Isle Of Man Steam Railway

I don't think any excuse is needed for the Southwold loco to visit Mann--there's no shortage of NG enthusiasts who'd love to see that (myself included!). The main obstacle, I expect, is money.

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Correct, money is the main obstacle, but the host railway would need to agree, as well.

[and from previous tests, getting anything steam onto the MER these days is a non-starter]

 

Oh yes, loads of people would love to see it, but would the "(almost) recreate the first trains" be sufficient reason to lever some cash out of the coffers to make it happen?

I would think (looking in from the outside) now is a good time to ask the owners, as they don't have much track to run it on, so getting it out and about might generate some steaming fees/publicity/operating experience, which might help drive the project back at base.

 

Moving it is one obstacle. The other is all the staff time required to get a loco that only does 20 yards up to a standard where it can do 15 miles. It also appears to be quite small when compared to an Isle of Man engine so what sort of load can it handle? There's all sorts of other things to consider like wheel profiles, coupling heights, fuel and water capacity, brakes etc. Putting it on a lorry quicky becomes the least of your worries.

 

Would love to see a K-36 there myself.

 

Quite so -
not to mention any operating / firing foibles ...

Evening running, to keep out of the way of the normal train service ?

 

Nice fantasy - but impractical. Sadly, SS "Blyth" is not in working order (and is not fitted with continuous brakes either). SRT are working hard on the loco, but for reasons I cannot go into here, it continues to be a challenging project....
Seems to me that a visit by Slieve Callan could be more do-able: certificated (well - it was!) for passenger use, and not operating at the moment anyway..... James