Steam locos available for hire

Neil is correct, finding ANY railway/owner willing to release a loco for the whole season is very rare at the present time. Remember it will cost approx 5 - 6k for transport in and out - and then you want to make sure you keep it for a reasonable timescale. There is a shortage of available locos and railways that are struggling for home grown fleets will be making sure they get longer term contracts.

 

Only 2 I can think of that haven't got firm commitments afaik are 45305 and 45231. However both are mainline registered and once the season is underway they would more than likely find work there surely?

 

45231 is allegedly up for sale - buy it, and job done!

 

45305 is due to work on the The Weardale Railway for 7 weeks, being on the 8th July according to Steam Railway.It is them going to the North Norfolk Railway for its Steam Gala.

 

Or is it the Wensleydale? The Steam Railway piece refers to one in the title and the other in the text!

 

Don,t you mean tyseley have a castle.

 

Another factor to consider is the price that a locomotive owner can demand. Demand for Class 4 and above tender locomotives will (probably) always outstrip supply. Locomotive owners can now charge a premium on top of what the market based price would be. Say a steaming fee for such an engine is about £500 a day, someone who has a spare locomotive could charge £700-800. Hiring in at short notice tends to always be an expensive business.

 

If I knew where there was a pot of gold I'd help! Sadly I don't the closest I have is 'OO', which I don't think is what the CVR are looking for...

 

Indeed, has this guy single handedly taken over tyseley or something?? He can certainly talk, but what else does he do??