Tyseley Single Wheeler.

Because Pat Whitehouse selected it over Alberta because the tyres weren't so worn!

Dave

 

Distracting Tyseley's staff, taking them away from their valuable work on ongoing projects - merely to chatter to them about some thirty-year old and long-defunct scheme?

At least questions on here aren't interfering with their work, and if there is ever to be any useful response from Tyseley it will be seen by very many people with an interest (however faint) in this once very well-known Bloomer project.

Where's the harm in that?

Harry.

 

Why, you can get considerably more publicity for your gripe posting on here rather than having a private conversation that may achieve something.....

 

The response from Tyseley would seem to suggest that if an enthusiast for the Bloomer project wanted to set about doing the work of raising the money - maybe placing it in an escrow account if they wanted to ensure it could all be returned if nothing happened or they never got to the required figure - then it could go forward.

 

I have no "gripe" and can see no point in wasting the time of Tyseley's staff with phone calls about a long-ago scheme of no interest to them.

Many people however might still wonder about this project, which was given so much publicity way back in the 1980s, and be interested to hear about it. This board can do that - and whyever not?

Harry.

 

As far back as December 2012 senior staff at Tyseley took the time to come on here and provide an update in great detail finishing with the suggestion that you call them to discuss, I assume that this telephone call was inconclusive, hence the need to be raising it on here again, plus a regular correspondent from Tyseley replied on 10 August, do you not think that if they had no interest they just wouldn't bother to respond?

 

To be fair a lot has happened at Tyseley since this project was started. I'm not that up on dates etc but its moved on from being something that was perhaps sort of heading in the direction Didcot ended up - operational museum regularly open to the public with some occasional mainline running - to being mainline focussed (along with using their undoubted skills to earn their keep maintaining other owners loco's) with occasional open days. With that in mind its hardly surprising that something which when started would have been a really key part of what they were doing in showcasing Birmingham area railways, but is now a bit of a "nice to have" in terms of their core operations has fallen behind on the priorities.

To put it another way I'd love to be spending loads of my time volunteering on heritage railways but for now the need to provide home etc for my family means that it isn't realistic. I'd be pretty grumpy if anyone suggested my kids should starve and be homeless so that I could enjoy a hobby. In the same vein we need to collectively cut Tyseley some slack and let them get the bread on the table before we start suggesting they get on with a new toy for us to enjoy.

 

There's really no pleasing you is there?

You're not happy because Tyseley staff don't reply on here, but when it's suggested that you pick up the phone, you're not happy then either. It's very obvious from your postings in the past on the subject that you have 'issues' with Tyseley over the project, but there really is no need to keep whinging about it. Just accept that the project is on the back burner and it won't be completed for a very long time. Yes it's sad that a lot of people that put money into the project won't see it steam, but there's worse things happening in the world....


Keith

 

You misunderstand me. You said that Tyseley favours GWR hardware so to rephrase my question, I'm asking in which case why is a Jubilee there?

 

I would suggest the NRM would be an ideal body to complete this wonderful loco replica.

Whether they have the available funds to complete the project and pay for the partly finished loco is another matter.

Someone somewhere needs to kick start this project again.

I dont have any magic wand to wave Im afraid.

I can see that this project is very very low down on Tyesley's list, and I cant see much changing this situation if the partly completed stays at Tyesley.

Cheers,
Julian

 

But why should the NRM have it as any higher priority for fund raising than Tyesley? If anything wouldn't it be further down the queue?

It seems clear it isn't a very high priority for Tyesley's fund raising, but I'm not sure that would have much to do with where it stood in Tyesley's works shopping list*, were the money sitting there waiting.

As suggested above, if a number of organised and committed folk set to work to form a, I dunno, shall we say 'Bloomer Admirer's Club' which raised the money we seem to have a promise or at least statement that gives a timescale.Its not my area of expertise, but I believe there are ways and means that money could be raised and held securely, but not handed over until there was a promise of work starting, and if necessary handed back to the donors if it all fell through. It seems to me that would be one way to advance the project. It doesn't seem to me that the location has much to do with it.

