73096

Well, you could argue a flippant post (#76) deserves a flippant answer, or in this case it got two...

 

Post 76 wasn't intended to be flippant.......

 

Who cares anyway?

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Nor was my reply. Some people do know and won't or in my case cannot say.

 

All people need to know is that it's at southall and will get overhauled at some point


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Is that all they need to know? For the moment I would agree with you that people generally don't need to know who owns 34016 and 73096. The day may come (for example if money was to be being collected to help fund an overhaul) when that might be necessary information though. In fact the ownership of 73096 at least has been made public, though not particularly clearly.

 

Again, what is the point of posting to tell us you cannot tell us!
I'm sure we're all very pleased a secret is in your possession but until such time as you can divulge anything meaningful would you kindly think about not teasing us?

 

All that people want to know is what the status of the engine is is it stored, or has the overhaul started, some of us are all to familiar with the "who owns what engine" where JB is concerned nothing is ever simple add into the mix David Smith, and well you will never have an answer. in the past 73096 has been a very capable engine on the mainline, and i would expect that at some stage she will return, most likily when Tangmere is due its next heavy overhaul. assuming of course that the owner(s) has the necessary funds to overhaul it.

 

I think he's saying he can't say.....I presume that he means he doesn't know, not that he is teasing you.

 

Here is the excellent news about the future of 73096 as posted by @Steamage in the MHR operations thread:

Very interesting message circulated to loco and traffic departments today from our Operations Manager:
"8th Nov 2017
The MHR has agreed to acquire locomotive 73096 from Mr John Bunch at its operational value and the locomotive will arrive at MHR shortly.
Upon final payment being made the parties have agreed to extinguish all claims."
It will be good to welcome this "really useful engine" back to the Watercress Line and to reach a satisfactory conclusion to at least one of our historical "unpleasantnesses".

Hopefully the MHR website will be updated soon with more information.

 

At least now we know who owns it, or will do very soon that its been stuck at Southall for the best part of what 3 years now and only now has been sold to the MHRPS i assume the plans to return the 5 to the mainline had changed and instead it was decided to sell it , at least JB will know its going to be well looked after.

 

Rather surprising news because:

1 - I thought the MHR John Bunch thing was all done and dusted when his locos left the line.

2 - The Mid Hants has been busy stock piling locos in recent years - 45379, 80150, 35005, 75079, 34007, 34058. Plus there are all the locos owned by other groups. Is 73096 really needed, or will it just become another loco rusting away for years awaiting overhaul?

 

1: So did most people thats why its a bolt out of the blue, i expected that if any thing, its future was back on the mainline.
2: 80150 long term 34058 again long term 35005, being done off site so no impact on shed work load, 34007 most likely after swanage is finished , 75079 still some 2 years off, where 73096 will fit in depends on what is found to be needed, most likily boiler lift then it depends how much work was done at Southall to the bottom end, axle boxes should be ok their roller bearings, if its mostly boiler work and no major work is needed just limited re staying and retube then it could posssibly be done along side 75079.

 

It was over and done with but i believe that part of the contract of the loco stated that the mid hants had to return the loco to working order and that was spotted and the owner was pressing to get the loco back in steam via the contract agreement. Obviously there was a lot of unhappy MHR members who didnt wish to fund the overhaul for a loco that wasnt their own. This looks like a great new deal and should hopefully put some money into the swanage moguls fund plus also give the mid hants an engine that they want.

 

I thought that the agreement was that one engine was to be in operational condition at the end of the loan agreement, and that the others were to be in same condition as they arrived at the railway, in other words complete, but not operational, the U class was operational and that met the terms of the agreement, thats how it was explained to me. If it was how you stated, then why only press for the standard 5, why not the other U and the N ?
It could be argued that getting the 5 makes no sense, as the railway already has a long overhaul list, so they must have a fair idea of what needs doing, then theres this sudden change of heart by John Bunch, unless of course, over the years things have become less strained, to the point where he is happy to sell it from my own perspective, its the last engine i would expect to see return , but i'm happy that a deal has been done , as long as its not destined to sit in the head shunt for the next 10 years, my hope is that its going to be fast tracked ahead of 80150 and 34058 because its a complete loco .

 

I wonder where 73096 will fit in the overhaul queue. Depends what has been done at Southall. I guess that she must have been inspected by MHR representatives before the deal was done. With Swanage and the S15's hopefully entering traffic in the next few years I would imagine she might slot in to the queue after them. Not sure when 850 is being started and 34007 is partly being done by outside contractors.
With the 9F, Black Five and 925 coming out of traffic in the next few years there will be gaps in the running fleet.

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What is really spooky about this deal, is that only about 10 days ago I was only thinking about 73096 and this type of scenario happening! Weird!

 

Can you think of some other scenarios for other locos please, so they can happen too? Mallard return to steam perhaps? There, you've thought about it! Look forward to reading the NRM press release in a couple of weeks' time.

 

You haven't had any thoughts about tomorrow nights lottery numbers? A lot here would be interested.

 

The fact that the press release is carefully worded to state they are buying the 5 at 'operational value' would seem to suggest that they are paying a price which is calculated as if the locomotive was in ticket despite it not being, meaning that the seller gets the price which they would have achieved if it had been returned overhauled and then sold on, so seems like a winner for the seller as they don't have the pain and cost of overhauling, but the benefit of a capital receipt which assumes that it is, less sure for the buyer as they seem to be paying top dollar as if she is operational and funding the overhaul but they will know what its worth to them and have obviously concluded that the bottom line adds up.

I do wonder whether the decision also links into the WCRC scaling back, a limited market in the north for a class 5 (when you think how many 5's we already have up here, plus WCRC already owning one) and possibly the loss of storage at Southall.