LNWR Bloomer

I'm interested in this 'hand it over' to another museum. Do you sincerely expect someone who has invested time and money just to 'hand it over'? Now if you can find someone to come up with the money to cover the cost of work done so far you may have a basis for a negotiation. But from what I see museums are not exactly flushed with cash at the moment.
Like many projects this one is an enthusiast's nice to see but once you've seen it you move on and say wouldn't it be good to see such and such run. It will be done when it's done and not before.

 

The Bloomer is private property. What right does anyone have to make such demands of private locomotive owners in this way?

Let Tysley get on with it at their own pace. It is their locomotive after all.

 

What about all those blokes who worked so hard to recreate an 1850s working express engine? Many of them are now dead. To leave it in a 90% completed state for the last twenty years is an insult to their memory.

They should have had a Bloomer fund years ago. Long ago I wrote asking if there was such a fund - for all Tyseley knew I could have been an eccentric millionaire - but they didn't reply.

 

Well it has to be said that you have demonstrated in this thread so far that half of your statement could be true, if you fulfil the other half and have a spare million, I'm sure even at this stage Bob would love to hear from you!
Otherwise this seems like a classic case of frothing over your own little pet cause to which you have contributed nothing physically or in monetary terms.
Tyseley rightly has the reputation as one of the best run steam engineering companies in the business so I will leave it to them to do things at the right time and when they have resources available.
Personally I'd love to see Kolhapur come round again, you can never have enough roaring from a Jubliee on the mainline, but I'm sure her time will come when the resources are available, and I certainly wont be giving them anonymous grief until it happens.
So please, put up or shut up, threads like these do nothing but drive the key people in the business away from forums.

 

I seem to have touched a raw nerve. By agreeing with the suggestion in #58 that there might be a better location for the Bloomer than Tyseley, I seem to have strayed into Insult Corner.

I've been accused of griping, ranting, carping, and now "frothing" over my own "little pet cause" to which I have "contributed nothing". This last accusation is a baseless slur.

Is no-one allowed to criticise Tyseley now? Even the suggestion that they should set up a dedicated fund for the Bloomer project is met with reasons not to, or - from Tyseley itself, total silence.

Pious protestations of an intention to finish the engine - some day! - will always sound hollow until a properly organised fund is set up.

 

I hardly think that strayed is a suitable description of your incursion into Insult corner, Mencken. You do seem to have made a beeline for it and beaten down the door. You are of course entitled to an opinion, although it could be argued that you are probably not entitled to criticise us for something that is, at the end of the day absolutely none of your business. Yet again we have some self opinionated armchair critic who has definitely contributed nothing to this particular project, appearing over the horizon, hiding behind a pseudonym, and believing that he knows best. I am truly sorry to learn that your bloated ego leads you to believe that we should respond with chapter and verse. There are however much more sensible ways of achieving this end than your clumsy and rather futile current attempts to provoke comment, but there again actually contacting us directly would not provide a platform for posturing would it? Do enjoy your five minutes of infamy.

Thanks to all of you who have voiced support for us on this one.

Regards
Bob

 

I have no connection to the project, to Mencken or to Tyseley, and while I'm not sure that Mencken is going about things in the right way to help get the Bloomer finished, I don't think the statements highlighted above can be stated as fact.

The statement that the project is 'none of your business' is not exactly very welcoming to anyone reading the thread who may wish to make a donation to the project, so I assume that Tyseley no longer requires donations for the Bloomer or any other project (eg Clun or Kolhapur) as they are none of our business?

I'm not sure how you can definitively state that Mencken has definitely contributed nothing to the project - he/she may well have put money in a bucket at an open day, he/she may well have sent a cheque or contributed printer cartridges, you really just don't know.

As I said I have no connection to either party in the debate, but it seems that both Mencken and Bob are getting a little carried away with their statements.


Keith

 

....

Hmm, maybe I will clarify my thoughts, as it certainly wasn't intended to be a war cry.

Quite the opposite.. It started a few posts before, with what I thought was an interesting picture of the LNWR tender that gave parts to the engine, and that there probably isn't too many pictures from that far back of the project origins, and maybe people may find it interesting to see.

Many people have devoted time and money to this cause. The engine looks not too far off. However it needs money to cross the finish line.

Tyseley's strategy has changed and the loco doesn't fit the mainline, preserved line, hiring out or for filming purpose as indicated by Bobs post.

Bob has indicated, and rightly so, that to spend his own hard earned cash to finish makes no sense for his business. (let's not be too harsh here... He has afterall built most of it).

He also said if anyone else however wants to pay for it.. The door is open... He has always said that, if you read back the many pages over the years.

As for me... I sent cartridges for many years and sent a few cheques though the last one never did get cashed (about 2 years ago) so I stopped at that figuring progress was halted. Major contributor.. No. Will I stump up whats needed to finish it..No, Will I lose sleep if it's another 5 years.. No.

My thoughts were not to give it away, but maybe reach an agreement elsewhere, where Tyseley gets something in return, even if it was a "you finish it and run it for x period kind of deal" (ie like 46447) or "they finish it and we hire it for x period deal", MOSI.. Well it seemed a good fit, Shildon, nrm etc could be another.

It was only a suggestion not a demand or oppourtunity to knife Tyseleys efforts. Quite the opposite..

Look at the tender in 1991

And look it it now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16236990@N08/5943221777/
(not my picture)
They havent done that bad have they ?

 

Yes, of course: more insults. If you can't say anything useful about the subject, attack the man - ad hominem.

Saying I'm a "self-opinionated armchair critic" with a "bloated ego" making "clumsy & rather futiile attempts" and enjoying my "5 minutes of infamy" doesn't really address the problem. Which is very sad; I haven't - & won't - descend into such banal name-calling.

The photo of the Bloomer submitted by ADB968008 taken in 2011 - so "they haven't done bad, have they?" - could have been taken twenty-five years ago. So yes, they did very well up to 1987. But now Tyseley, quite understandably, has other priorities. It isn't a museum.

So why all this outrage at the mere suggestion that it might benefit by being moved away to a more suitable home?

It is, after all, a very important historical project. And for Tyseley to obstruct the possibility of its completion elsewhere looks very odd.


Just why are they so desperate to hang on to it?

 

Eh? It's a replica. It's no more historically important than 'Tornado' or however many 'Rocket' replicas.
Very nice, certainly, but important and historical? I would argue that a photograph of an original one in use would be more important. As for the tender frames (being the arguably historical bit), it seems to me that to be true to their history and to tell the whole story for future generations etc., they should have been restored as a tank wagon.

I'm not knocking the project by the way.

Who cares? There are plenty of other engines for sale, or in far worse hands, if you have a wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket...

 

Erm, because it is their project, their engine, their decision on what to do with it and when? This thread is going a bit Groundhog Day.

 

Has anyone made a serious offer to complete it elsewhere?