West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Even so, £3m is a ridiculous amount to target especially when the article quotes the chairman as saying that they haven’t done a full assessment yet.

6880 cost £1.3m to build and is of similar proportions, so I’m not sure why a complete loco should cost over double that amount, unless they’re planning to replace the boiler, cylinders, wheels etc!

 

When preparing a cost estimate it is always wise to allow a healthy contingency sum to deal with emerging work. 7821 has been in store/on display for many years. If it had been cost-effective to put it back into working order then it would still be in use. It's current owners will have access ( or should have access) to a library of past records and assessments for the loco so it should be possible to make an informed judgement as to the scope of work. It is quite possible that repair work will involve the replacement of all or most components, in effect a new build. Pricing this sort of job is almost impossible.

 

That's fair, but if releasing a figure into the public domain, I'd expect quite a bit of that assessment to have been done beforehand.

If the level of component replacement suggested is required, then I'd have anticipated something in the press release to have spoken to that - and it's just not there. At that point, the psychological effect on me is to induce mistrust.

 

So why buy it in that condition 3 years out of ticket ?

 

Since no one touched this one. Let me ask: Huh?

 

9351 in BR Black apparently

 

I shouldn't elucidate too much here, other than it relating to the winter maintenance of a WSR resident and maybe some paint...

 

I tend to agree that the £3m price tag is sensationalist and having just a bit of experience in such matters I woud expect a figure of between £1m & £1.75m for a comprehensive rebuild by contract.
The comparison with 6880 uses out of date figures and is less than fair. Yes some of that was spent relatively recently but much of it was spent a long time ago now and inflation of heritage engineering item costs tends to outstrip general inflation. That 6880 figure does'nt include a tender which is a project in itself and is only being addressed now.

 

Where would you find another 78xx for sale given that the type is eminently suitable for the WSR?

 

Which is true, but the fly in the ointment is that you have to have the money and labour to do the restoration. Otherwise it's just money thrown away.

 

Had that logic been applied in the days of Barry rescues we would now be 200+ locos the poorer.

 

It needs a huge restoration, if it is done professionally I wouldn’t be surprised buy that quotation.

 

The T3 at Swanage cost £650,000. was mostly carried out by contractors (The Flour Mill) and needed a new firebox.

 

If it is in poor condition, then that must be the 'internals'. The last time I saw the loco was at STEAM before the lockdown. Externally it seemed to be in museum quality condition.

 

Ok but if the important things are crap why buy it at a premium?

 

Occasionally a loco may be bought solely for the spare parts. In time, there may be option to restore the loco for further use. One such loco that was not only saved but returned to the main line was Galatea. Thank goodness that was saved. <BJ>