*that's shopping as in put through the shops, not shopping as in going to Tesco...

 

Just a thought, 76084 was superbly restored at Hepscott, by a dedicated team. Is anything being worked on there currently.

 

Exactly, I seem to recall this or a previous thread started with loads of posts trying to give Tyseley's asset away to other railways which was discounted, as Ben has already confirmed a) how much is needed to finish the job and b) a timescale within which it could be finished at Tyseley should the money be available suggestions of alternative locations seem superfluous? If you want to see it done and/or beat Tyseley with a stick (which seems to objective of certain posters) I suggest contribute to and help to raise the £150k and then it opens a whole new debate?

 

I think that the concept of the Bloomer being displayed at the NRM in York, at least for a while, does have some merit. Of course, this view doesn't solve the "problem" (LNWR!) of completing the replica loco, but there is no doubt in my mind that Tyseley's focus has changed since the project commenced (this is not a criticism but an observation) and that the project might be completed if contracted out to a "third party", one with the money required to complete the job of course. I guess this current situation is an example of what happens if project gestation periods take a long time and the underlying "landscape" changes.

My knowledge of locomotives that were running in the 1850s and 1860s is relatively poor to say the least and this is one reason why I believe that the Bloomer would be a most useful way of educating people as to what was part of everyday express loco life during that time, even if it were to be displayed in static condition for some time. Contemporary images seem to suggest that these were surprisingly large locos (at least to me). A quick Internet trawl (Webb site) on these 2-2-2s also tells me that these were very successful and, in some cases, long-lived locos and well worthy of inclusion in telling the story of Britain's railways. The 2-2-2 wheel arrangement was not confined to the LNWR of course and seems to have been common in locos of this type at that time.

To use an analogy, not having a "Bloomer" it is similar to visiting the IWM at Duxford and not being able to see all the aircraft which represent the period 1918 to 1941, or when looking at an aircraft type, viewing a Mk I Spitfire and then a Mk 24, with no idea of the intervening marks of aircraft.

I understand that a full size model of a Bloomer exists and was on display at Wolverton. I'm not sure where it is now as it was taken away for refurbishment some while ago. No doubt someone out there will know more.

 

Not true. I have met Michael Whitehouse, in Tralee Co Kerry, at a meeting discussing the future of the Tralee and Blennerville Railway and I know he is involved in the ffestiniog amongst other schemes.

 

Wasn't everything GWR either gone, sold or at Barry by the time the Holbeck Jubilee's were on the table ?.

 

Shouldn't we also consider the actual usefulness of a an operational Bloomer? Pre-grouping locomotives aren't my specialty, but I'm sure that when the replica was started it was intended for the demonstration line at the then Birmingham Railway Museum (now Tyseley), so power wasn't an issue. Finding a useful place to run her that can match her abilities and where a Victorian design would be seen as preferable to a robust industrial tank might be a challenge.

 

The Bloomer would be a wonderful locomotive to match with a number of pre-grouping stock rakes that are about. I don't know if there is a specific LNWR set though to perfectly match locomotive and rake - is there one?

The fact of the matter is that in the great scheme of things, £150,000 isn't a lot of money (!!!) I say that with the caveat that we have seen a higher level of fundraising for a number of railway projects over the last two decades. The A1, P2 and Patriot, together with the Saint, 3MT and Beachy Head spring to mind. The P2 raised £2million in two years by comparison.

First and foremost, it's about getting it back into the public eye and getting people interested in funding it. All of the above have done that for their causes exceptionally well. It would take a dedicated group or individual to make it work for the Bloomer - but why can't it?

Steam Railway ran an appeal last year to help finish the Saint - which is looking extremely complete and must be very close now. Something in that vein to help the Bloomer could surely work?

There's just not enough locomotives like the Bloomer about or in steam (if at all) and to actually have a locomotive of that vintage would help people see the development of the steam locomotive more. There's no operational single wheeler outside of Planet at the MOSI, I understand, so to have a 2-2-2 working would also introduce our youngest generations and indeed, many of our middle aged generations as well, to something which hasn't been seen in this country for some time.