6201 Princess Elizabeth

The above website also confirms formally that Crew Heritage Centre is the new home for 6201, if that wasn't already known.

Should be interesting to compare the crimson lake livery times three.

46118

 

About time 46201 was painted green... \/

 

Here we go again............................. :smt072

 

6201 is only at Crewe because she went out of ticket there last Sept and has up to now, not ventured out on the main line, the membership have not yet had the opportunity to discuss a current home for her. I very much hope that this subject will be on the agenda for our AGM on Sat 6th June

 

6201member: I appreciate what you say above, but the wording of the announcement carried on the Crewe website is that it is your Society saying that Crewe is the new home. It reads like a done deal.

Dont shoot the messenger: I am only describing what is said on the website!

46118

 

and a derogation from the constitution to allow the group to earn funds from temporary repaints for photo charters as per 6229 in 1997 - or is the 6201 Society to stubborn too think out of its comfort zone?

Black - Brunswick Green, B R Blue - the photters would be queueing up for charters

The opposition of just two people should not be allowed to stand in the way forever

 

Sorry T Bird but from an owners point of view this whole business of playing at painting engines is not all it is cracked up to be. We had some deeply unsatisfactory experiences with 5593 back in the days when it was on loan to the GCR when the "Let's paint it 5552 black/LMS black/BR black/ BR green" brigade came out to play. It ended up in an utterly incorrect shade of green because someone thought that BR used Brunswick green and that was what they asked for and got, so it looked like GCR green (surprised?) And of course after they had finished playing they never did put it back into red as they had promised, so we ended up having to take steps to recover the cost for that. The paint jobs that are done, are never in my experience as good as I would expect them to be for a good durable finish, which in the end pays great dividend for care and attention in application, for instance 4965's paint job is now 12 years old and that of 9600 bordering on 15 years, yet in my view still stand comparison with most other engines.

As an operator, I feel that the claims of increased popularity because the engine is repainted green/blue/black/pink are far from proven. we never seem to be too short of people who wish to travel behind 4965 (more passengers than ever travelled behind it on its tenth Shakespeare season), and I suppose you do have to give the "Let's paint it something else" brigade some credit for having sufficient common sense to not suggest painting it in BR black. At the end of the day, I suspect that the revenue to an engine owner from one of these photographic jaunts is probably at best not as good as the revenue from a weekend of main line ops, and you have the downtime whilst someone slaps a coat of Woolworth's No 27 green all over your pride and joy. And never ever forget that if you want the job done properly with proper paint, the material is probably going to cost you the thick end of £600 to £1000 depending on size, and the time will set you back several thousand pounds worth of a decent painter's time particularly if any degree of sign writing is involved, and always presuming you want a quality job. It is the preparation which takes the time.

Personally I have to say that I have very clear recollections of green Princesses, and once you had seen a red one, the green ones were dull and boring by comparison; the red pacifics were always more popular on our bit of the railway at Tamworth. Just as long as the 6201 doesn't get painted in Bressingham improved LMS red, crimson lake gets my vote every time.

Finally having been a member of the 6201 mob way back over 40 years ago, I do think it is worth comment on the issue of constitutional red. The aim of the society was to buy it and paint it LMS red. There was no idea of buying it to make it go, it was quite simply bought with the aim of painting it red, not to make it go. By coincidence I received a letter from the PELS founder Roger Bell yesterday with a copy of the sale offer from BR, and that quite explicitly said that the offer was made at the sale price for an engine that would not be operated. Things have come a long way since then but it is still their decision.

So my vote says keep it red Clive,

Regards
Bob

 

Well said, Bob!

 

3440 at Bridgnorth
46229 1996
419 at Bo'ness in February
9017 right now

but not Mojonnier & Co - speaks volumes doesn't it!

You can hold back the floodgates for just so long.

 

3440 was an April Fool spoof and IIRC painted on one side only so not a particularly good example to support the "paint it BR" argument. Certainly got the Swindon faithful in a bit if a lather though.
You could add 32473 and 61572 to your list and I'm sure there have been others.

 

You do have to ask yourself who are the selfish ones here: the people who look after the loco, or the people who don't but demand to have it painted in the colour of their choosing. In my experience its usually those who contribute the least who make the most noise.

 

506 (62660) Butler Henderson at the GC. One side plain black, one side lined black.
To be honest I don't care what the livery of locos are as long as they have a fire in them and they give enjoyment to people.
Saying that 6100 is one big question mark.

 

When you see some of today's liveries on the 21st century railway, I think that we in the preservation movement are quite a conservative bunch. Can you imagine this forum in about 20 years time with people arguing the merits of First Great Western versus East Midland Trains liveries? ](*,) ](*,)

 

You missed out the NEEC livery, the boring grey one!

You actually make a good point, us preservationists have never had it so good - and all we do is moan and winge about it.

 

The 6201 people have recently had an appeal to return her to steam for a swiftly declining three year extension to her ticket, because they had run out of funds.

It took them eight months to achieve this since her mainline ticket expired

If they had taken a more commercial view instead of behaving like trainspotters, then perhaps the eight month delay could have been avoided - and all for a lick of paint.

Nothing selfish in my outlook.

 

I don't think the delay in getting her three year extension had anything to do with the colour of her livery and everything to do with internal politics and the engineering decisions taken at the time.
No doubt in the fullness of time the truth will out, untill then everything is pure speculation.

 

The point you are missing is that in a number of cases it is many of those who wish to see a loco in BR livery who stump up the funds to enable the repaint to take place. As an example 34081's repaint from malachite to BR dark green was funded wholly by photographers.

 

I don't think I'm missing it, but presumably the loco was originally painted in non-BR colours because the owners liked it that way. How often do we see the said photographers, once their photo charter is ver, returnthe loco to how it was? It's a stealthy way of making a permanent change. What I would disagree with is your choice of the word"many" in the above quote - I would suggeast that the correct choice of words should be "a few".

I'm not necessariliy anti-BR livery, but it would be nice to see some balance - fore example a working black 5 in LMS or one of the two Scots in the pist-war LMS black. I'm just thankful that Gerald Boden has never allowed 1306 to be repainted, as at leat we still have an apple green B1. I'm just weaiting for the day when someone suggests painting one of the various teak trains blood & custard or maroon......

 

Two days ago, someone said 'paint it green' - 17 posts later (and this has been debated in this thread before) we've gone over the same ground again with people becoming 'assertive' and trying to prove a point about something that isn't going to happen any time soon. Its all conjecture, but nevertheless, entertaining to see grown men get their knickers in a twist over something they have neither say or control over! =D> Its all rather predicatable - well done for not letting the side down!