6201, her new lease of life.

Fair enough guys, just never seen it done before in any of the societies I've been a member of.


Keith

 

The Masons have been holding 'Open Days' of late so maybe it less onerous. I am not a mason nor did I attend open days by the way.

 

Indeed, as do several classic car clubs of which I am a member.

 

Sounds like you had a lovely time...

I think a lot of trusts and charities have such provisions within their articles (I wonder whether it was included in a set of sample articles which has been perpetuated over time) which has become a formality over time with such a list being included within AGM papers and just being voted through to meet the requirement.

 

As do the SNGLT in their 'Chime' magazine.

 

The Gloucester Warwickshire Railway Trust publish a list of new members in each edition of The Cornishman.

 

From what has been written on here, it is not surprising they have few members after having no home base and moving to a new location constantly.

Will the situation improve for the locomotive now it is at Butterley ? on the basis that they can benefit potentially from the West Shed and the group that owns Duchess of Sutherland (ie this group will help them out), Is there any formal agreement between the two organisations ? ie that they can use Shed space or whatever ?

 

The fundamental point is whether 6201 Soc has independent resources and technical competence without input from PRCLT.

 

Just my own view but I feel the one might bleed the other dry, so to speak...

 

You might be right there! I personally wouldn't like to see it gifted/transferred to the PRCLT as I'm not sure it would come back to the mainline. When ever asked the question via their Facebook groups about Maggie Rose being returned to steam the answer is always, no unless you can give us a million to overhaul it. And even then they say that they don't have the ability to run two mainline locos at the same time. So gifting another Locomotive needing a similar amount of money surely wouldn't help that situation. And it could possibly be sidelined indefinitely. Or as you say drain the PRCLT of its money and leave us with zero Stanier Pacifics in working order.

I personally think gifting it to JH and LSL/Royal Scot trust would be the best answer. 6201 society have already stated that they can no longer crew the support sides of things as they had transferred that part to PRCLT anyway so LSL would be ideal for that. Plus in terms of "icons of steam" this loco really fits the bill.

 

But where would Lizzie be in the queue if JH put his hand in his pocket to help Her? At the mo, there's 2 LNER Pacifics, 2 SR ones, 2x GW 4-6-0's undergoing or soon to be undergoing overhaul at Crewe. Throw in a Brit and a Black 5 that seem to need a bit of attention, shortage of staff. When would LSL/IOS have time to fit in Lizzie?

 

I agree I think that LSL/Royal Scot trust getting it would be a bad idea. LSL are doing a great job at the moment but I worry that already there are too many iconic locos effectively controlled by one person and totally dependent on this individuals money. Even more so now they have stopped doing contract work. What happens if his circumstances change ? It could mean then that suddenly a huge number of locos come on the market at around the same time. Better not to have all eggs in the same basket. LSL have plenty to do already.

 

Frankly, I reckon that PRCLT needs to be renamed PCCLT and both 6201 & 6203 be transferred to a new PRCLT under new management, with a big membership drive as the first priority. They can then have one Princess in operation at a time, with the other under overhaul part of the time, have a useful spares pool (bearing in mind that 6201 as the second prototype is slightly different from 6203 as the first production example), and be able from time to time to run the two together... it might even then be possible/prudent to invest in getting a third boiler built as a spare to have under overhaul while the two locos are both in ticket, so that whichever one comes out first can get a boiler swapped onto it and minimise the time spent out of traffic...

 

Now there is a sensible idea! Bravo.

 

With regard to the spare boiler, I'm rather assuming one boiler could fit either of the Lizzies - it might be necessary for each to have a spare if they're e.g. different lengths!

 

Should do.

 

Membership applications seem to be straightforward via their website https://6201.co.uk/index.php/membership/

 

Then paint it black, will go down a storm....

 

I had a black 46201 like this one (from google images) in my tri-ang train set when I was a kid!