61662 Manchester United

The thread for the Manchester United group based at the Mizens Railway.
Found some more progress on 61662 on Facebook recently:

Completed smokebox saddle, painted in red oxide.

And one of two dummy plates that will mask the wooden supports for display.
I was told by Ken, from the group, that they are working on the drawings for the smokebox and will order that next.

 

Well, to be kind, that smokebex saddle is only a 'representation'...

 

Sorry if this sounds cruel but, like the 'other P2', this is a pointless duplication. Surely the undoubted enthusiasm of the group would be better directed towards the Sandringham project which is already much further ahead.
Ray.

 

100% agree . If they insist to carry on with it they should look at doing the £50k plus bogie. Then in 5 years when they have just about managed to complete this small section they can give up but donate it to the Spirit of Sandringham. Also from speaking to the SOS volunteers they have said that part of their business plan for the mainline is to change the number and name of the loco to members of the original class for special occasions . Such as a special charter for a football club etc etc so it would still be able to carry the name Manchester United at some point.

 

Given how partisan football supporters are, I'll be surprised if any railway enthusiast who supports another team donates to building this loco.

 

After looking at what has been built so far I doubt whether any of it would be suitable for use on an actual loco!. As for 'restoration' of the tender...

 

I'd support the tender.

 

Well I'd certainly rather not use the actual tender for support....

 

It could be used behind Spirit of Sandringham

 

Jesting aside, thats certainly something that could be really worthwhile, especially seeing as the Manchester United group have made so little progress of late and it is a nice easy way for them to pool resources if common sense prevails.

 

It's true. If the 61662 and Sandringham groups combined, the cab & tender from 61662 could further progress Spirit of Sandringham's construction, thus giving the group at Llangollen to overhaul the tender.

 

Didn't they already used to be in one group? They had a cab built but was damaged and one of the founders/engineers died.

I think the original plan was to build 2 locos, one a Sandringham B17 and a Footballer B17, one of which would be static and another operational with parts and tenders interchangeable before they split and both went for operational locos.

Wasn't the 61662 project originally given a bit of publicity by Man Utd themselves, but not much seems to have come from it.

 

The Manchester Utd group, if they want to step-it-up, really needs to focus mainly on the locomotive's frames, not focusing on and off on other parts of the engine.

 

That smokebox saddle looked a bit flimsy to me. I would have bought that would have been a whacking great casting and not a bit of sheet welded together! Bit of a waste of time really