Tyseley Single Wheeler.

A lot of people asking Tyseley for answers. There no further question been asked, that Bob didn't answer back on Page 7...

 

So the magazine which was mentioned in #261 (on 7th August when this long-dormant thread was reopened) and which allegedly claimed that "active fund raising is under way right now" was simply wrong. There is no special fund set aside for this 30-year old scheme. The Bloomer is dead and buried.

That's a relief!

Harry.

 

But as I said earlier if the loco is there and until there is £150k in an account somewhere to finish it then that is the time to start speculating about completing the build/use/ and no doubt livery! Prior to that this thread is essentially pointless its a chicken and egg scenario. The owners and custodians of the loco have stated on here that with £150k it could be finished in 12 months - without the money being raised any other points or complaints aimed at Tyseley are of little value.

An idea - there are many on here who want it finished and one who has been involved previously and is known to Mr Meanley, pick up the phone and volunteer to front/administer a new appeal/fund then when the money is there you can go knocking on the door and if you don't get a reply that's the time to start berating Tyseley on here?

 

No complaints about Tyseley from me. If my last post gives that impression then that is regrettable. I'm merely saying that the modus operandi of the place has changed somewhat since I first visited what was then the Birmingham Railway Museum (in 1974) and was amazed to see 4472 and 7029 in steam and also several other steam locos I thought had long gone. However, I still believe that a completed Bloomer on display, even temporarily, at the NRM would perform a worthy educational task, especially if it were steamable. The fact that I now live in York is irrelevant of course!
Any feedback on that other FSM Bloomer at Wolverton?

 

None was noted and apologies if my post suggested thus (probably shouldn't have quoted your post!) I would agree that at some stage a visit to the NRM for the completed loco would make sense, just needs to be finished - which was probably the background for the underlying frustration of my post and this thread generally!

 

I cannot imagine why you are curious about a mere phone call. I've met him several times and we've had long chats about this Bloomer project.

Nowadays it isn't on Tyseley's website, there's no fund for it - and I'm certainly not going to start one.

It's been "under construction" for longer than almost all of the forty actual Bloomers were in service. This project was good fun while it lasted, way back in the 1980s, but it's over - and long done with.

It's dead, defunct, extinct.

Harry Jack.

 

The above quote from Bob Meanley (originally post #121) makes it perfectly clear that the project is not dead. Shelved, yes, but not dead.

As a project for Tyseley to work on with their own resources it's somewhere near the bottom of their priorities, but as paid work it would be much higher up.

 

Is there an opportunity for some innovative thinking ? If Tyseley have other priorities, then could not another heritage railway complete the loco and some sort of shared ownership arrangement work with 2/3 other railways ? Each would have less money to find and when completed it would probably get double the usage that way. It is a shame to see it just sitting there incomplete.

 

Bob Meanley's post #121 explains why that won't happen:
"The fact that it is our property is absolutely indisputable, but it goes further because despite the fact that we have had to lay it aside for 20 odd years, the loco is a part of our souls and we see no good reason to hand it over to anyone, partly because we seriously consider that however well it was completed it would never be completed in the manner which we have envisaged from the start, and I think that many of you who are familiar with our locomotives will understand what I mean by that. It is not Dog in Manger, simply a determination that we will do it one day the way that we want it done."
That's fair enough. It's possible in principle that some other organisation could provide some or all of the money for the work to be done at Tyseley in exchange for having the use of the loco for part of the time when it is finished, but that runs into the problem of the loco's limited utility.

How about a public appeal for cash and/or a Heritage Lottery bid for a package where Tyseley complete the loco and it is then displayed and operated at the NRM for some of the time?

 

So reading that from Bob (which I confess I hadn't gone back far enough to find) makes the situation pretty clear.

This is a project that they have considerable regard for and want to see finished but they want to get the satisfaction of doing it under their own steam. So if someone wants to set up a sensible appeal to generate sufficient funds to enable them to effectively pay themselves to carry out their pet project then it might progress more quickly. If all that happens is people bitch about it not going anywhere and make silly huffy statements about it being dead in the water then its going to remain covered by a dustsheet in the corner of the workshop. The two sensible questions are whether there is anyone with the interest in this loco that has the relevant fundraising and charity financial nous to be able to run a campaign to find the funds, and perhaps more importantly whether as Bob questions, there are enough people that are really interested to hand over enough cash to make it happen. I have no doubt that Tyseley has the engineering expertise to finish this properly, and they clearly know the situation on restricted gifts (i.e. have to be spent as directed) so if the funds could be handed to them then it could be done. But that is the only way its going to happen.

I'm afraid my own take on this is that its less about actually getting it finished and more a stick to beat Tyseley with - probably relating to other historic issues that aren't being disclosed.

 

Have any of these conversations been since the commencement of this thread then?

 

So all you have to do is find another heritage Railway which has no backlog of engineering work on its own stock and has a whole load of engineering resource and workshop space (and fundraisers) sitting round gathering dust waiting for another project. Its a nice idea, but I'm not sure that practically speaking its, well, a runner [sorry].

 

and despite representatives of Tyseley stating on this thread that this is not an option for them...

 

Oh dear, I do seem to have upset you.

I gave this thread up over a year ago, and only came back when I was told that there was a report of "active fund raising under way right now" - which turns out to be nonsense.

But I can imagine someone being inspired by the magazine article to send money "for the Bloomer" to Tyseley. As there is no fund for this purpose, would it simply go into a general donations pot? Miff asked for clarification on this point on 10th August (#269) but no-one has said anything, or at least not on here, which would be the obvious place for an explanation. Such a public description of the funding arrangements might have encouraged other donations.

But Tyseley seems to have lost interest in the project, and so have I.

Harry.

 

Technically what you are saying amounts to accusing them of potentially misusing charity funds - its clear from their published accounts that they know what restricted funds are - which is what a donation "for the Bloomer" would be. So to suggest it would simply go into a general donations pot is suggesting they would ignore that in the full knowledge of the requirements. In fact if you read the accounts you will see there is a restricted "specific locomotives" fund which would exactly fulfil this sort of purpose.

 

This is nothing to do with the Russian or Chinese Singles I keep seeing adverts for then....

 

Nonsense printed by a magazine, so possibly best to take it up with them?

Would someone just randomly send money to support a project, I know I would make some enquiries on line or on the telephone before just randomly firing off a cheque - is there no fund? Someone may have asked for clarifications however a very quick search notes that Ben @ VT has not been on here since before the question was asked so it seems a little unfair to be berating them for not responding? As for an obvious place to publicise a funding programme I would say their own website would be more likely than here?

Yet they have repeatedly answered questions on here and asked you to call if you wanted to discuss, if they had lost interest I suspect they would have just ignored this thread. If you could update us on your discussions with Mr Meanley after his request for you to call that would probably give all that are interested an update?