P2 Locomotive Company and related matters

Has the tank been built then?

 

What concerns me - owning a business myself - is that it just multiplies the spend on accountants. As a rule, you tend not to get BOGOF discounts from accountants.

 

From memory the tank is in the new works on a accommodation bogey.

 

I've seen ex army types do well and badly in a range of fields - their success will vary, considerably.

I'm concerned, as are many, about the departure of key members of the team that got Tornado built and operational. I have genuine concerns that their replacements are, collectively, not of the same calibre and that the A1 Steam Trust is the weaker for it.

However, to pick out any individual trustee and say "his background is a problem" seems to me to miss the point. Directors are not just managers, their role is wider. It's the strength of the board as a whole that matters, and deserves to be considered in the round. Now, if you were to suggest that his cv is that of a generalist, and the balance of the board between generalists and specialists is awry, I might not disagree.

 

Why does Blackadder 4 come to mind.. "Darling P2"....."I'd rather not sir .. I'm not sure I can sir"...

 

A businessman i know, has had experience of ex armed service personnel.
He used the phrase "show them how to do it, when to do it, and leave no need for them to use initiative", and you wont go far wrong.
He applied this thought to all ranks, he had employed. Dont want to knock the management at A!ST, but a reality check is required, are they out of their depth....

 

Thanks - yes indeed, but perhaps a Freudian one?

 

Yes, the tender tank was delivered in 2020.

Link here:

Dave B

 

Here’s a link to the P2 on Companies House, the official register of directors etc.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08549849/officers

You can click on the individuals and see their other directorships - you’ll find most are also directors of the other nine? associated companies. You will also find most of their CVs on LinkedIn and can judge there relevancy . Happy researching !

 

When the A1 team first came together to organise its build they were an unknown quantity, just like the recent incumbents, and had to prove themselves.

 

Linked directorships are no surprise. As for their CVs, the point is not that X or Y has a "good" or "bad" CV, but the calibre of them as a group. One would hope that they will be more than the sum of their parts, but that can't be guaranteed.

 

They were, and I'm sure they made mistakes - I remember being leafletted by them in about 1991, and thinking "no chance"...

As an established organisation, they have the advantage of being able to think about succession, and give incomers appropriate induction and a flying start. The impression now given is that the credibility bank account is now in danger of going into overdraft, and that the strength in depth is no longer there.

 

I’m not suggesting that their CVs are ‘good or bad’. I’m saying do they, as a collective, have the necessary blend of experience ?

 

Once upon a time my former employer had people come in from the Forces. Most were, to put it kindly, bloody useless. You got the impression that they were so used to running their finger down a page of a fault location guide for a piece of equipment that once they encountered something for which there were no guides and no standardisation, they were well and truly out of their depth - which is no good when quick/creative thinking is required to work around something to get you out of a hole.

 

Loving the blanket bashing of a few hundred thousand people who happen to have served in the military on this thread.

let’s just say as someone who has done time in the forces and has operated successfully in the civilian business world for nearly two decades I’ve got a few views of my own about civilian employers with those attitudes.

 

Was that before or after they decided to install ETMS on Tornado (and also, presumably, on the P2 in due course)?

 

I’ve DM’d you.

 

I understand that there were several significant mistakes in those early years, not just with the boiler. Didn't the frames have to be rebuilt and much of the tender brakegear have to be remade? All eventually overcome, though.

 

And raise money!

 

Yes there were. Very minor and at a rectification cost of under £20k compared to current issues…