Flying Scotsman

I've often wondered where Bulleid got his inspiration for the Leader class from - a locomotive that spent more time in the shops than out on the road. It's obvious now, of course; from his erstwhile boss.

The NRM should not be wasting all this money. It seems to have accepted that Mallard should remain stuffed and mounted on a plinth. Surely FS should follow it and then maybe the A1 lot could be persuaded to make a replica A3 their next project after the P2.

 

rubbish,ill informed clap trap.

 

And then the Millions spent on overhauling the locomotive to mainline standards be wasted as she stands silent in the Great Hall?

At least on the mainline, No. 4472 ( 60103 ) has a chance to recuperate some of the cost, she'd serve no purpose standing in the NRM now but to slightly increase visitor numbers, and hope those visitors buy merchandise. And in the NRM, the glamour would fade over the years ( before last year, who heard of numerous schools taking a trip especially to see Mallard and her solely, resulting in mass amounts of money in to a No. 4468 aimed piggy bank? ).

 

And the point in the "A1 lot" making a replica A3 would be............? Quite frankly pointless!

No doubt a post just to stir things up once again.

 

Definitely yes! As Ive said before: I just wish others get the message too and let the relevant parties get on with the job in hand. What has happened in the past especially prior to two or more years ago, therefore cannot be changed and lessons have been learnt from it. Yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing. So can we have posts from now on concentrating on the positive aspects of getting FS back on the mainline, not too much to ask for is it?

 

What a load of old tosh.

 

No, there is absolutely no certainty that FS is to be restored to main line condition. Riley's contract includes a break clause which can be activated by the NRM once a full examination of the locomotive has been carried out and a review of the time and costs involved is completed. Hopefully it will be activated and stop any further waste of money.

 

There is no way that FS will, by running her on the main line, recoup the money spent on her, let alone build up a reserve for her next overhaul. In 10 years time, if not sooner, we will be back where we are now. Clearly this is an emotive subject but hard decisions have to be taken sometimes.

 

The biggest waste of money would be to stop now with the end in sight for the want of what is by now a small proportion of the overall cost. Throwing away the investment already made would be scandalous. In any case it is currently a kit of parts and there would be significant costs just puting it back together in order to stuff and mount it

 

I never said she'd recoup the whole cost, I said she'd recoup 'Some'.

Back to what I said, in the museum, she's not going to make any additional money for the NRM like she could have a chance of making on the mainline. It's too far in to the overhaul to turn back, unless in the extreme case that the further work needed to have her steaming, would outweigh the possible gain in revenue from her running.

 

Have any preserved locos ever recouped the money spent on them?

 

Preservation is a passion. People do it because they value the item or items in question. If you want to make money from preserving something you would be better restricting your activities to making jam. So if you want to keep a locomotive running it will cost you, little doubt about that. Now, you may be fortunate enough to be able to run from one overhaul to the next with very little going wrong and if you have obtained sufficient work over that period you may have a sum of money that goes some way towards the cost of the next overhaul. On the other hand you could fall prey to a series of valve and valve ring issues that eat up your earnings faster than you can replenish them. Equally you could have unresolved design issues. Or a batch of poor quality tubes that start to fail very quickly. You just do not know. Now you can decide not to bother because of the uncertainty, that is your choice. The man who does nothing achieves nothing. And the preservation movement has achieved with tens of thousands of hours of volunteer labour and millions of pounds in donations.
So 4472 has cost more to overhaul than it ideally should have done. It probably is not the first in this regard. Mistakes have been made but in the human world that is what goes with being alive.
So in ten years time we will be looking to overhaul the A3 again. How does that matter? Other engines will cycle through the various works before then. Privately owned and you won't find out the cost. Society owned and you might. Do you have a problem with people spending money as they see fit? You can always argue over how resources are used and spent but to give a perspective on this, you could not buy a Premiership footballer for the modest sum the A3 will have cost.

 

It's my opinion that W14 is in a minority of one. He/she has got an opinion, fair enough, but I fear he/she is not going to get very far with that opinion.
I look forward to FS back on the main line, for me, at my age, the sooner the better

 

Surely the money spent on FS is a result of donations from the British Public et al.......donations are a gift not a sum invested for a return on your capital. All the donors want to see is FS back up and running again...so where's the problem? They presumably have seen that some of the money been "misspent", but they are still prepared to donate............

 

Where does 10 years come into it. It is seven years for a mainline loco. With a well organised maintenance schedule for the bottom half and a boiler overhaul that should not be a problem I see no reason for a very expensive overhaul.

 

7 years for a mainline registered locomotive but 10 years for running on preserved railways. It may be the NRM's choice to let No. 4472 live out those three years on a heritage line than go straight in to the shop for overhaul.

 

I have disagreed with you on a number of occasions but in this instance I think you are absolutely spot on.
A number of locos have been returned to working order and then have sat for years out of traffic through lack of funds but just because they didn't earn enough to fund the next overhaul doesn't mean that the first overhaul shouldn't have taken place. To use that rationale would see precious few locos ever returned to working order. I spoke to one private owner and he said that he never really makes money out of loco ownership but as long as people enjoy seeing and riding behind his "baby" and he can afford to make good the difference between income and outgoing, he'll keep on doing it. That goes for a lot of of loco owners I should imagine.