point completely.

 

There is no work for it at Carnforth at the moment. Surely it (and others in the fleet) must get air brakes - otherwise their only use would be on hire to heritage railways, and how many are going to need a Merchant Navy on hire for more than 3 or 4 galas a year collectively?