Tyseley Single Wheeler.

See above.

 

I think you've had as much information as you will get at this point in time.

The plain fact is that the bloomer was Tyseleys initative and it is their property so if they dont want to give it away, why would or should they after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds building it??? I also suspect there are still people at tys who are close to this engine and want to see it run even more so than you, but are not prepared to give it up after they've put so much in to it when there is still a chance of finishing it their selves one day!

If you want to see a bloomer running and dont want Tys involved, they have another bloomer tender frame up the top of their yard you could purchase, start your own appeal and see how far you get from the same starting point and what timescale you can achieve!! Or if you were involved at the beginning and have no problem with Tys then surely rather than having a one man crusade on a public forum, you might actually be better going down to Tyseley and speaking to someone about it. After all if you WERE involved with the project as you say you were and have something worthwhile to discuss/offer you may be welcomed by others who share you enthusiasm for this loco.

I doubt any appeal for this loco would rasie much at all as there seems little interest in loco's of this period nowadays. And when projects such as a green duchess, green patriot, blue A1, P2, blue king, county, grange, 4700, green bahamas etc are all competing....... How many call for the NRM to get stirling single, cornwall or the midland spinner running again? yet lots for mallard, duchess of hamilton, green arrow...... See the trend yet?

 

This business with our new friend Mencken is indeed curious and it is interesting that Gromit appears to have seen through it. The man says that he invested time and money in it for years, but the plain fact is that many of us invested a lot of effort in it, but years is a bit of an attempt to exaggerate, as the construction period only really occupied about 3 years and was cut short by the financial difficulty which the museum ran into. As for the financial investment which he claims to have made, the plain fact is that all of the materials and sub contracts were entirely funded by the MSC Community Programme as part of a training scheme, so I cannot quite see how he spent a large sum on it other than bus fares and petrol. If it was someone who was involved he would know who was involved and where to find us as we are still there, including Alastair who started work on the tender aged 7, and is now running the workshops. I certainly personally knew everyone who was involved, some regrettably no longer alive. As Gromit points out it would be far simpler to just talk to us than launch into a rant on a web site. Whilst he says that he wrote to us, he appears to have entirely discounted the possibility that the letter may have got lost in the post, certainly we have never received any such letter from a former member of the team and if we had, I most certainly would not have written back - I would have phoned and spoken directly to him, if for nothing else than to enquire how he was. It is worth noting that the post at Tyseley is not the most reliable service the Post Office has to offer, as they seem entirely unable to differentiate the similarity between us, Tyseley Locomotive Works Ltd, and our neighbours London Midland Railway. Some time ago a complaint about the service to the head Honcho in Birmingham led to a reply from him assuring me that it was a one off problem which had now been resolved never to recur again. I quite enjoyed writing to advise him that his response had been mis-delivered to one of our neighbours, and I never did get a reply to that one!

But to return to Mencken, I fear that he has not actually displayed much initiative in his quest to galvanise us into action, and quite frankly the story does not add up.

Regards
Bob

 

Bob,
Posting at that time of the morning??
I would not lose any sleep over it..
Regards
Adrian
(an ex apprentice who was with you {ALR} says hello and says he is still nursing a sore back from lifting umpteen pieces of steam locos out of the back of your car)

 

I didn't intend to say any more, but since my "story" doesn't seem to "add up" - yes, I put in quite a bit of voluntary work on this project, for years. And it cost me a fair amount of money. Had I known then that so little would be done for the ensuing twenty-odd years, I wouldn't have been so keen. Which is putting it VERY mildly.

You say: "the plain fact is that all of the materials & subcontracts were entirely funded by the MSC Community Programme...". Might I mention Christopher Awdry's large donation? And other donations and bequests?

And it seems I have "not actually displayed much initiative in [my] quest to galvanise [Tyseley] into action." All I have asked is why there has not been a fund set up specifically for the Bloomer project.

Believe it or not, some of us aren't all that interested in the modern GWR, and wouldn't contribute to such projects, but recreating a working 1850s/1860s locomotive would be of interest to a rather wider group of people.

So I am reluctantly driven to the conclusion that you aren't (now) sufficiently interested in seeing the job done. It looks wonderful as an allegedly ongoing project to impress the Charity Commissioners - "look, we're recreating history" - while you get on with working on one of the eight Castles.

There isn't going to be a dedicated Bloomer fund, so I'm off.

