The 10A Allocation

Possibly, I don’t know. But since Covid, the general direction of travel seems to has be been heritage railways thinning out fleets, not strengthening them. Of course, that doesn’t preclude a bit of tactical strengthening, swapping a poor vehicle for a better one, or swapping the types you have to more useful mix. But as a general point, if a significant number of Mark 1s came on the market as suggested, I can’t imagine there would be a huge clamour for them.

Tom

 

Buying 2 or 3 vehicles in running order could shave years and £s off the cost of restoring several in poor condition.

 

Indeed (though if this is a scheme to keep vehicles in preservation, it doesn’t achieve that, since you are essentially buying a good one to scrap a poor one - so the net trend is still down).

However - even if there is a cost saving to a railway in buying a good vehicle relative to restoring a poor one over a long time period, doing so relies on having ready cash. A railway that is struggling to find, say, £10k per year over a fifteen year timescale for restoration is unlikely to be able to find £50k all at once for a new vehicle, even though it is financially advantageous to do so. Plus railways are notorious for suffering from a sunk cost fallacy: the same railway that is 1/3 through a restoration and has spent £50k so far (but is still ten years and £100k from completion) will often not see that £50k now is still a better deal even if it means discarding the £50k spent thus far on restoration.

It’s not a black and white situation, but I think if a large number of carriages came on the market now, it would be very selective which ones actually sold.

Tom

 

I don't think they will sell, and if they were to, it would only be a few coaches, because there is always a chance that those coaches could always find their way into LSL;s hands, via railways buying them to sell then on, I think that one of two things will happen, a rake of MK1s will be CDL fitted and the others will become donor vehicles, stripped of all usable parts then cut up for scrap, plus a few spare vehicles, or they will just sit there until they are derelict and then all are scrapped, whats of more interest is whats west coast going to do once its engines become due for overhaul, If the policy now is to use hired in engines, and and only use Tangmere , from its own fleet then it could just not put its own engines through an overhaul, especially with new operational systems likily to be needed in future.

 

You may well be right about a fear of them ending up with LSL.
As for his locos, he is on the record as saying he doesn't want to fit air brake equipment to them, but its pointless having a shed full of express steam locos and not using them.
But I wouldn't want to second guess DS, I will only end up looking daft!!

 

On point a) yes the yard is incredibly full at the moment, the video below shows just how crammed it is. It appears that the rumour that a southern link to the mainline is actually fact* which would assume rather transform the operation of the site in terms of being to shuffle stock/form rakes etc.



In terms of point b) they had a massive clear out/on site culling a couple of years back so I would assume that whatever remains is either in better condition than it looks and/or being saved for a specific purpose.

* As the cost of such a thing would be, I assume, massive, if WCR are funding it and not sure why NR would unless it had some manner of strategic benefit for them, it suggests that WCR have a long term strategy going forward and are going nowhere, which will possibly upset a lot of people.

 

In relation to your last point I hope you are correct. The industry as a whole is better off when West Coast are operating in a positive, safe and compliant manner. They have skills and resources nobody else has.
David Smith may have made some strange decisions over the years and (at times) has struggled to adapt to the modernisation of the railway, but can't deny that West Coast is a successful business and has been built up from scratch by him. I personally hope they continue to develop and are around for many years yet.

 

I have to echo your sentiments, But some of Mr Smith's decisions, recently seem to not really be in tune with what West Coast need to do to ensure long term success, one has to be to ensure as wide as possible loco availability, and that has to include air brake fitting, as the only stock that they can run right now is air brake fitted, until they decide on if they are going to fit Mk1's with CDL, so it makes operational sense to ensure that you do have enough engines for what's needed, right now, not in say 5 years, or whenever, that decision should have been made when 35018 was being restored, after all, at the time , they were operating the northern belle, and that needs a 8p , or simular,that is air fitted, and at the time they had 6201, but it would at some time come out of ticket,

 

Martin, when will you learn that no amount of telling Mr Smith what he should do with his business will make any difference whatsoever. He is his own man and will go with however the mood takes him. The more he is "advised" on what he should be doing the more he is likely to do something different. I suggest that you just enjoy what is currently on offer and be patient about what could be (and, given time, may again be one day).

Peter

 

Had to smile at that one Peter. Has any post on here ever influenced anyone to do anything different from what they were going to do anyway? Looking forward to J Shuttleworth's memoirs.

Peter

PS I wonder what effect if any GBR will have on the WCR Thunderbird etc work for Network Rail.

 

D’you reckon David Smith reads this forum? I wouldn’t’ve thought it’s his kind of thing. If not Martin’s speculations (sometimes astute, sometimes entertaining) are surely harmless.

 

One would suspect only if he fancied a real giggle.....

 

WCRC's operations would surely be a lot easier if they had either more steam locos equipped for air braking or more Mk Is fitted with CDL. It is hard to understand why Mr Smith seems so keen to do neither of those things.

 

I wonder what might be a disincentive to make either of those costly changes…?

 

Good for him..... its his gear, its his property and he can do as he pleases....

 

Quite right. We are also entitled to gossip about it to our heart's content.

 

Until ORR or NR tell him otherwise, of course.....

 

And that might be what's behind the use of the MK2 aircon sets, and hired in air fitted locos, because whilst any owner can say, you can't tell me how to run my business, the regulating organisations , say, actually, yes we can, and if you want to continuing to operate, these are the conditions you have to comply with.

 

Your point being what other than CDL?
If you are implying vacuum braking will not be acceptable to the regulator then that will impact Vintage. Or are you just "Blue Skying" as usual?

 

I took it that he was referring to the need to run Mk2’s for the CDL and as they’re not dual braked, then if you chose not to air-brake your locos then you have to hire in some that are?

I certainly didn’t infer any suggestion that a vac brake prohibition was in the offing, though it would be rash to bet against it never happening in the longer term?