Betton Grange

To give news of progress there actually needs to be progress!

Announcing one of our members has won our raffle and that we've now introduced umbrellas to our sales item is pretty much as good as it gets. Mind you they have forgotten to mention we have a new lower priced membership scheme, but hey its only been on offer for 6 months... I do hope the brollies are priced to make a decent profit for us, going off what is available online though most seem to be between £16-£24 on average.

 

This must be the best update on the progress of old build project 6880 I have ever seen, what a fantastic topclass board of directors and engineering team they have......who would of thought of the "umbrella" ? What a great invention!

It is good to see the 6880 team taking time out after SSS3 from doing mundane jobs like building the locomotive, and also showing their caring attitude towards people by delivering to the world the ability to stay dry when it rains, this must of been inspired by SSS3 where it rained most of the time.....

If only other new build projects could take note and stop manufacturing wheels / axles / frames / boilers etc etc. Honestly spending peoples money on what they give it for is so wrong, they should take note of team 6880 and turn their attention to making things which serve mankind and create something as wonderful as... the umbrella.

Sorry but in comparison to most other newbuilds this one is fast losing the plot.

 

Have spoken with Rich Cadge (6880 Board Member for those unaware) and he has given me a small update on 6880 so thought I would share.

With a number of people involved with both 5199 and 6880, progress on 6880 has been hampered slightly with 5199s' recent failure. However this doesn't mean there has been no progress on 6880! Following the work at South Devon, it was discovered there was a couple of issues with the wheelsets acquired from the SVR(A) that would affect their use by 6880. One was that the balance weights would require total replacement in order to use with 6880, meaning new castings etc. However in order to save costs, it has been decided to use 5199 under 6880 as hers can be altered without the need for new castings and so 5199 will use the ones from SVR(A). This has all been agreed between the relevant parties and I believe 5199 maybe getting lifted some time this week. Once this is done work will be concentrated on getting 6880 as a rolling chassis for the end of this year! Incidentally 5199 overhaul should also commence with an expected completion of September 2013.

Not a massive update, and I still stand by my previous comment but thought I would at least try to get some facts for those interested. Though Rich also answered one of my queries in that the membership leaflet is indeed going to be updated to let people know of our new "Supporter Membership Scheme".

For those interested, current Schemes on offer are;
Supporter (£25/yr)
Foundation (£10/month for min. 24 months)
City (£34.40/month for min. 100 months)
Express (£68.80/month for min. 100 months)
Sign Up | Betton 6880

Hopefully the leaflet update will include the website...

 

Having just read the latest update on 82045 and seen the impressive pictures of the cylinder patterns, I though i had better see if the " Wallys with Brollys" had any news on the cylinder patterns as SSS3 was supposed to be the fundraiser for patterning casting and machining of the cylinders.
But the website seems to be down
I would of thought 6 months after the event there would of been some progress a start on the pattern maybe !

 

It looks this project is quickly turning into another bloomer project I.E it will never run.

 

It's nowhere near that bad ! The project just needs to be marketed along the lines of the 'Patriot' next door, which at the current rate of progress will steam first, even though it requires a complete boiler to be built.

Bob.

 

Interesting you mention the website being down.

I have tried to access the website over the past few days but unfortunately have also experienced difficulties.

I have discovered I can successfully open the website using both the Opera and Safari (Apple) web browsers. Unfortunately both Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 14.02 fail to upload the 6880 site, although every other website appears to function OK. As I use Mozilla Firefox as my default browser, I find this very frustrating.

Also Google Chrome fails to upload.

Has anyone else experienced problems accessing the Home | Betton 6880 website?

 

Mine's fine in IE9

 

Google Chrome opened mine on Windows XP just fine 2 mins ago

 

Thanks for the feedback, re-website.

This is the message I get with Google Chrome

 

Seems like I have just resolved the problem.

My AVG Do Not Track appears to have been the issue. It seems the Home | Betton 6880 website has a built in tracker and AVG was preventing the download.

It identified 2 Web Analytics on the website: Comscore Beacon
Google Analytics


Thanks again for checking.

 

Whether the website works or not is irrelevant, there is very little on the website to entice people to financially back the project.

It does come across that the ‘main men’ in the project are playing at building a loco and do not have people with the same experience/ qualifications as the people that built Tornado and that are building the Patriot and County etc.

 

It opens in Chrome on Windows 7.

 

How do you market the grange? I mean the patriot is marketed as the national memorial engine, 82045 is marketed as the future of preserved steam. I find it interesting how groups market them selves. Some new builds don't have that ability to give reason as to why a loco should be built. So unless you have a huge financial backer those may struggle. For me I like the idea of a grange but it doesn't excite me as I see it as another gwr 4-6-0. Where as I'm excited to see the Brighton Atlantic as is different.

This is not a criticism of the 6880 board/project leaders, just a genuine question.

Gav

 

I'm not a member of the 6880 Group (but I am a member and supporter of both the Patriot and 82045 New-Build Groups) so cannot speak other than an observer and as someone who supports 2 other new-build groups. The 6880 project was certainly being "sold" as the restoration of a very popular and free-steaming class of GWR 4-6-0 which unfortunately did not escape the cutters' torch. In the past the project has certainly been "sold" to people as a chance to put right that omission of a popular member of the GWR 4-6-0 family and progress, in my view, has been good and steady. I'm not a fan of the 6880 website itself as I find it difficult to use and not as easy on the eye as some others but I could not even put one together so I'm no critic - however, user friendliness is everything on the web. In my view 6880 is still a very important missing link in heritage railway preservation but I can't afford to support it financially except by attending the SSS events. Perhaps the Group needs to restate the fact that the Granges were really good locomotives if they aren't doing so already.

 

Its probably safe to say that if you can say that you're probably not high on their target list of likely contributors. We're all different, and the first two things you mention just feel like marketing gimmicks with no substance to me, whereas building a new Grange to me is a big deal.

[later] and of course there was that well known quote from a senior locomotive inspector to the effect that the entire work of the GWR (presumably he meant main line work) could be done with a fleet of Churchward 47s and Collett Granges, which is why it was so ironic that neither survived and provides quite a motivation for rebuilding both.

 

Confirm website not loading usng Google Chrome with AVG Do Not Track. Loads OK if AVG DNT disabled.

 

My issues were sorted once I amended my DNT settings. It seems the 30th October 2012 AVG update was the root of the malfunction I experienced.

Back on Topic

Two major points re the Grange:

Due to its outstanding performance, the Grange Class locomotives were known as 'The Enginemen’s Engine' Design | Betton 6880

Had it not been for the outbreak of World War II, 6880 Betton Grange would have been built in Swindon by the GWR. The names and numbers for the next batch of Granges had already been allocated.

 

interesting then that more Halls were built post war but no more of the so highly thought of Granges.