141R1332 to the UK!

The bigger, later cast steel engine beds actually included not merely frames - which included all the cross stays - and the cylinders but the reservoirs for pressurised air all in one casting. Presumably this added to the rigidity but given the downside of anything going wrong in the foundry with the cores in these tanks or pressure testing them afterwards one wonders at what point adding any further complexity may have been overdoing things.

There certainly long were ways of fixing bad castings after founding but they were not emphasised, indeed a very tactful silence was maintained.

 

This will help

T1 Trust 2024 Year in Review - The Year of the Frame

 

Very interesting (and encouraging), thanks for posting the link.

 

A clip of the Wild Mary was included showing the famous Helmstetter's Curve which is a favourite place for photographers. It happened to be a place where a friend of mine was filmed in various videos of the Western Maryland. Sadly he is no longer with us.

 

A couple of pictures of the 141Rs on their way out of Winterthur last year
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/850687/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/850686/

 

Well there is that. And then there is also this:
On the 141R568 website is a section dedicated to Sir Andrew Cook, who if I'm reading this correctly seems to be the founder of the group behind that loco, and hence the rescuers of 141R1332 remains, etc.
William Cook Limited were founded as long ago as 1902, and the principle director seems to be William James Cook, who is a relative youngster (30s).
A former director is Sir Andrew John Cook, who is in his 70s and gives an address in the Channel Islands.
Both gents are current directors of William Cook Holdings Limited, which owns William Cook Limited.
I assume they are related, and Sir Andrew has essentially sent the remains to the family firm to look after.
Sir Andrew also appears to own 50% of the Holdings company, which by the way made an operating profit of £8M in the accounts ending in 2023, so I think we can safely say that he can afford to own a French steam engine or three if he wants to. Whether his enthusiasm for these engines extends to building most of a new one to get 1332 working again, I guess only time will tell, but its prospects are probably brighter now than they were previously even when it had a boiler.
All of the above through Companies House website. I have no connection with or knowledge of the folks involved, but good luck to them whatever they decide to do with these locos.

 

@pmh_74 - thanks for that, most illuminating.

 

I found this picture of three of the loco's at Jarnac in 1998?:

 

Sir Andrew is the chairman of William Cook Holdings and is very much a railway enthusiast, hence William Cook providing much help to various new build projects. He lives in Switzerland.

 

141Rs 73, 1207 and 1332 were bought by William Cook for spare parts, or at least that was the story at the time. This use presumably diminished the price. The group owning them seems very touchy about their future use. The former owner, M. Shorno, who died last year, had threatened more than once to cut them up if they remained unsold. Indeed it was believed, for some time, that they had been cut. There are only four coal-fired 141Rs remaining and this group owns three of them. 1207 was originally oil-fired but was converted to coal during the Suez Crisis. Most 141Rs at the end of steam in France were oil-fired because they had greater fuel range and were cleaner in operation.