URGENT - 6023 Safety Valve Bonnet

Dear All,

6023 has arrived at the Mid Norfolk Railway but without its safety valve bonnet. Somewhere near the Waitrose roundabout at Swaffham the loco hit a tree and it appears that the bonnet was knocked off the boiler - but this was not noticed until the low loader arrived at Dereham.

Appeals have been put out on the local radio, resulting in a reported sighting of someone near this roundabout carrying something very similar to a GW safety valve bonnet with blue bits on it. The time window between the loco passing through Swaffham and our gang getting there to look for the bonnet is 06.00hrs to 09.30hrs this morning. There has been no communication to either the MNR, the radio station or the police, as of 15.30hrs today, from anyone saying that they have found a large shiny brass object on the roadside in Swaffham

On behalf of the GWS and the gang looking after 6023 please could I ask that if anyone knows anything about the "recovery" of the bonnet, please would they get in touch with me, or the local police or the MNR.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the bonnet can be found and returned to the locomotive.

Thanks for reading this and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards to all,

Bruce Murray

 

Do you mean the roundabout by the BP garage/MaccyDee's at the eastern end of the Swaffham Bypass? There isn't a roundabout near Waitrose at the Fakenham Road junction (but there is a pikey camp there that a local copper told me was believed to be the source of most armed robberies in Norfolk....).

Hope the bonnet turns up safely (and quickly).

 

Overheard in a Pub local to Swaffham......"....Found a bloody great brass flowerpot with funny shaped blue handles on the side of the road this morning......."

 

Hope they get it back and quick!

 

there is a theme it seems with Kings having their brass bit knocked off them!
Hope it is recovered quickly. Doesn't the loco have a reduced-height one for mainline work as well? - as a last resort I guess that would just have to be fitted all the time?

 

If this is meant to be a joke, I think it is in pretty poor taste. I doubt if the 6023 people are laughing.

 

So 6023 joins the other two preserved Kings in having lost its safety valve bonnet whilst travelling - do hope that it is found soon and in better shape than 6024's and 6000's when recovered.

 

Some old dear probably thinks it would make a nice flowerpot I suppose. Even worse as its original so more than an economic loss to us all. Hopefully all local scrappies have been told, and someone get snooping around nearby it could just be sitting on someone's doorstep! Should also get some leaflets through doors as not everyone listens to local radio/reads local papers.

 

Having fitted 5199s bonnet a few times I do recall making sure there were at least 4 5/8 whitworth bolts holding it down ( I did make it that way thouigh )
Surley if 6023s bionnet was bolted to the loco like it should be i would expect a dent or two and nothing else
not for it to be ripped off by a mere tree branch would would probarly brush past it anyway
Was it not bolted down ?
Ok i wasnt there, but if it was fixed correctly then i suspect foul play
If it wasnt fixed down then...well ?

 

Bur doesn't the whole railway preservation movement thrive on rumour and counter-rumour sprinkled with more than a tad of speculation?

 

Why would anyone need a king safety valve bonnet, plenty more interesting bits on the engine.
This is an obvious accident, how are they so sure where it came off.. Plenty of times I dropped something, convinced it was one place but found it in another... I assume thyve retraced the whole route ...maybe if we all knew the route it might be worth keeping an eye out.

 

did it stop overnight anywhere on route? because unless its a very quite road a king safety bonnet would have been noticed if it was sat in the road, or on the verges? but with the high price of copper , everything looks like its been taken, not fell off unless someone at didcot took it off and didnt tell anyone, red faces all around if they did

 

6023 with a bonnet attached just done return gauging run to Wymondham. Rumour is that it has been borrowed from another Didcot loco.

 

Not from Pendennis Castle by any chance?

 

Thank heavens for Swindon standardisation. Just got to repaint those green bits now......

Hope the original does get found though.