P2 Locomotive Company and related matters

Am I alone in thinking the duel mandate of running a mainline loco and building a second main line loco are seriously incompatible aims?

Mixing Opex and Capex in this way is only going to cause many tears under the bridge.

Ringfence, and split the companies out. Book engineering headcount/resource in a meaningful way if you must share engineers and fitters.

Talk of fundraising above, but no talk of how much someone got paid to raise those funds. Im sure i read last year they paid like £1m in costs to raise £1.4m in funds.

What is the payroll situation? How much is going out in wages?

Why do I always have this nagging feeling when I donate to charities that the funds are mis-used?

Scrapping cannon boxes and manganese liners is a 5 figure hit all day long. Just pray its not a 6 figure one.

 

Communication, or rather the lack of it is the problem,

Then there's the woeful project management, first with the boiler, then with the assembly of the loco. Things like a boiler that doesn't fit, should not have happened, having to scrap new, unused tubes, not once, but twice, should have not happened,

Then we come to the P2, Again, who is the oversite engineer, who signs off the contracted work, to have to scrap the Cannon boxes and liners, because of a process that created faults, should never have happened, it should have been rejected upon completion, not accepted, then the problem came to light,

 

Regarding your last response to my question,"information about", I assume you are a conventor. My previous question of you being an engineer, when claiming " I know a little about engineering" semed to fall on deaf ears. So what experience have you in management, project management, material sciences, design and development, manufacturing ?.. I could go on .....

 

My past experience, i am a former senior manager in Logistics, I oversaw several projects when the firm I worked for had a period of rapid expansion, which meant having to set up satellite warehousing, and a central store, to supply them, this included a lot of specialised storage handling of papers and inks, that were temperature specific, for example, you have to allow for ventilation, and damp control, As regards Manufacturing, I also had a spell in aeronautics where i made aircraft looms for BAe, for the military systems, each stage had to be project tested, and QC, to ensure they matched the laid out blue prints, and diagrams, with the master diagram,
Even though, i don't have the formal qualifications, I worked alongside the Boilersmiths whilst I was at Ropley, assisting with overhauls, re tubing, expanding tubes, cutting threads in tube plates, staying, and carrying out general repairs, including replacing rocking grates, and linkages.

I taake it you will be asking the likes of Sheff for his credentials, or anyone else that happens to post in a negative way about the progress, of otherwise of any of the A1 trust's projects, Or are you once again singling me out in an attempt to discredit me?

 

Fortunately I can tick those boxes for you, 25 years in R&D, project engineering and management, then for the final ten years of my working life I ran my own consulting business, with clients including BP, Dow Corning, Pfizer plus India and Chinese corporations towards the end ….. and I am happy to support @martin1656 comments above.

 

But you post sensible factual posts not based on gossip. I have spent my life in engineering here, and overseas too. I'm 78 and still learning and also doing some research and development work for a USA client at the moment.

 

And are you insinuating that my posts are not factual?, are you calling me a liar ? because that what your posts indicate, My remarks about the boiler issues stem from my experience from working with boilers, and steam engines in general, can I ask do you have experience in boiler repairs, My remarks about fit etc, about the standard of work done , often by contractors, is based on what any person dealing with sub contracting would expect, its not rocket science

 

I'm not calling you a liar..let's get that straight. I know sweet nothing about boilers making. My point is, I assume you have not seen the actual A1 in it's present condition or have you ? I haven't and having no experience of boilers have not commented on that aspect. I am factually aware, though, that there is more to this situation than what is in the public domain...

 

I have not seen Tornado since its overhaul, but i have seen enough photos, of the work done to form an opinion, someone, who asked that i don't discose their identity sent me several pictures of the repaired boiler, when it arrived back from germany
I was a subscriber to the original scheme to build Tornado, and have seen the engine up close, and at the time, thought the boiler design was possibly not best practice, I would have opted for a copper firebox and the traditional method and spacing of stays, based on the original drawings. because that was a tested and known design, That is why i have opinioned several times that the original design should have been chosen, not one that was untested.

 

Could choosing Meiningen to build an all-steel boiler with compromises to British practice have been the first mistake they made?

I remember when Absolutely Chuffed! (I think) was aired, the late Ian Howitt expressed his reservations and felt he could have got a boiler built in the UK.

Incidentally, when I asked Google who built the tender for Tornado (to remind me of Ian Howitt's name), its AI <fx: sighs> suggestion was below.

 

Not sure its fair to say steel fireboxes are untested. Fully welded steel fireboxes are fairly well established. Although, I don’t know how many BR ones there were.


That being said, no point in taking chunks out of each other on a public forum. I’m sure if you didn’t know each other and met in a pub, you’d both have a fun afternoon discussing these subjects in a civilised manner. You are on the same team here.


I do have some engineering experience, and as iv said before, its remiss of anyone to think these big projects go smoothly, (they don’t, not even in commercial engineering despite what branding and advertising may convince you of) so all that’s left to discuss is the shades of grey between appalling and defensible decision making/mistake rectification.


Two sets of incorrect tubes has not helped, but, do we have ALL the pertinent details to hand on that, and any other subject?


All I’m saying is be cautions in your messaging if you don’t have every single detail to hand.


No, its not going 100% smoothly, but if anyone who supports a new build steam engine in the 21st century thought it would, well, lets just say that was ambitious.

 

Martin, regarding the boilers, you dont know the half of it.
That became evident after a recent visit to Darlington.
For the sake of those at the leading edge, i wont divulge the comments on the day.
Those who know, know.........

 

Things rarely go smoothly on an significant project. I always say that the good project managers are the ones that can overcome the problems that arise.
Ian Howitt used to regularly relate to me many of the problems with the original build but they were generally all overcome and only a few people were any the wiser.

 

So you have formed an opinion from a photograph.... I wouldn't, and it wouldn't stand in my "professional" career or my insurers... I would be laughed at.... photographs are that.. photographs..

 

There may be room for differences of opinion as to who made how many mistakes and how bad they were, but the aggregate is persuasive.

 

Are how much are photographic evidence used in criminal cases, and increasingly in insurance claims? my own insurance company requested that I sent photographs of the damage of my car in an insurance claim, so clearly you are mistaken.

 

Insurers form judgements from photographs all the time..

Sent from my PGT-N19 using Tapatalk

 

Along with other evidence surely ?....and digital photographs can be cleverly edited these days ..you obviously would accept Russian and Chinese photographs of their successful societies as genuine ? Paintings, murals etc al, have been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years to promote ideologies, individual interests...,

 

Clap trap....

 

What other evidence did you supply ?