Nunney Castle

Sunday, JULY 27

 

Which if you re read carefully says the actual loco will be confirmed one week before the event NOT that 5029 will necessarily work that train.

 

Let Alex get back to you on that one, I don't even work for Icons of steam.

 

We tend to pick the locos a week before as 34046 & 5029 are sharing the torbays usually try to rotate where possible

Pete D

5029/LSL support crew

 

So has Nunney Castle received a mainline extension through to 2017?

More good days for Castles ahead!

 

Now you are talking...but we have the ultimate loco with that spec on the main line... the mighty 1015 of course....

 

And maybe D1062 to follow...

 

I have seen comments elsewhere regarding the future of 5029 after her failure last month. It seems she will not be seen in action again for a very long time and may not even return to ML operation when she does steam again. I wonder if this is due to the changes at LSL or the amount of work now in the pipeline at Crewe.

 

Are these comments official or just idle gossip?

 

Nothing on the Nunney Castle Facebook page or Icon of Steam Website at present.
I did here recently that most LSL locos would be overhauled at Crewe from now on. I suspect 5029 will have to wait until the work on either 34046 or 46100 has been completed. With the recent annoucement that 4464 overhaul is being put back a year it appears that they only have capacity for two of their locos to be worked on at a time.

 

There is also 60532 and the MNs to fit in the equation. Suppose 5029 could follow 6024 in the works at WSR. Depends if it is seen as an important strategic part of the lsl mainline fleet. The other unresolved issue is the future if the Waterman locos, including 7027.
Wasn't there talk last year about 5029 being based on the SVR?

 

The comments were posted with a video on YT so don't know but below I have posted the text from under the video. Whoever posted the video (GreatwesternMGM channel) seems to know something about the situation:

"With 5029 Nunney Castle now withdrawn from the mainline following complications of a deteriorated firebox, boiler stays and it's boiler ticket at expiry point, it is now very unlikely that she will return to the mainline again in future due to other complicated circumstances. I decided to pitch together and publish some unseen archive shots of 5029 on the mainline during the summers of 2013/14

Here's the runs and chapter time slots that follows:

2013: Weymouth Seaside Express 0:00
2014: Torbay Express 3.32 Cathedrals Express 9:30

The last shot at the end where the Castle passes Woodrow Barton crossing over the mirror reflection on the river was unexpectedly to be my last ever shot of her running on the mainline, a very poignant and fitting shot to film of this fine Great Western mainline performer.

So long old friend!"

 

Nobody has mentioned the forthcoming reorganisation/move of LNWR to the new works. No dates have been given yet, but it will not happen overnight.

 

Much depends on how much of the existing machinery needs to be moved between sites and the associated downtime. If the new works can be equipped independently this might enable some parallel operation.
Recruiting competent staff to increase capacity is also a complication.

 

Sad though it is to see 5029 bow out, we have to ask: with 5043 on the main line and 7029 within sight of a return, would we really need a third main-line certified "Castle"? (Not to mention 4079, although exactly when she will make her main line return is anyone's guess!) For that matter, are there even any preserved railways with a vacancy for a Castle-sized engine just now?

The most important thing now is that she should be stored undercover to protect her for the future. Whether that will be possible, at Crewe or anywhere else, I'm not sure.

 

If the loco situation at SVR was ever not looking particularly good I'm sure they could justify it. Even GWSR, in a few years when running to Broadway, when we could possibly be running 8 coach trains. It wouldn't require a Castle, but 8 coaches is better justification than, say, 5!

 

How long are your platforms - are they long enough for 8 + loco?

And, more fundamentally - how many passengers does the GWSR carry? Worth remembering that the Swanage Railway carries 200k passengers per year without ever running anything longer than 5 coaches (admittedly on a short line, so the passenger-miles isn't as great as if they carried 200k passengers on a 15 mile line - but even so, no point running long trains with all the extra expense in loco and C&W terms if those trains are empty!)

Tom

 

we already run 7 coach trains, Once we get to Broadway passenger numbers will increase, so 8 could be justified, perhaps only in the high season. Broadway and CRC platforms are definitely long enough for 8 coach trains, and there have been rumours of extending those at Toddington and Winchcombe (the SVR manage fine with only their terminus stations being able to accommodate their full trains though). I think the main question then would be whether smaller locos like 5542 could manage that number of coaches, as we like to run in fixed sets and very rarely take coaches on and off unless coming out for overhaul. There aren't any gradients really in the GWSR though so it might be ok. Anyway, this hypothetical situation is still a fair way off, maybe about the same length of time as it will take to overhaul a Castle...