6201, her new lease of life.

Fantastic news, congratulations to all involved. What a start to 2019 that would be if she appears on a WCME!

 

Agreed...even better if they run her in on the WCRC Santa's

 

As much as old rivalries and similar die hard, nothing pleases me more than to hear of a steam locomotive coming back into steam. Best wishes to all involved and good luck in future. Lizzie is an icon and deserves to be seen far and wide.

 

As someone who bunged a few quid into the crowdfunding attempt, I too look forward to seeing it in steam too.

 

That's correct and the test run is imminent I understand

 

Will be keeping a close eye out for that, with the camera bag fully armed and ready to go!

 

You won't be on your own.

 

Hahaha I'll bet! Assuming it will be a lightly loaded outing to Hellifield and back, followed by something more strenuous.

 

That would be a massive bonus for my family trip! Don't care about the diesel, not even taking my camera (apart from the one in my phone).

 

Yes please!

 

With 6201 I would be interested to find out about a repair I heard it had in the past.

I went to the Tyseley open day about 10 years ago and afterwards caught the bus into Birmingham with a friend of mine. We got talking to this old guy probably in his 80s at the bus stop (and he later got on the bus with us) who had obviously also been to the open day so we asked if he had been a volunteer there. He said no never, but he had done one job for them on 6201 in the 1970s. He said he had been a very experienced welder, even working often as a welding instructor. Apparently at some stage I think in the 1970s, the Spider casting which combines the 4 exhausts from the cylinders into one pipe ready to go into the blastpipe had been removed, but when they had done so it had been dropped and being brittle cast iron had broken into 4 pieces. I can imagine there was some cursing at the time !

They hadn't had the money to get a new one cast so he had been given the job of repairing it and he did explain how he had had to make a temporary frame to the hold the pieces together so it could be welded back into one piece. Can imagine cast iron is not easy to weld either. The part was then put back on the loco.

Anyone able to confirm the story and is the repaired part still in use or has it been replaced since ?

 

Successful welding of cast iron is not uncommon. Why should this be anything out of the ordinary?

 

https://6201.co.uk/index.php/blog/

 

Considering that "the boiler ... has been back up to the full 250psi" I don't understand why the announcement includes further begging for funds, still less why they include a link to the appeal from some time ago, which goes on about small boiler tunes, etc. Clearly that appeal didn't get very far, clearly some sort of deal was made with West Coast / Carnforth, and clearly a great deal of work, including new tubes, has now been done. If the details of that deal had been made public, and the appeal page on the website had been appropriately updated, that might explain what the Society still wants funds for, but in the absence of that information why should anyone give them a single penny?

 

I am getting impression that there are quite a few on here who don't actually make donations so much as make payments in return for achieving a 'I know something most people don't' status........ Not keeping those who have contributed informed may be a different matter.

Surely you don't expect the whole 'deal' to be public (especially with Carnforth as one party!) but can work out that the more funds 6201 raises, the less it will owe for the work done. Many charity type organisations will include a fund raising element to any news release - actually, its good practice!

Steven

 

I have come across one loco owning group who have said that if they haven't got enough money for the work to be done for the ten year ticket they will raise the money themselves, as say they are short of two years hire fees worth of money and a host railway says they will pay for this work to be done but, we wont pay the first two years hire fees, the loco owing group will be still in the same state as they are in now as they will only have eight years hire fees and not the ten.

Also if they can see what most likely need doing when the next ten year work needs doing, say a new set of tyres they will be able to go to their members/supporters and tell them this and have ten years to raise this money, hopefully on top of all the other money they raise on top of the hire fees during the ten years.

 

How many preservation organisations do you know of that are not in need of funds?