7027 Thornbury Castle

No-one said it did. It just doesn’t seem to make sense that any serious restorer would not want to buy all of 7027’s available components (including some newly made whilst at Loughborough) since it’d inevitably cost them even more to have them replaced at a later date.

 

From Didcot's website: "During this time GWS will consider offers from properly funded groups for all or parts of 7027, to enable a rebuild of Thornbury Castle if viable."
Note the phrase all or parts. The prospective purchaser has offered to purchase parts (presumably the major ones), but the GWS have changed the rules from their own stipulation above.
The quote above certainly reads to me like they want a group to be fully funded to enable a rebuild of Thornbury Castle if viable - not just to buy the loco.

 

Sorry- I was editing my above post (to better express what I meant) whilst you were replying to my ill thought out original

I still don’t se the point of anyone bidding just for some of the parts if they’re serious about restoration. I think GWS’s rather vague statement is just (rather wishfully) hoping someone might agree to leave them with the boiler and take away the rest. Fat chance.

 

Most of the Barry locos didn't have all their parts when they were purchased, but the groups were definitely serious about restoration.
If Joe Bloggs can afford X to purchase the chassis and boiler to save them from dismantling by the 4709 group and to ultimately restore the loco (maybe coming back to the gws in a few years to buy those or other parts), then why would the GWS not want to take that deal? It makes no sense.

 

Hmmm…PR face saving exercise perhaps…?

 

The best way the GWS could save face would be to either sell the entire loco, or, to get it to Didcot, do an assessment of what it needs, and restore it , i believe Thornbury is unique in the GWS collection being an three row super heated engine, the 79 group can always build the 79 in the guise of the prototype with the 28xx boiler as an interim , whilst fund raising for an correct boiler at a later date, that would see 7900 launched as being authentic for the very first of the class.

 

One could reason because there's a practical chance that 'they' might not get that money together to buy those parts for a significant time if at all, leaving the 4709 group without the bits they wanted, the GWS with the burden of storing all the components the 4709 now don't have a use for and the potential new owners with the risk of those components deteriorating or being sold elsewhere in the mean time.

 

You mean the bit (boiler) that isn't correct for 4709 anyway?
I am guessing that the parts being discussed are smaller items such as lubricators, backhead fittings etc-not especially difficult to store safely and in the dry.
If the parts are sold on before the 7027 group get to buy them, then so what? The GWS has got its money and cleared the space, why would it care how the 7027 group then replaced those parts?

 

The prospective purchasers are hardly likely to have enough cash already on hand to complete the restoration, but that shouldn't matter to the GWS. However the GWS can quite reasonably seek to get back at least what they (or the 4709 group or whoever) paid. It would make no sense for them to be back where they started, without the boiler, and with less cash.

 

I've never stated differently

 

Looking at the statements that have come from the GWS, both via their CE on Facebook plus within the Echo, whilst I think they were initially thrown something of a curveball by the purchase (its still unclear where the money to fund the purchase actually came from as the 4709 group accounts (as of 31/1/22) had £80k in the pot ) their statements have been very strident and reflect pretty much what the 4709 group were also saying, as for whose project it is, they show up specifically as a restricted fund within the wider GWS accounts so they are undoubtedly part of the GWS, so the question remains how they have ben able to spend a load of cash on a locomotive without the GWS hierarchy knowing about it till after the event, something that would possibly also interest the Charity Commission?

I don't think she is unique any more insofar as 5029's most recent overhaul is including a new 3 row superheater I have read somewhere?

In terms of getting it to Didcot (or somewhere else for that matter) I assume someone somewhere is paying for the loco to be stored at the GCR at the moment, so it would make sense to reduce that costs as a matter of urgency?

 

I didn't say the the GWS would care, just that in that scenario for 7027 group could stand to lose out as well, or that no one should expect the GWS to keep stuff hanging around in dry storage ready for them to come back later with the rest of the cash so that they don't lose out.

[Edit: Just to expand, I think anything big needs to go in and out of Didcot by expensive rail move? I could imagine there wouldn't be a lot of support to move a container load of miscellaneous parts across without the big ticket item coming with them?]

Anyway, 'guess' that is all any of us really can do at the moment, I haven't seen anyone report the exact details of the proposal so I can't really see any justification for saying how a prospective deal should or should not have been handled.

 

Like so much with this whole sorry saga, its in the main rumour and counter rumour and little more than that.

In terms of spares, pretty much the only destination for them would be 7027 as there is not a spate of unrestored castles knocking about, I suppose only other possible homes are Tyseley or LSL, obviously the GWS also have 2 Castles of their own where they could maybe be of use?

 

As I've previously remarked both Thornbury and Mount Edgecumbe were bought by Tyesley as a source of spares for Clun Castle. As they were both early escapees from Barry that still had the majority of their parts. OK the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe was restored with Thornbury staying in limbo as a possible source of spares.........

 

There are still a number of Barry locomotives unrestored, including of course the locomotive in question. The purchasers might have been serious about the *idea* of restoring them, but they demonstrably haven't have the capability. There would be little benefit to anyone for the GWS to take a big loss by selling only part of the package just to see it sit in a headshunt for another 50 years.

 

I believe all the parts, boiler, chassis and tender are still at Loughborough and Quorn. As has been questioned earlier, are these now incurring storage charges?

 

Is there any chance of LSL buying Thornbury as a classic GWR design and complete the set of the Big Four (+ standard)? It seems only they may have the resources at this late stage.