A Locomotive for National Preservation/Heritage Community

Good call. I don't have spare cash but I would be willing to put £20-£50 per month and my limited skills into the project. If there were one-off extras such as 'sponsor a boiler tube' I would be prepared to go £250-500 (that's all the missus would allow!) - if said project was based close to London I would be happy also to volunteer to help do whatever those with more engineering skills told me to!!

 

Do you think this forum has the capability to raise, say, £750,000?

 

If we generate interest and excitement, maybe even link in with the Severn valley aprentiship scheme the idea is to get that commitment and interest so that steam preservation (or indeed railway preservation of any sort) continues for the next generation

 

It can certainly try, but remember with promotion and opening it up to all other preservation societies, railways and the media it's possible. Who knows what other parties would want to assist if the project was committed, well organised etc.

If a loco project is selected it would be good to secure the support of specialist centres early on so that we don't look like we are just playing at something, but actually want to get the job done.

As I said before, I might be living in La La land that something like this could work, but I am 32 years old and I want to show my children and grand children the thrill of seeing steam engines doing what they were designed for, not stuffed in a museum.

£750,000 is a lot of money, but, it's not an insurmountable target by any means.

 

Personally i would go for this, if Nat pres could get 4,000 members to donate £10 per month you would get £40,000 every month. Use this money to overhaul an engine. Start with something small and that doesnt need much work. Negotiate with and owner that "National preservation locomotive ltd" would operate said loco for 9months per year for the full ticket. Loco owner gets 3 months. So how much does a loco cost to overhaul? Say a tank of jinty, pannier ish size? Anywhere from 100-250k ish? Meaning that If the loco was in good condition and only cost £120-160k then in just 4 months you would have enough to pay for one overhaul. If you could get 3 locos paid in one year then what an achievement. Now to overhaul them you send them to Crewe, Llangollen, Bury, Mid Hants, South Devon etc where they do apprentice schemes for full overhaul. This means that we as "Nat pres loco ltd" would be doing what we say on the tin, National (any uk steam loco) Preservation (preserving locos in working condition). Then after the first year where you have covered the cost of maybe 3 small tank engines and proved your a good group then larger items can be looked at. So a Pannier, Jinty, N7 ish locos would give a great start. In year 2 just look at say 2 slightly larger locos say Br class 2 tender ish size. Year three maybe a Hall? After say 5 years when the group has lots of locos running under the "Nat Pres loco ltd" banner a HEAVY over haul could take place. 12 months of 40k is just under half a million. Never mind the money coming in from the locos your running. So thats something pretty special that "preservation" wants to see..... and yes guys its as easy as that! Ish.....

 

Right, when I get back home in a bit I'm going to try and do a poll again! Based on the results, it might then be an idea whether or not to carry on this thread more seriously, or to shelve the idea and say 'that might have worked'

 

Hmmm, yes, quite.

 

Forget polls etc... waste of time. No one will agree. Speak to some owners who can afford overhauls. Groups that are old and tired of fundraising, ones that need a push and explain they wont see it steam again in their lifetime if they dont grab oportunities like these. Get three owners to agree and then you can satisfy a gwr,lms,southern,lner,br fan. If we all give eventually we will all get to see something we like more than the others and it wouldnt take long at that rate. There are sooo many young people out there that go to any gala and love anything steam. These are the ones that wouldnt care as much and just want to see a loco working. Something like this could be amazing for preservation as a whole! More locos, keeping skills etc etc.

 

This forum, apparently, hasn't the capability to raise enough to fund itself given Admins recent request, let alone £750k.

 

i beg to differ, if the project was a chance to save something , no matter what it was, i think people would stump up, £20 a month isnt much, the more who stump up, the more chance of actually succeeding i said in my idea to use somewhere like Eastleigh, if it was a southern loco, because its going to improove the chance of getting like minded people involved no matter what railway they work at, , you could say the same of Crewe or another centre, plus you will have in the mix the people who know the engine type, things like stripping the frames, anyone could do that under supervision, cleaning and painting, also and you do not have to spend a lot of money at once if you have a steady income you can program what you do and when you do it railways could use their apprentices on such schemes, lets say for instance by some degree of fate the owner of 35025 said yes, and eastleigh said yes, and you ended up with a work force from railways who have never overhauled anything so big, along side those from SLL and MHR who are old hands at it, the bridges formed by working together can only be good for railway preservation

 

I think you need something smaller and medium size. Something that is full of character and overlooked.

I have just the engine. Restore to steam J21 65033.

 

0-4-0+0-4-0 Beyer Garratt? J21 65033 is also a good suggestion.
Steve

 

I hate to be a party-pooper but ... Quite a lot of people on this site are already committed, in time and / or cash, to particular heritage projects. Of the remainder, some will genuinely have no money or time to spare. That leaves a rump, who presumably are the target of this campaign. But realistically, how big is that rump support?

In other words, how many people are there who have time or money to spare, but simply have't yet found the "right" project for them, yet are likely to be enthused by an as-yet non-specific Merchant Navy-sized 0-4-0 industrial narrow gauge carriage restoration project based in a to-be-determined location that will inevitably be hundreds of miles away from home? I suspect a vanishingly small number ...

Pretty much every heritage attraction in the country will bite your hand off if you turn up on their doorstep offering genuine money and / or labour. But I don't see how the simple fact that we are all members of this forum, though geographically dispersed, is somehow going to be the key that magically unlocks new sources of resource - at best, it is likely to simply redistribute existing (and I doubt even that).

Tom

 

'This forum' is really only the starting point for the idea - it's really a quick way of doing a canvass to see if such a project could work, starting here and advancing outward a to other people and organisations.

Everyone who is already committed might not be able to commit money, but could even commit advice or experience. The whole idea of a preservation ambassador is to draw attention to the movement and thus to everyone's specific projects / railways - in a perfect work everyone benefits. In a less than perfect world at least preservation might reach a wider audience..

 

When locos were saved from scrap years ago, not much thought was given to what why or when, it was the thrill of saving something many believed would be lost forever!


If my generation don't come up with new ideas, perhaps based more around passion than practicality the very locomotives people fought to save could well die with the generation who saved them...

Let's see where this goes, I'll do some background enquiries and report back to the forum...

 

I have engineering experience (3 years at college and got a diploma in manufacturing) but I wasn't very good at the practical stuff but as you said a location around London would get me interested in joining up and do what I could to help out occasionally as someone of the younger generation (22 heading towards 23). I'd also be content making donations to such a scheme.

 

I've just caught up with this thread, some interesting discussion, I like a lot of others put my time and money into restoration - cost of travel, free labour etc,etc - plus I've started supporting an existing loco overhaul - 92 Squadron if you're interested , so as others have intimated, would your idea succeed - Given the current squeeze on the purse strings?......... Mine wouldn't!

But what you've just said kinda hits the nail on the head!

Yes, its up to your generation to pick up the baton, BUT its up to those of us involved in preservation, and heading for the great preserved railway in the sky, some sooner than others, to encourage the younger generations to get involved - without that input, the movements going nowhere and this thread is utterly irrelevant!