1014 County of Glamorgan

Some people here seem a bit sniffy about Facebook groups but l have just noticed a sudden surge through the 1000 member barrier for the 1014 County GWS Group, how appropriate ! Anyway this has clearly provided a great basis for fundraising as the project is now within £100k of being fully funded. Is the very modest total cost because of very significant volunteer input, the canny use of donor parts or simply because the total hasn't been revised for a while ? My earliest loco memory was seeing The South Wales Borderers but never saw a County, a later loco designed to do much the same work.
Exciting times !

 

Ahem, I wouldn’t say the cutting up of a complete boiler was ‘canny’

 

I would also be cautious about Facebook 'members' - many of these are spam bots
Even if those 1000 members are all real, I wouldn't make a direct link between members of a Facebook group and 'ability to raise money from Facebook group' The two are not the same!

 

Yet one more of the myriad reasons I loathe Facebook. I wish 1014 well, however any sponsors elect to make first contact.

 

Laughs in J50 Group.

 

No, the only donor boiler used in the County will be that from the derelict 48518. Far from being cut up it is contributing to two projects, 1014 ( firebox )and 48173 ( boiler ) . I have posted previously my surprise that a new Standard 15 barrel has been manufactured in the interests of authenticity when over all dimensions seem so similar.

 

How can you argue that it hasn’t been cut up, when bits (though not even all bits) of the boiler ended up on two different locos?

‘Cut up’ is an emotive term, ‘broken up’ might be more accurate but regardless of the rights and wrongs of it, there is no point trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes.

 

Because "cut up" is normally reserved for slicing metal up into small pieces for recycling. Dismantle is a much better word for this exercise.

 

I am actually quite concerned that you prefer to live with your prejudice rather than challenge it! It is , as l mentioned, much more a Hawksworth County than the P2 is a Gresley P2. Still , when its finished you will not be forced to see it,enjoy it. ride behind it, be ispired by it.
I, and over a thousand others ( at the last count ) will.

 

Bold statement that. The Gresley P2 being built has never pretended that it is anything other than the "next in class" and utilises new material throughout to updated designs where required. In that respect it is a new locomotive to an updated, existing design. It's still recognisably a P2 and recognisably L.N.E.R. in design and origin, and if it was going to be classified under the L.N.E.R. system, it would be P2/4, technically.

 

Coupled to the fact that none of the original P2s were identical either...!

Richard.

 

The P2 construction commenced in the February of 2014 and is a true new build, the County most certainly is not, rather it is an assemblage of cannibalised parts. The body of locomotive owners produce new parts for their charges constantly so making a few new parts to make up for what cannot be salvaged from the remains of other engines or picked out of the parts available at Didcot is not particularly impressive. One man deciding to build a B6 Super Lion and taking the project to completion is impressive. To then take on the further challenge of recreating St Nicholas Works works number 3419 is even more so. The groups proceeding with little other than a set of drawings are the true fillers of the gaps in the locomotive story.

 

Both of those most excellent in their own right.

There is one chap down under doing something utterly astonishing, almost singlehandedly:

http://www.australiansteam.com/Z 199.htm



When I first saw an article on this last year, I could not believe the progress. Utterly astonishing stuff.

 

''It's still recognisably a P2 and recognisably L.N.E.R. in design and origin''
Just substitute Hawksworth County and G.W.R and you will see exactly what l mean!
If the P2 wasn't promoted as a Gresley P2 then you would have an easier time of it.
Anyway chaps there is room for both, they will both be magnificent, l am only having a bit of fun.

 

I too have seen this loco under construction , in the fellows yard , have photos but have never shared them ...had not seen any others till now....

 

The new P2 is a "new improved" version of the Gresley design (at least in some respects: I have heard that changing from a copper firebox to a steel one without tweaking the width of the water space was questionable). The new County is a slightly worsened version of the Collett design, at least in the further reduction in boiler pressure from the already-reduced setting by BR.

Fair enough!

 

So do We take anything that You post seriously?

 

Now that's impressive! A newbuild Beyer Peacock - Lovely!

Richard.