Frames Cut for 45551 'The Unknown Warrior'

The LMS-Patriot Project is pleased to announce that the two frame plates have now been cut for the new 'Patriot' 45551 'The Unknown Warrior'. Corus Steel cut the plates at their Cradley Heath facility at the end of March.

More info and pictures from: http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/frame_photos.html

Fundraising continues at a steady pace. A Donations & Regular Contributions form can be downloaded from:
http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/donations.pdf

Please visit our Sales Stand at Barrow Hill if you're at the steam gala this weekend. You can also pick up a Donation Form from our stand, and join the Project as a Member for £15/year.

Thanks to everybody who has supported the Project so far.

Andrew Laws
Marketing and Publicity
LMS-Patriot Company


"Join the LMS-Patriot Project and help build the New National Memorial Engine"

 

So the frames are still on schedule for being viewed at the up coming gala then?

 

The plan's always been to have the frames at Llangollen for the SSS2 Gala. It's down to Boro Foundry's work schedule now.
If they make it for SSS2 that'll be great, as we'd like to have them on display, if not they will arrive at the Llangollen Railway Works soon after. Watch this space as they say!

 

cracking!

(the news not the frames I hope :lol

good to see British Steel can still do something usefull in a British plant for British industry

 

I'm a big fan of this project and made a donation at the SVR gala, looking forwards to Llangollen and will do the same again.

Never seen a patriot.. can't wait until I do... i'm all hoping this new build comes much faster than the A1 !!!

 

British Steel is now known as Corus and is owned by Tata, an INDIAN manufacturing conglomerate.
So much for British Industry.

 

Always good to see things like this, another "extinct" loco coming back to life. I remember talk of building a new "Patriot" many years ago and now it is happening at last. Clearly there is a long way to go yet but things are moving on. Well done!

 

Quite so -nothing wrong with Tata-they took over the works constructed by the Penninsula Locomotive Company-a subsidary of Kerr Stuart.

 

Looks like there's hope for us yet though -at least here's money going into British industry and not into some drugged up financial institution-bent on taking ludicrous risks.
Oh and by the way congratulations on having the 'Patriot' frames cut-just the loco to bring a few tours down to the 'Remembrance Line' -when it becomes a heritage railway.

 

(read the OP and it should be obvious I knew that, but..)

It doesn't particularly matter what nationality the top management is when the staff and facility are British, in fact in the case of many good British industries, it is actually a good thing they are not hamstrung by incompetent British management.

 

British, Indian, whatever; I seem to have heard somewhere that Tata were extremely helpful at Tyseley with one of their more exotic 'cladding' jobs, and good on them. Usually just best to say thanks and hope they carry on quoting sensible prices.

 

Tata actually has a very long history as a company, and is BIG (If I remember correctly it is about 3% of India's GDP). There is a very good web site for Tata Sons which is the holding company and it is actually worth reading to see some of the things that the Tata family has achieved. Certainly without their help in pointing Corus at the Hamilton project we would still be scratching our heads on the supply of very large steel sheets of the correct thickness. My contacts tell me that Tata is actually a very people focused organisation that has a pretty high moral ethic and you have to say that is a commodity that is difficult to find in certain British industries and institutions nowadays.

Bob

 

So when we view the main frames, we can regard it as a 'cop' =P~

 

I was reading the paper today and noticed that a figure of £1 million is being quoted as the expected fee for this project. I thought about similar projects; 82045 on the SVR has been quoted a simiar figure I believe, whereas the cost of Tornado run to £3 million. Of course, Tornado has been a product of the last 15-20 years or so, so obviously the cost to produce her now would be higher. With this in mind, I can see that 82045's figure seems realistic. However, is £1 million a realistic price on a locomotive such as this?

 

It's a good question and various figures have been mooted. We set an engineering budget this year of around £1.25 million, with a £2 million fundraising target to cover additional costs of extra items for mainline running, TPWS, OTMR, certification, testing, sourcing and overhauling a support coach etc.
We are in a fortunate position of having a Fowler tender AND an offer from Cambrian Transport Ltd. to restore this, where the Project only pays for the materials. A new tender body is needed.

Fundraising continues and we invite supporters to set up a Standing Order to make regular monthly donations to the Project.

A form can be downloaded from: http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/donations.pdf

 

If 45,551 people donated £27.44 just once... you'd have a Patriot...(not quite ready for the mainline)

Here's a radical idea..

maybe..you could get a 45, 551 Image photo mosaic of a patriot (i.e. a Picture of a patriot, made out of lots of other pictures combined ), then get people / businesses to sponsor each mosaic tile, by paying say £30 per image, which could be their own image perhaps ?, to cover the website costs...and have their name as the tip text over the pixel image.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_mosaic

It would make great marketing, by literally saying these people who built this image built the real thing.
And afterwards.. sell copies of the whole image to put towards the mainline running costs.

Again 45551 * 30 = £1,366,530

I'd sponsor a couple start with..maybe pay a bit more for the number plate area images !

 

You raise an interesting point.

I saw new 9Fs under construction at Swindon Worksin the late 1950s. By that time Crewe and Swindon were the only works still building new steam locos for BR abd the 2-10-0s were the only type still being built. The other BR standard classes were all complete by the end of 1957. We considered it legitimate to count the 9F frames as cops provided they carried the numbers of the finished loco and the assembly process had started, but not if the frame plates were just lying flat on the shop floor.

It might be necessary for those who might not still be around in 2018, which seems to be the target date mentioned on the project's website, to follow that precedent.

 

To date the 82045 fund has enjoyed little in the way of generous offers such as that from Cambrian Transport. It does, however, have the advantage in not needing a tender, TPWS and all the other paraphernalia associate with mainline running. Although I wish the Patriot project well I can't but feel the costs quoted may be a little light when compared to our financial requirements http://www.82045.org.uk/ unless a significant input can be gleaned from volunteer input.

 

anyone got any idea why the patriot website dont work ??

 

Be nice to have a look at your stand this weekend at the Foxfield Gala . You will be undercover as requested.