Flying Scotsman

If anyone can't/won't access the above link...

"Flying Scotsman Update: We are delighted to announce that Northern Steam will be the new custodian to maintain and operate Flying Scotsman.
While the locomotive is owned by the National Railway Museum, the new custodian will manage day-to-day operations and ensure Flying Scotsman can continue steam tours on the mainline and at heritage railways.
More details will soon be announced regarding the upcoming programme, which will allow more opportunities for Flying Scotsman fans to see the beloved locomotive."

On the surface, a bit of an odd choice. NSE have plenty of experience of overhauling locos, and Stuart Whitter has owned locos and driven on the mainline in the past, but mainline operations is completely new.

 

Whilst I've no problems with Stuart & his team I do hope taking on FS will not be too much of a distraction from their core activities. In any case I do wish them good luck on a new direction for the company.

 

Didn’t see that one coming. Wishing all parties every success.

 

Well first of all huge thank you to Riley’s for the past 8-10 years and secondly good luck to Northern Steam engineering. I must say that I didn’t know anything about them before this announcement. I certainly didn’t see this coming as I expected to either stay with Riley’s or move to LSL. This does leave a lot of unanswered questions moving forward as to who it is operating its mainline tours etc.

 

Likewise, seems a big addition to their core business taking on a high profile loco like FS.
Whilst personally the loco does little for me it is the flagship of the movement as far as the general non enthusiast public are concerned and helps give the finances of many HR lines a boost.
With 41 years as a cynical Procurement specialist I would love to be able to see the process that got us there, (especially as I was getting ads for Science Museum Procurement Managers on my Linkedin feed whilst it must have been going on).
Beyond that as said hopes goes well.

 

Great to see 4472s future secured

 

Must admit, I'm surprised, I just assumed that the association with Riley's would continue as it seems to have run very smoothly. Although if it frees up capacity for Riley's to work on eg 35009 I'm not going to complain.

 

If that means that 35009 will now move up the overhaul queue, that's got to be good, Maybe Riley's didn't wish to continue, with looking after 60103, otherwise it would be a kick in the teeth for them, if they had applied and been turned down, despite their track record in how well they did look after the engine.

 

I was at Northern Steam Engineering when the news broke today. There were some big smiles. Congratulations to Stuart, Danny and all the team there.

 

Do we know the parties that did tender ? As it is the people's engine, saved by public generosity, aren't we allowed to know ?

 

I would not expect to.
We do not normally know who tenders for government contracts, at least until some alleged sleeze appears.

 

There is no obligation on the Science Museum to publicly announce unsuccessful bidders, and you'd have thought common courtesy would be that you didn't announce them as a matter of course. (How would you feel had you bid for a contract unsuccessfully and a press release came out that said in effect "hey, here's all the people who lost"?)

That said, since the Science Museum is a public body, if you really want to know, you could put in an FoI request to see what they would be prepared to release - they may of course cite commercial confidentiality to withhold the names of unsuccessful bidders, though you'd have thought how many separate organisations put a bid in ought to be releasable.

Tom

 

Companies bid for things and even if they are the incumbent they lose. It is not necessarily a kick in the teeth, but just business.
And as you say maybe they did not want to continue at the price the S.M. were prepared to pay. Think Hitachi and Lumo as a recent example.

 

Government contracts over a certain value are declared publicly, but just the winners. Losers don't tend to be declared.

 

Could you direct me to the tender documents please, I'm unable to find them ?

 

And a rapid response team...whose going to do that ?

 

I don’t dispute any of what you’re saying but Riley’s have a partnership with West Coast whereas Northern Steam could choose to be more flexible and operate with others more often. The NRM are not tied to West Coast afaik even though Riley’s are.