Austerity for sale?

Just a very, very tentative enquiry. Are there any Austerity 0-6-0 saddle tanks available for sale currently? A spare boiler for same would also be of potential interest.
C

 

if you find one let me know...

 

Is the one at Peak Rail ex Elsecar,Spa etc still for sale?

 

There are 77 of the horrible things in preservation, so if you work your way through the list waving a chequebook enthusiastically enough I'd think there is a reasonable chance someone would be willing to part with one.

I very much doubt that there are any spare Austerity boilers worth repairing for sale - however it wouldn't be particularly difficult to build a new one (they are a simple enough boiler, and all the tooling already exists) - I'd think you'd probably be looking at around £125k for a brand new boiler with a steel box (that's a rough price - I'd have to go away and work it out properly for a proper quote).

 

I thought it was the new owner who had hired it to the Peak....

 

Thanks gents, encouraging and discouraging at the same time!
C

 

What do you have against Austerities? They’re decent little Brutes and pretty darn useful to a significant number of preserved railways across the nation!

 

Oh, don't get me wrong - they are a very good loco. My dislike is more because they are often a bit too good - I'd much rather be stretched as crew trying to make some cantankerous victorian 12" industrial 4 wheeler do what I want than get to amble round with an Austerity without really having to think!

They also displaced a lot of much more interesting locos for scrap when built or released by the MOD - had there not been a big surplus of them kicking around after ww2, I think a lot more 1870-1900s industrials might well have survived to preservation - certainly the preservation scene would be much less uniform.

 

Really? I think I’d prefer the Austerity that was nice an easy! Take your point about how they forced out a load of elderly industrials which would have been interesting in preservation. I guess you could level the same criticism against locos like the BR standards...

 

....or even all of those redundant BR diesels that ousted so many steam locos in industry during the 60's and 70's - horrible things indeed.

Cheerz,

Alan

 

Been trying this for 12 months, and all responses so far have requested over inflated sums or stated their intent to eventually complete restoration themselves.

So be it, will just have to bide our time...

 

It doesn't look as if the one currently in Iron Duke is going to be in use again any time soon and it's presumably so much smaller than the cladding that it's loss wouldn't even be noticed!

 

All depends what one means by "over-inflated". They seem to be in demand, I suspect as a result the value of even a poor one is probably greater than most people think. The one that is now at Peak Rail hung around publicly advertised but unsold for ages, arguably because it's then owner was asking too much, but ultimately it did change hands (I've no idea what was paid).

There is one being restored at Barrow Hill at the moment which I'm led to believe will be for sale when done, I'd imagine that a really good offer now might secure it if you want it enough (no connection with either it or it's owner beyond a 5 minute conversation with the owner whilst calling in at Barrow Hill on other business).

 

Theres 5 of them in the Forest of Dean. All in bits and in need of restoration.
Wilbur and Warrior, Gloria and Gunby at Norchard and King Fizal at Bream.

 

Gloria and Gunby are 50550s rather than Austerities aren’t they?

 

Ts there an Austerity owners club?

 

Gunby deffo, Gloria?? who is she?

Cheerz,

Alan

 

Affectionate name given to Hunslet 2411 ex. Corby Steelworks.
Was oil-fired and had the springs relocated due to cracks in the frames. Withdrawn due to damaged motion, never steamed in preservation.

 

What a sad state for a fine loco; I was introduced to industrials through contact with No 24 through the years when I lived at Corby and No 24 was used on the tube transfer trains from Corby Tubeworks to Corby Sidings; my nightly lullaby for many years in the 1960s

 

I mean, if I had the infinite money cheat, the two 50550s would probably be top of my list.