GCR Vintage Train Supporter Day

The GCR Vintage Train Supporters Day at Ruddington on the GCRN will take place on Sunday the 24th June. This will be an opportunity for those interested in the project to build a new Great Central Railway 4-4-0 Express Tender Engine No567, to come and view the GCRN's workshops, and discuss progress on the project with the management team. Trains will be operating to Rushcliffe Halt and Loughborough from Ruddington Fields station.

The GCR No567 Project

 

Not many updates on the Society website
http://gcr567loco.co.uk/

No mention of the GCR Vintage Train either, what coaches are proposed to form this "Edwardian Train".

 

The GCR(N) has four Barnums, two Robinson suburbans, one of the GCR clerestories which used to be in the stands at HKR's Craven Park ground, and two MSLR six wheelers. So there's the basis of one or two very impressive Great Central rakes.

 

It's often overlooked that there's in fact a third Robinson suburban coach, currently stored in Swithland sidings, and I do hope it gets taken into the trust's project at some point, as it would allow them to have an even larger edwardian train.

 

With the clerestory brake and three Robinson suburbans alone, you'd have an impressive vintage train. The two six wheelers would be an added bonus to the formation though...

 

Doesnt Butler Henderson tick all the boxes here ?

 

That it does, but one step at a time, Henderson probably won't return to the GCR till that proposed museum at Leicester North is built, where it will no doubt be displayed. Of course once there though, it could always be then quietly snook out...

"Sorry sir, got mixed up with what engine was to be overhauled next! Well since we've already made a start on it..."

 

Regarding our website, it is not maintained as the primary source of information about the progress with the project. We have a policy of 'Supporters first' when it comes to dissemination of information about the project recognising the essential contribution that they are making to the development of the project through their subscriptions.

Whilst Butler Henderson is authentic in the role, it represents the end of a chain of technical development of which 567 is representative of the origin. The Class 2 as built in 1890 will represent the earliest example of an inside framed 4-4-0 in the country and certainly the earliest operational example. However it will have the benefits so amply demonstrated by Tornado of a new locomotive, not being a valuable historic relic the provenance of which would be ruined by major overhaul.

The website of the GCR Rolling Stock Trust provides a good source of information about the collection of GC vehicles plans for restoration and current status

GCR 567 Project

 

Good points, and now i get the vision thing it has to be said that Butler-Henderson is a pretty huge hulking beast for an engine of a certain age and wouldnt quite sit right on a train of 4 and 6 wheelers....
Surprised that detailed plans have survived, but then again the thing only has to look 1890 a few things under the skin may benefit from a little improvement to get 20th century reliability and performance. (Piston valves? decent bearings? boiler proportions ? superheat ?) Why not go the whole hog and have a GPCS based steam circuit, although this adds a certain coke making 'ambience ' ( as opposed to coke burning) as anyone whose visted the kirklees light railway will tell you...

 

The construction of the first Class 2, No 561, is from a period when the design process was quite different to that which we now know. The design predates by a very long period, the development of a range of technologies including reprographics and manufacturing engineering. Much of the manufacturing from that period depended upon what was known as 'shop practice' and concerned tolerancing, as well as materials knowledge and manufacturing methods.

Digitised General Arrangement drawings exist and these drawings contain perhaps 90% of the design dimension data necessary to build a facsimile of the original locomotive. What is not dimensioned, can and has been scaled and this information has then been combined with materials engineering and manufacturing expertise to produce working drawings and specifications. So extant source information has been largely adequate to support construction of a new locomotive to the original dimensions. Changes have been made to improve the design, for example the original featured a machined recess in each frame plate to accommodate the mounting of the cylinder block which was a serious source of weakness. This has been eliminated by the engineering of a doubler plate on the outside of each frame plate and revised mounting of the new cylinder block. The engineering for manufacture of the crank axle is currently underway and utilities modern engineering methods to ensure that the' built up' crank will exceed all appropriate specifications.

Concerning improvements, the old adage of 'if it aint broke dont fix it' could be applied to this project. The original was reputed to be good for 80 MPH and in the modern heritage railway world, that is performance that is neither called for nor appropriate, and where locomotives that demonstrate the route to higher performance still exist either in terms of speed or haulage power (City of Truro and Butler Henderson), the original design survived in service for around 50 years and that in itself is testimony to the adequacy of the original design.

 

Whilst I do admire that you put the supporters first, the website hasn't been updated for 16 months and is still wishing users "Happy New Year"...

Just some form of update will make the project still appear active, even if you make it clear you will only be updating every 6 months in order to ensure the actual members receive all updates first.

 

Why not a policy of "Supporters First" and once the information has been "Disseminated" make it available for everyone. That way you might end up with more supporters. It would certainly short-circuit the rumour-mongers.

 

Maintenance of our website is not directly dealt with by the management team, watch out for an update soon. Thanks for your interest

GCR567 Project

 

Well if I won £1m on the lottery raffle and decided to give £25000 each to 10 railway projects, I don't think this would be one!

 

On behalf of the members of the LNWR George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust, best of luck with the build. A late Victorian 4 coupled express type and MSL/GCR-type is a worthwhile build indeed and it sounds like you've hit the ground running. As to

 

Hear hear. More power to your collective elbows, especially as the target is a whole train - if we are to have some Victorian / Edwardian engines, we need an alternative to Mk 1's to run behind them! Whether or not to do the thing in the 'public eye' so to speak, must be a decision for your members and supporters, not us - I'm sure you are well aware of the pro's and con's.

 

Did a bit more research as not heard much of these, and found all the following;

http://www.gcr-rollingstocktrust.co.uk/news_output.asp?id=214&checkSource=stock

Barnums (The Barnum Express)
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=816
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=818
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=819
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=820

Robinson Subs (Edwardian Suburban)
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=821
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=4838
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=822 (Swithland - Not currently part of project)

GCR Clerestory (Edwardian Suburban)
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=824

MSLR 6-Wheelers (Manchester Express)
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=878
http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=3496

 

But if appealing to the Public for support, surely you need to be in the public eye?

 

The GCRRST and the newbuild loco project are separate, albeit there are obvious connections between the two. The GCRRST is a project I would and have supported, albeit only as an armchair supporter with the occasional small donation; the newbuild loco doesn't interest me in the slightest personally; the Barnums will look fine with 'Butler Henderson' and the other vehicles would be just at home behind a Victorian saddle tank like 'Sir Berkeley' (a loco with an impeccable GCR history, having helped to build the line).

6-wheeler No. 946 is coming on well - here's the news report from March:
http://www.gcr-rollingstocktrust.co.uk/news_output.asp?id=245&checkSource=stock

Personally if I won the lottery No.373 would be straight off for a contract overhaul to join it, and I'd be making offers they couldn't refuse to the owners of other surviving MS&L four- and six-wheelers too (there are four or five vehicles elsewhere which could run with these two to form a train).

To some extent the project has been distracted by the need to provide secure and dry buildings to work in, but hopefully that will pay off in future. Hopefully also the 'gap' project and reunification with the better-supported GCR(S) will raise their profile a bit.