7027 Thornbury Castle

Being time-trialled against Hitachis on Paddington - Bristol trains?

 

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2022/0...d-steam-locomotive-7027-thornbury-castle.html

RailAdvent states 7027 now sold for spares.

 

Another loco scrapped to keep the Frankenstein factory busy.

 

Some locos that were bought from Barry as spares donors were eventually restored. If one goes the other way that doesn't seem a very great disaster. Was Thornbury originally intended for spares anyway?

Will this mean that the work that has been done on Thornbury, on and off by various parties, have been wasted, or will that work mean there are now more spare parts in good condition?

 

Didcot have a castle boiler on 5051 they are not using.

 

I don't believe it was bought for spares, it's just been very unlucky over the years with its various owners. Now it seems it's finally game over so Didcot can use various parts to make something that vaguely represents a lost loco. By my count, over the years Didcot will have essentially scrapped 4942, 4115, 2861, 7927, 5227 and now 7027, plus plundered parts from other locos (48518's firebox for example).

 

I thought 5043, 5080 and 7027 were all bought by Tyseley with the intention that at least 1 would be a spares loco.

I cannot believe the GWS have bought her to strip, that would go down like a lead balloon with the membership (and I am probably being optimistic there).

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I would argue 4942. It wasn't really scrapped, just altered (considerably). Wasn't 7927 "scrapped" by the Grange group? If so, that's not one on Didcot, either.

 

Unless it already has and I just missed it, this sounds like a subject for it's own thread

 

If memory serves, 5080 was meant to be the donor, until it was found to be in a better state than the other two!

 

The Railadvent article says " the 4709 Group says that every one of 7027’s components will play a significant role in the current and future projects at the Great Western Society" but then goes on to talk solely about the boiler.

So that leaves frames, wheels, cylinders, bogie ... maybe in "future projects" they have in mind a new build Castle? They'd just need to source a boiler ...

Tom

 

A Swindon No.8 boiler is slightly smaller than the correct No.7 for a 4700, but it is a lot closer than a No.1 as was considered at one time in the project. And perhaps the bottom half can eventually be modified and combined with a spare No.1 to reproduce a Star, which would nicely complement the Saint/Lady.

Edit: My link to the Rail Advent article was superfluous.

 

With your monniker you should be pleased about a major step towards a complete 4700.

 

After all these years, Didcot pick n mix have got hold of 7027. Such a shame.

 

Or, get this for a novel idea, they could stop flapping around with these vanity projects and overhaul one of the countless locos they have!

 

The Std 7 and Std 8 firebox are very similar, but the smaller boiler diameter is very disappointing. I suppose a larger smokebox and boiler clothing could be fabricated.
The obvious use for the rest would be a std1 boiler to make a sort of Star ( Thornbury Abbey?) but the differences between the late model Castle and the Star are sufficient that it wouldn't be the most satisfactory of jobs. Seemingly the only alternative would be a recreation of 111, but one would hope that the illogic of saving yourself from building a Std 7 boiler by landing yourself with the need to build a Std 6 would be enough to quash that.

 

Or they could stop it with the pie in the sky projects all together? Problem solved.

I highly doubt any GWR enthusiast would prefer to see a "new-build"/frankenstein 47xx over the only single chimney, 3-row superheated Castle to survive the cutters torch.

We don't need a Star, there's one for people to gawk at at the NRM.

 

It's all about money isn't it. If money comes in ring fenced for the new builds and doesn't come in for the rest what's going to happen? But last time I was at Didcot 3650, 7202 and 1361 were all being worked on, with 1466 being worked on off site.

 

Not like this though, at least with a no.1 boiler there is some sort of precedent with 4700 as built, as noted above one would assume that the plan is to either use the firebox and a new barrel or fatten out the existing with thick cladding?

I will reiterate as in my earlier post, there already seems to be much disquiet within the natives with regards to the new build projects (which I assume also led to the Churchward County being let go) if one reads the minutes of AGM's etc and also social media and I could see stripping a part restored locomotive being the straw to break the camel back for a hell of a lot of us, at least with the others an argument could be presented that they had been left in scrapyard condition for many many years with no interest, but in the case of 7027 that is plainly not the case.

I suppose it may calm people if a firm commitment was made to build another no.8 boiler in the long term for 7027 (or I suppose 5051 if they chopped and changed boilers around), but as noted above its just a deck chair arranging process then for limited gain, plus isn't (from vague recollection) 7027's boiler unique in preserved castle terms being a 3 row superheater one?

I recall (happy to be corrected) that the driving forces behind these projects shared a lot of bodies with the Patriot project and that went well so more concern?

And what of the rest of her, they plainly do not pressingly need spares for the other Castles as I suspect that 5051 is unlikely to steam again in my lifetime whilst 4079 is nearly new with a huge amount of new parts being used at the restoration, add to that the fact that unless they go mainline do they actually need to restore any of their big locomotives for their operation (seeing a Castle on the demonstration line is like seeing a tiger caged in a zoo), anything bigger than a manor at Didcot is pretty much a waste.

Assuming all of this is correct (and it wouldn't be the first time the preservation media have missed the target by a country mile) a pretty dark day in the history of the GWS which is going to come back and bite them violently on the backside I fear.