7027 Thornbury Castle

Well what's even more shocking was the Y14 and 76084 which were left outside the shed at Weybourne 2 weeks ago were still around, shock horror

 

Good news. https://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/west-somerset-to-complete-thornbury-castle-restoration/

Another positive step!

Chris

 

Fantastic news, I assume that they are too busy at Tyseley to take her as was originally reported. Be great to see her finished.

 

Finishing off the bloomer, I assume…

Simon

 

Sounds like the WSR Williton works is becoming an offshoot of Tyseley , if i read it right Apprentice jobs, under the direction of Tyseley , This has to be a good move for both organizations, it removes the problem of what to do with an engineering works that under a " one railway" ethos , and it adds another option of becoming a main line destination and main line depot how far is Birmingham from Minehead? could it become another core route for Vintage Trains, i'm assuming there is a through route .

 

I wonder if there will ever be a 'castle day' somewhere- Didcot or Tyseley perhaps?

In the next 10 years there might be the potential for 6 castles to be operational!

Chris

 

Give or take and depending on the route its probably about 130/50 (not sure the exact distance I'm sure someone will pull me up on it!) miles from Brum to Minehead, via Cheltenham and Bristol certainly a good one for 'a steam train to the seaside' type operation now and then.

 

Didcot would make more sense probably as 5051 isn't going anywhere for a while, whilst the Tyseley girls could all be mainline in a few years. Could actually get 7 together or all 8 depending on how much of a ball ache it would be to extract Carefully from Swindon?

Exciting times for Castle fans!

 

Perhaps even on the WSR .... with a bit of added pathos, given the demise of 4093 "Dunster Castle".

 

with the WSR planning to upgrade to allow 7027 to run,then Castle Day would make most sense there.... I'd be there

 

It would give even this dyed-in-the-wool Southernite a viable excuse to sample the legendary QB menus!!

 

Don't forget to include Hogwarts Castle and, er, Boscastle in your plans...

 

I think before people get all excited about Thornbury Castle, you need to start seeing some actual progress with the restoration first. It could be as long as 20 years before it runs.

Restoring anything like is possible but it is a long, long hard slog and the engine has had many false starts before. It is not just a question of money but people to do all the work and get parts made/repaired etc, unless the owner decides to employ someone full time to work on it. I am sure it will sink in with the owner. It sounds too that as a business man with a young family he may not have much time to work on it himself. Remember Kinlet Hall which is also owns was bought in an already restored condition.

 

Not quite. The restoration is to be carried out by Kinlet Hall & Thornbury Castle Ltd. We shall of course be working closely with Tyseley Locomotive Works who will be carrying out some of the work at their base in Birmingham and providing project support . Apprentice opportunities will be under our directon, we had a most useful meeting about such opportunities at Bridgwater college yesterday, they are quite excited about this project. The change isn't to do with capacity issues at Tyseley but to make full use of collaborative opportunities and project partners set up by the loco's owner, Jonathan Jones-Pratt, to provide training and skills development, something he is passionate about.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Mike Solloway,
Loco Manager
Kinlet Hall & Thornbury Castle Ltd.

 

How positive .....

Do bare in mind that in recent times both the Hall and Castle have been purchased and the Hall is now going through a heavy overhaul at Tyseley, as with any locomotive overhaul large six figure sums are involved. In addition numerous parts for 7027 have been purchased and a huge amount of background work has been taking place to ensure the success of the project. If I was him him reading this I would probably wonder why I'm bothering!!! Give the chap a chance..........!!

 

I applaud Mr. Jones-Pratt for taking on 7027, and now working with both the WSR and Tyseley on finishing the restoration.
Besides, 7027 is the only Castle not restored, and would finally see all surviving Castles looking splendid. And a gathering at Didcot, it just makes my mouth water!

 

There will, I'm sure, be many occasions when the gentleman thinks, "I wonder why I'm bothering," I'm sure it will be worth it though.

 

You do tend to question yourself a bit, off topic but a good example was when I was Fourteen and helping rub down and fill D821's bodywork ready for its 25 years in preservation in 1998, several weekends prior to the Whitsun Bank Holiday when it was peeing down with rain (usually when we had planned to do some painting!) blowing a gale, or even as I recall, snow at Easter! But come the MayDay Bank Holiday Monday we got Greyhound looking in absolute Royal Train condition, it really looked the business. There were plenty of sleepless nights on the way (as 7027's owner will find out!) but when it all comes together and it looks and sounds fantastic 7027's owner will come away with same feeling we did that Monday in 1998, 'we've done a bloody good job there!'

 

Tyseley had a 'castle day' last year. Annoyingly I found out about it too late and already had something on that day.
Didcot will have two castles to display soon(ish) even if only one of them will be in service.
Perhaps they could hire one or two others for a weekend, a line-up of castles outside their shed would be impressive.

 

Vintage have run Tyseley-Minehead trains every year since about 2013, and have been planning one for 2018 although this might not happen now ?