Where is 92207

I was on the last public service train over the S&D - was it really as long ago as 1066?

I guess it was that Swindon mob who invited the Normans come over as revenge for the S&D thwarting their plans to be ride of steam by the end of 1065

Peter

 

It seems to me that if the S&DRT want an appropriate main line loco then thats the one for sale.

There may well be smaller loco's appropriate to the S&D in preservation but if they are not for sale then you have to take what is

 

....and I saw the final Pines Express and service trains. Gosh I'm getting old.

Sorry for the 1066 error. <BJ>

 

or....don't saddle yourself with a massive engine that you can't afford to restore or run, but just wait until a more suitably sized loco comes on the market!

 

The latest S&D Telegraph newsletter arrived today with an article about 92207. It states the initial purchase price of £150k has been agreed with Keith Bottomley, to be paid over five years. Keith has also joined the SDRHT Trust.
For the long term future I would expect at least two ways to provide 10 year overhaul funds - going out on loan quite a bit (but that's OK if its 'home' is Midsomer Norton), and I would also expect driving a 9F on the real S & D to be a popular and premium footplate experience.

Dave

 

I do admire your optimism. Here you are, talking about funding an overhaul after 10 years of operating when there is still a little matter of funding the initial restoration before that clock even starts ticking. At best you must consider that completion of the loco will cost maybe £250,000 and take five years. More likely it will involve doubling both estimates. Much as I like 9Fs (I was firing one only last week) and love the S&D I cannot get very excited by this move. I say this as a member of the S&DRHT (see my modest contribution to the latest Telegraph on its back page) and will continue to wish them well despite doubting the wisdom of this purchase.

Peter

 

I get where Peter (@torgormaig) is coming from, but equally recall such siren calls when something as ridiculously large as a Standard 4 4-6-0 landed at Sheffield Park. From the tone of certain sections of the Bluebell's membership back then, you'd think they had adopted a 'scrap and replace' policy .... and Stepney would be the first to go!

Given the ongoing absence of a certain four coupled design I shall not mention, a 9F is getting as close to the S&D of living memory (just!) as it's possible to.

So, is a 9F a tad on the large side for the current S&D? OK, maybe a bit, for now .... but .... it's going to take a while before it's next boiler ticket starts ticking. We really mustn't get so caught up in the here and now that we forget about the future entirely. As much as our movement owes to them and their generations, did everything the Tom Rolts and Alan Peglers achieve come to a grinding halt with their passing? Beware hubris peeps, it won't all come to a halt just because we'll gradually be falling off our perches either.

 

Hopefully not for the future though. Its handy to get it now and put it to work elsewhere as well as being an ambassador for the railway. I'd have thought the militant wings of the S&D trusts would welcome this news but there has been more collapsed schemes and curtailed ideas associated with the S&D (remember Peak Oil?) than almost anywhere else I can think of in the UK. In a world of short-termism and bumping along for the season, the MSN group are thinking pretty far ahead and I hope it pays off for them.

 

I hope this goes well for the the SDRHT but I feel that with rising coal prices that this may be a poor move in the long run, before even considering the sheer cost of restoring such a locomotive.

A 9F isn't really suitable for such a short railway and I'd have thought purchasing a medium sized industrial locomotive, albeit without S&D cache would have been a better move, at least in the medium term.

 

Is that a fair criticism? I've seen several comments over the years that the 9F's habits are pretty frugal compared with many earlier designs.

 

With no lack of respect intended, or indeed directed at those wonderful people who have contributed time and money towards the restoration and upkeep of a 'medium sized industrial locomotive', the draw of a 9F (a type which was specifically allocated to the S&D during the summers of 1960 to 1964) will be far greater amongst the enthusiast community, bringing additional bums on seats and related sales in the shop. When added to the people who would turn up to see an Industrial loco running at Midsomer Norton South, the benefits will be noted.

 

They may. But that equation also needs to consider the associated costs.

 

Wait for it….

 

And if the worst comes to the worst they can always sell it.