New Build J50

This crowd (person?) has been going since April 2013 on Facebook, but they've just launched their new website:

Website

Facebook Page

Some comments:

1. They really need to start answering questions that people have been asking on their Facebook page.
2. Where's the business/fundraising plan?
3. Where's the construction base?
4. Where are the skills?
5. Who's behind it - put a name to yourselves!
6. The website has some pretty appalling spelling/grammar.
7. Is a J50 really a suitable loco for preserved line use? It might well have a high TE but it was designed as a shunter/goods loco - is this going to produce the seasick effect that other goods locos seem to produce?


I refer back to my own post of March 2012 (here), which was seen by quite a few people as a good standard to judge new builds on. I ask, does this project meet any of these tests?

1. Do the plans still exist for the intended loco, and can be obtained easily at minimal/no cost
2. You've established a committee with a proper constitution and modus operandi
3. The experience of each committee member is known, and is appropriate to the project
4. There is the support of a well known preservation name or the backing of an established railway
5. You've agreed a base to work from, that has appropriate workshop facilities
6. The legal structure has been established and is freely available for would-be donors to check
7. You have a well presented website ready to go and a method for online/offline donations with the appropriate admin backup
8. You've done market research to establish if enthusiasts would want to contribute to this loco project and if so are there enough contributors who would be paying in enough to make it viable?
9. Would railways would want to hire your loco, and if so how much they would pay - is that enough to cover maintenance/overhauls?

I would propose that the answer is a resounding NO, and therefore the project has 0% of achieving anything tangible.


Keith

 

I think you are being extremely cynical. They are almost there as they have OVER 500 likes on Facebook! What else is there to do when running a new-build project other than tracing a wheel and doing some freehand sketches?

Haven't heard from young Stuart for a while...

Looking forward to seeing this copper boilered machine hit the rails imminently. I bet they are already painting it in lined black!

 

Sorry. I forgot one of them has a Hornby version so they can measure parts off that...


Keith

 

The wheel base is 16'3" long which is 2" longer than the J15 and 2'5" longer than the J94 which a lot of are used on passenger trains, so for that angle it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Why not leave them alone to get on with it, or die. But I hope one of these 'hopeless' facebook builds succeeds one day to confound us all.