Great Central Railway General Matters

And I think this is a point though because if you consider the groups who have either moved on from Ruddington or reduced their presence there, you've got
-the HST group
-#567
-GCR RST

It feels to me, as a supporter of two of those, that whilst there had to be a push toward financial sustainability, the price of that has been most of the Railway's future unique selling points. And at this point, personally I'm wondering where Ruddington sees itself going, because in my eyes it's become just another preserved railway with a DMU and a few MK1's shuffling up and down with no real drive or intention of progressing beyond that level.

I make absolutely no bones about the fact that a big part of why I have donated - quite heavily and to the detriment of projects of my own - for several years now, was because it was where projects I'm invested in were based. With those projects gone, Ruddington will have to work harder to get me enthused to open my wallet.

 

You can add to that the departure of every steam loco apart from the mothballed B1 and one of the Manning Wardles (and that is up for sale). Even with none of the 'home fleet' working, being able to say that you have half a dozen or so steam locos calling the place home puts you 'on the map', so to speak.

It feels to me as if the strategy is to bumble along just about keeping the wolf from the door until the GCR proper takes over. Whereas a few years ago the strategy was to have a fully established and viable railway so that the two could merge. There are clearly many reasons why the earlier vision didn't come to pass and that's a debate for another day, but it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity.

 

957 was apparently at Quainton 1974-1983, so seems possible. In its present location it seems to have lost its bogies. I hope they have them stored safely somewhere.

 

There was also 56097 that the owner put up for sale as there was no point in keeping the loco there with no stock to haul. No one else bid for it so it went to GBRf and is now running round as 69016.