70012 SCRAPPED ON ARRIVAL err.. rumour has it!

I see those "nice" slings (the orange) appear to have been used

 

When I saw that photo I laughed my head off! Is that normal?

 

And now for the good news:

The remaining class 70s have departed from Newport docks.

The bad news:

One of the locomotives, 70.009 I believe, has been declared a failure with a hot ''box''.

Can't we just return them to the dockside and let 'em roll into the River Usk? <BJ>

 

Yes it is quite normal to laugh your head off at broken diesels.

 

Wonder how long before a flamecut cabside appears on Ebay?

 

Looks well jiggered...chaz

 

i think the side should be chanegd to read binliner now

 

Not really a laughing matter. Although not the most handsome of engines, they nevertheless have a commercial purpose to serve and railways exist to carry traffic, not for our entertainment.

Sermon over. I have to admit that I wouldn't mind being the first to see one on Cornish china clay trip working down here - will that ever happen?

 

70011 soon entered service, did some sort of test run on a loaded ballast to carnforth today http://www.northwestrailphoto.co.uk...?album=lastup&cat=0&pid=161#top_display_media

 

I actually think it looks good in that photo

 

Thats not nice is it.....

I wonder what reaction there would be if I had wrote that "I laughed my head off" when I heard that Tornados boiler is in need of serious repair....

 

Hardly comparable, is it? One is a mass produced machine which would do its a job for a number of years before being cut up, the other is a one-off engine put together by people with a genuine sentiment for what they were doing, and will almost certainly live forever more. Perhaps a sense of humour, as well as proportion, is needed.

 

Sense of humour aside, I'd say the two were fairly comparable.

70012 is someone's design, engineering, manufacture and a lot of hard graft and money went into making it. How do you know that the design team wasn't equally bursting with pride when they saw their loco flatten Ais Gill while hauling a heavy coal train in a way that no other loco had done before? I know if it had been my job to design it, I would've been. Sure, it'd do it's job for a number of years, and who knows, perhaps one day be preserved and live on for many more years.

Tornado, on the other hand has been in service for a few years and may, or may not, prove to be reliable in the long term. If support for the loco dwindles, it may end up rusting in a siding like so many preserved steam locos. I hope not, but it isn't impossible. It is essentially an enthusiasts toy, whereas many peoples livelihoods may well depend on the success of the Class 70. In the current financial climate, this incident could make all the difference to one of the companies involved. So, I'd say that laughing your head off is not a terribly grown up reaction, whether intended in jest, or not.

 

Hmm.. and possibly the designers of the latest prototype car cry into their hankerchiefs as it is smashed into a concrete block as part of the safety testing, but I doubt it. If the designers and builders in America were looking forward to seeing 70012 flattening Ais Gill, well, I suppose they'll just have to make do with 70001 - 70011 instead.

I am not by any means a fan of diesels but that's irrelevant; if it were a preserved Deltic or Class 40 or whatever, someone's pride and joy, I could understand the hand wringing and sympathise with them. These are in a real sense irreplaceable. But not this; another one will be on its way in due course.

 

I agree, but the comparison was with Tornado, a new-build loco, of which another could be built, if required. The only point being made, was that an accident of this nature doesn't really warrant laughing your head off, whether you like diesels, or not.

 

My point exactly.....

 

Oh dear, I stand suitably chastised; fortunately I was never keen on slapstick comedy anyway. Next time I'm in church, whenever that will be, I'll be certain to make a full confession, although I suspect that there'll be a queue of Nat_Pres contributors in front of me.

Meanwhile, you could start a movement to preserve the poor thing. You could call yourselves Club CoCo-Banana!

 

I think your making a bit much of this. If it had been the A1 being dropped from a crane you'd still find people laughing about it.

 

Love it! Sorry but I won't be in the queue to join though, personally I can not understand why we are importing expensive new toys from the yanks when British built 58's & 60's are being scrapped just halfway through their natural life. Didn't we learn lessons from the BR standards? In a society where we are being told to reuse & recycle, spending millions on importing brand new machines while scrapping half used locos here seems a waste of resources, money and lacks common sense... Surely the money would've been better spent employing British engineers, overhauling British locos in British loco works...(Rant over, Post sponsered by Al Murray)

 

Don't worry, I'm not taking any of it seriously. TBH, I couldn't really give a fig if someone finds it funny that a 70 was dropped, but I was interested to probe 2968 a bit more on the logic that it was radically different from Tornado and needed some words to wrap around that. To me, they are the same, it's possible more man hours went into making Tornado, but at the end of the day they're both just hulks of metal, it's just the 70 is a rather more modern and capable hulk, even if it's far less pleasing on the eye. ;-)