Steam loco hire availability?

Mention was made earlier about the Great Central Austerity. This would be the J94 68067 which has a boiler ticket until 2028. However it was on jacks in Dec and is still up in the air, having work done on its axles/bearings.

 

@D1039 can you advise?

Is 813 available this year? 7714?

 

Does any covenant condition rule out hiring one of the Austerities from the IWSR?

 

IIRC they are air brake only

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I know its on a bit of a tour just now but Caley 419 might fit the bill. Theres also a couple of other tanks in service too.

 

Bang goes that idea then. Perhaps ironically, theres 4 new builds underway that if complete would have been ideal.

 

Where’s austerity 72 these days ?
MRC and Battlefield appear to have nothing for the summer unless 47357 and 6989/419 ?
Wensleydale too if having a steam presence rather than a bus depot theme .

 

Peak Rail

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Not Austerities, but are Bagnalls Victor and Vulcan gainfully employed at the moment?

 

One's at Lakeside & Haverthwaite, the other is at the Stephenson Steam Railway.

Both appearing at the Victor & Vulcan Reunion Gala at the Stephenson Steam Railway on 30th April - 2nd May.

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Could the SCR not run diesels for a while, save some cash and put its money into getting the Polish loco Spartan running again. It was bought from the Spa valley by the railway as the 'solution', during a previous steam shortage, used for the 3 years it had left on its ticket and since then just left with it seems now little interest in it and nobody working on it, despite it taking up shed space. Same could be said for 5637.

What would it take to get it running again ? as it would seem to be better for the railway to spend its money on a loco it already owns and which it wouldn't have to pay hire fees for. Seems in general, less and less people actually working on maintaining steam locos there compared with say 10 years ago.

 

Spartan requires a FULL mechanical overhaul, boiler and motion, this requires significant investment. The trust recently agreed to top up Spartan's pot more regularly. That being said, it's at the back of the overhaul queue.

Once 6695 is ready, 5637 will next, alongside no. 70 - these will be shorter than Spartan's to achieve.

We are working as hard as we can to get things sorted. Yes, we could run diesels, but they don't often attract our main customer base, which is families and they prefer steam.

How's that 20+ year toplight project? Not many seem to work on that, despite it taking up shed space....

 

Would the guys at Alnwick be able to spare a loco I wonder?

They currently have 3 locos in service I believe.

Has the chunky 0-6-0 (I can't remember which flavour it was) Ryan Pope was working on come into service yet?

Chris

 

Hello,
813 has been booked for the season. She will be going 'Up North'. We have had to turn down quite a few railways who wanted the locomotive.

 

It is reassuring - in one sense, that there would seem to be a shortage of moderate sized steam locomotives. We read of the "imminent" demise of some heritage railways and the lack of volunteers. But the reality is that several railways are expanding and extending their lines, there are more heritage lines in operation for longer in the year. It is not surprising that some established lines have fewer volunteers - because they have more other places to volunteer. I suspect that the total number of volunteers may actually be greater than ever.
Similarly, the number of working steam locomotives may be higher also - after all the number of "Barry wrecks" has steadily decreased.
All credit to the whole Heritage Railway movement.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be worth enquiring if the Foxfield Railway might be able to spare one of their resident locos? Since they've got two 0-6-0STs (Bagnall & Austerity designs) & several 0-4-0STs operational within their fleet, it might be worth looking into, perhaps?