Didcot Railway Centre

That should be manageable, because it's not very long.

 

Have they got in the inclination to do it though? The two out of ticket locos are in no danger of seeing a workshop any time soon. No point in overhauling the locos if the track needs a lot of work, and no point doing the track if there's nothing to run on it.

 

Perhaps more importantly, have they got volunteers to spare from the narrow gauge stuff to work on broad gauge locos and track? I suspect not.

The original Firefly and Broad gauge teams were dedicated groups that may no longer be available.

 

If not, they certainly should be looking at it. There's a lot if GW stuff all over the place, but no broad gauge anywhere else.

 

My understanding is that the track will take less time than Firefly's overhaul. To start, funding and people needs to be in place for both, and the track will be done alongside the overhaul. Which is kind of logical. The broad gauge water supply also needs work, but again a much shorter job.

Iron Duke is a mess (my opinion - not an official position) as it was stored outside for so long before coming to Didcot. That would need much deeper pockets. And it's basically just being given a roof - there is no plan for it.

 

Would be good to have the broad gauge line back in use for GW200 - 2035 is only ten years away!

 

Is there much volunteer led overhaul stuff actually going on there any more. The Echo is pretty much consistently silent about the out of service home fleet and overhauls (bar the new builds), IIRC 1363 is being overhauled on site and there is also the epic 7202 restoration plus 3650 but I get the impression that a rather stand alone group doing that but I've not seen anything in either the Echo nor on any of their SM feeds about any progress on these. They suggested that they were open to suggestions re 6023, but is that really the most practical use of scarce resources, similar to the broad gauge what is happening with the Railmotor for instance which seems a pretty good and unique ambassador to hire out if they want that sort of thing?

 

For a long time the GWS has concentrated on new builds for which they can attract donations. Most of the the " home fleet" has been left to moulder away and I doubt much of it will ever return to an operational condition. The 7202 restoration started when I was an apprentice. I've now been retired for ten years and the project continues! I don't know what you would do with a "King" unless it's put into main line condition at a huge cost. The GWS did make a statement that they would no longer be involved in running trains on the national network. Lack of volunteers, and an aging workforce is common to most heritage railways. Didcot is always worth a visit.

 

I've got a VHS from the 80s at Didcot that says 7202 would be in service the next year!

 

I have for a long time thought that Didcot likes to do shiny new things, especially if it has novelty value. The question is though, when are they going to run out of the shiny new projects and are going to do the boring everyday restoration jobbies?

 

Didcot is a unique collection of GWR / WR exhibits of which the locomotives form a major part. Of these five are in working order, something most heritage railways can only dream of. A County and 47xx are under construction , 1363 is part way through overhaul as is 3650. Even 7202 will one day return to working order! As for the others I'm told most are in a worn out condition and require major expenditure to return to working order although remaining suitable for exhibition. The GWS has withdrawn from running on the national network so would money ploughed into the King be well-spent?

 

Quite crafty really they dangled the mainline running card to help raise funds for the restoration of Pendennis castle and the King then dropped the Mainline running promise.

 

I doubt they deliberately misled people in order to raise funds. I suspect their decision was as much based on availability of labour (i.e. volunteers) to support mainline running as it was finances.

 

I would strongly suggest nope....

I note that after making much of it being a stand alone project that had nothing directly to do with the GWS when all the Thornbury Hoo haa was going on, the Christmas raffle being run by the GWS this year is in aid of the 47xx project.

IIRC correctly, before they formally withdrew, there was talk of getting some sort of tpws etc system which could possibly be moved between locos saving the costs of having to install it separately in all, I assume that this then died a death and hence the withdrawal from main line, albeit as noted not sure there are the volunteers there anyway, not sure what the situation is with volunteers as there were a lot of disgruntled mumblings on SM from existing and recent volunteers re direction of travel when all the Thornbury Castle stuff was kicking off.