Cheers.

 

Wow, Tyseley now has eight Castles.

Well, allowing for some duplicate parts I can only work out 3, 5043, 5080 and 7029. Have I missed one, or 5?

Thinking about it how many are preserved? As well as the above still about are I think 4073, 4079, 5029, 5051, 7027?

So unless Tyseley has made a few loco purchases or been buying up property in Scotland I am unsure how eight Castles is arrived at.

We can but dream, be nice to rebuild the roundhouse to put them in too!

SG

 

Mencken doesn't suggest that Tyseley possesses 8 Castles.

 

Fair point that.......perhaps purchased is the wrong word....but thats still a lot of Castles to own/borrow/acquire/have a lend of!

 

I think the implication is that the Bloomer would be unique whereas there are 8 Castles in preservation and so the Bloomer would be more of a 'celebrity' loco.


Keith

 

Of course I didn't suggest that all the existing Castles are at Tyseley. And in no way am I complaining that there are so many of them still around - they were my favourite GW engines and I had a lot of enjoyment photographing them in the 1950s.

But a working 1850s/1860s express engine would have been unique. Something we've never set eyes on.

OK, it would be of no interest to those who only want to recall their childhood, or who are only interested in the GWR, but among a much wider group it would have created a sensation.

But no proper fund has ever been set up. Clearly, there is no serious intention of ever completing the engine.

I remember the brass numberplates for the Bloomer, maybe the very first items that were made for it, and paid for by a long-deceased well-wisher. At that time, looking ahead, they were engraved with the engine's completion date: "SEPT. 1988".

Which seems as daft now as the absurd number "670" which is on them.

 

Mencken,

What exactly do you hope to achieve from all this?? We just seem to be going round in circles again and again..............!
Peraphs you should put as much effort into putting togeather a realistic proposal to finish the bloomer, then you could approach Tyseley to see if they would consider your proposal!
If the money was on the table and they were not interested, there would be grounds for your claims of 'no serious intention of ever completing' rather than your current tittle tattle.
From what you say you are obviously just the kind of chap Tys could do with to drive along an appeal to finish this loco!
You never know if you pulled it off they might even change the number for you..........

 

I am curious to read about this strange old ,Bloomer' project on these two threads. An extremely interesting historical and educational idea, but it won't happen in England.

Its before living memory, so the train spotters don't (and won't) want to know about it.

Unless - instead of the original vermilion red - they promise to paint it BR green.

 

Dear Karl

Thanks for these thoughts which are a little wide of the mark, particularly as the Bloomers were never painted vermillion red, rather, a few were apparently painted a rather dark shade of maroon in 1861/62. The correct colour for the majority according to Harry Jack's research of Wolverton records was actually Middle Brunswick green , (always remembering that BR green is not actually Brunswick green), so think the same colour as the GCR painted Butler Henderson.

Regards
Bob

 

Was Green standard on LNWR types at one point or was it just restricted to Passenger/Express types ?, hard to imagine anything LNWR in anything other than lined Black.

 

Oh no! A livery debate. Bob, you must write out 50 times 'I must not mention liveries in any posting on Nat Pres.' And each line must be in a different colour.hwell:

 

It is sad news that they were not vermillion and I'm sorry that I was wrong. But I am right about the english Trainspotters.

I guess they are why this good old project has been abandoned.

 

I'm afraid your knowledge of the UK heritage railway scene seems to be sadly lacking. We are fortunate to have a number of working replicas of locomotives from the dawn of railways as well as restored locomotives dating back to the 1860s, none of which were ever painted BR green yet have been funded by the very "trainspotters" you deride. Your username obviously refers to the great Austrian locomotive engineer who travelled widely in Europe. Did he ever go to Trollhättan?

 

Nonsense. There's definitely a market for pre-grouping/'dawn of time' stock across all sectors.

For the best part of the last 10 years the replica 'Firefly' has been running at Didcot. Running days are notable for a fairly constant gallery of photographers and near-capacity passengers, none of whom appear to be over 120 years old. Another 'before living memory' project has been the Steam Railmotor, which has proved a very popular vehicle.

 

But after a lengthy session in the Heavy Freight Group's Black Python Bar I sometimes feel like I'm over 120 years old.

 

'Before living memory' projects must be the future of the preservation movement since those of us who remember (in my case only just!) pre-preservation steam will all be dead within relatively few years.