34039 Boscastle WC class

When I wrote off my car some years ago, the fact that it was insured for a couple of thousand made no difference; they assessed its scrap value at a couple of hundred and paid that. I still had to pay some thousands for a new car.

 

That'll be because you had a market value policy. If you has an agreed value policy, you would have received a bigger pay out.

 

Maybe so, but unless the railway's insurance details each locomotive by individual itemised and costed component, the chance of getting the full replacement cost out of them is negligible.

 

The heritage railway insurance market is not like that. I’ve had reason to make a claim in the past and I’m told by a broker involved that only a couple of locos are insured for their full replacement value (60103 & 60163? I wasn’t given the detail). As it’s very unlikely that a loco would be totally written off the owners agree an insurance value up to which the insurer will pay out in the event of a claim and premiums are based on that. Boiler insurance is usually a separate thing but again it is a declared value.

 

Fair enough. Clearly my knowledge of heritage railway insurance is somewhere between negligible and nil, so I should just bow out of the conversation now!

 

And lost Your car to the scrapman.

 

You should have been paid what it cost to replace the car as near as possible

Not true if you have insurance with a decent company. The principle is that you should be put back to where you would have been had the loss not occured, subject to being fully insured . That's where the misunderstanding comes in, If you insure the contents of your house for half their value on the basis you will never have a total loss then don't expect more that 50% of any claim to be met. It's a headache with contents insurance as most people woefully underestimate what they are worth, its why most companies now charge a premium that covers up to a blanket sum insured.

 

There is normally a condition in an insurance contract called averaging. It means that if you under insure by a percentage then you will only get that percentage of any claim paid out. As it is virtually impossible to put a replacement value on a unique steam locomotive, as far as I know, all the insurers just accept a value estimated by the owners with no average clause. How replacement value can estimated, let alone kept up to date, I've got no idea. The cost of replacing 60163 for example would be less that of, say building a new Duchess as a lot of what is needed to prepare for the job is already there.

 

The largest insurance payout that I ever received was for damage to one of My engines which was not even insured at the time.

 

Changing the subject completely, I was at Swanage last weekend when 34028 was running and was struck by how similar in height the loco tender seemed to be to the Mk 1 carriages it was coupled to. In the past at the NYMR I've been struck by how much LNER tenders seemed to tower over the carriages. Was this an illusion, or was there a difference?

 

As I understand it, the Mk1s owe a lot of design DNA to the Bulleid carriages built before Nationalisation and the Pacifics were built to the same profile above platform level. But it could be an illusion too.

 

I think that's one of those myths that probably doesn't;t bear close scrutiny.

Certainly Mark 1 carriages borrow from Bulleid carriages, and Bulleid tenders have the gentle tumblehome shape of the carriages. However, the locos are clearly different profile (otherwise the crew wouldn't be able to see forwards!) and moreover different batches of pacifics had different width cabs.

My hunch is that the Brighton draughtsman just liked drawing curves In that regard, one of the (several) differences between a Fairburn 2-6-4T and a Riddles 2-6-4T (designed at Brighton) is the same subtle curve appears on the tanks of the 80xxx, much improving the aesthetics.

Tom

 

You are correct about the Brighton draughtsmen and drawing curves. There is a drawing of the profile of the 80XXX tanks, showing all the different curves and radii.

 

There is a lot of discussion about Boscastle's tender earlier in this thread P4-5. But the new tank has now had suitable spacers made and has been firmly bolted to its chassis. The various pipe and sump parts fitted and the team were working on fettling and fitting the brake gear.....but then the thieves struck and some of the brake components were stolen.

 

The AGM of Boscastle Locomotive PLC was held on Saturday and obviously the theft was a major topic. There is still a lot of work to be done on the boiler (tubes, stays etc) but it is delayed because LMS are concentrating on work on Tornado at present.
The tender is still having work done to finish it off but, as one volunteer said "It is so frustrating making new pins - repeating what I had done a year ago". These having been stolen.
There is a determination to get Boscastle steaming again, but more cash needs to be raised. The insurance claim for the stolen parts is also complicated by the difficulty of finding suppliers for some items and getting price quotations. It is much appreciated that various offers of help have been made and these are being followed up.

 

On the Boscastle Website there is news of a new "Boscastle Official Supporters Club", which is free to join for anybody wishing to be kept informed of the restoration progress and opportunities to help in various ways. (I'm sorry, but my limited IT skills do not stretch to getting a direct link posted.)

 

WHAT is it?

This is for anybody who wants to know more about this locomotive and support its return to action.

Free to join, open to all.



HOW to Join

Send an email to news@boscastleloco.co.uk with the subject Subscribe

It would help if you could include your name in the email, so that we know who the club members are.

(Note - All public e-mailing will be BCC i.e. Blind to all contacts.)



WHAT are the Benefits?

• Boscastle Bulletins – regular monthly e-mailing with overhaul updates
• Dedicated section on the Boscastle website
• Opportunity to travel on the first service trains to be hauled by Boscastle
• Cab visits
• Be entered for a Boscastle Driver Experience prize draw

How You can Help

• Help the team on our information stand at events
• Become a Shed Tour Guide at the GCR Locomotive Shed
• Join the restoration team at Loughborough
• Help with publicity / IT / Website

 

Thanks misspentyouth for posting those details.
The volunteer team at Loughborough are continuing to make progress on finishing the tender. At the AGM it was said that this could then be available for hire.
There is a steady flow of people applying to join the BOS Club through the BLL (Boscastle Locomotive Ltd) website.
Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the start of running on the preserved GCR...and, as importantly, the arrival of Boscastle at Quorn from Barry.
This was the Leicester Mercury report Jan 23 1973.

 

Help Needed

We (Boscastle Locomotive Ltd) recently received the following E Mail request

Subject: Ex-steam enginemen - I need your memories!

Dear Sir
As you are probably aware, there have been hundreds of books written to record the experiences of individual steam enginemen, to describe the steam locomotives they drove, the routes they took and the stations they passed. What have been conspicuous by their absence are comparative or overall studies of the lives of Britain’s last steam enginemen.
This I am hoping to remedy by writing a book which describes the lives of Britain’s steam enginemen from 1948 to 1968. The book will focus on who were the steam enginemen, what were their jobs, under what conditions did they have to work, what was their social life and how did they fit in to the rest of society.
The book will have two major sources of information. There will firstly be the published literature, as well as the archives of British Railways and their trade unions. Probably of more importance will be the information that steam enginemen can supply me directly. To this end I have created a questionnaire, that I attach to this e-mail, and for which I am seeking to find as many enginemen as possible who would be prepared to answer it and return it to me.
So, I hope that you will be able to help me in two ways. Firstly, if you were a steam engineman, could you please fill in my questionnaire and return it to me? And, whether you yourself were a steam engineman or not, could you please circulate this e-mail as widely as possible among your ex-enginemen acquaintances and/or within any of your networks which may include steam enginemen (eg newsletters, clubs or reunions).

Please accept my thanks in advance for any help that you are able to give me, for what I am sure you will agree is an important historical exercise.

By the way, I am a shareholder in 34039.

Kind regards

Dr Paul Sanders

If you are able to help we have the contact details together with the Questionnaire ...... PM for details

 

More positive news re Boscastle's tender is that much of the vacuum brake and steam heating pipework has been completed and is awaiting painting before final installation.