567 Victorian 4-4-0 New Build

Just happened to look at the 567 FB page this morning (the first time in several months) and there is a recent post on there (11th July) mentioning the fact that the large blue storage container has been moved away from the frames and "Footplate material now arrived".......

 

Nice to know that something is still happening.....It is a shame that the website has not been updated or the contributors not being regularly updated, despite being told this would be happening.

 

Is the workshop still off limits at Ruddington?

 

Given the progress reported in the latest newsletter, I can understand the Group taking a view for the present of updating us when there's something worthwhile hearing about. Personally my own enthusiasm for the thing would wane if every three months I received a communication to the effect of 'nothing doing'.

It is frustrating, very frustrating, that seemingly very little actual work has been achieved in the last year, but we should perhaps be mindful that the project faces headwinds that are not of its doing and make allowances for that. The AGM is on October 22nd, the newsletter suggests that there are difficult questions to be asked and answered then.

 

As J Rob't says..."It is frustrating, very frustrating, that seemingly very little actual work has been achieved in the last year.." but, as this is the only possible way of getting a GCR Victorian 4-4-0 running, we will have to be patient!
Compared to other new builds, this is one of the least complex.....indeed it is almost like a big wheeled industrial o-6-0 with one axle removed and a front bogie added.......hmmm

 

As J Robt has said, the latest newsletter arrived and the main news is that the AGM is to take place on Oct 22nd at Ruddington. I suspect hard questions will be asked....Let us hope that there will be a more positive outcome now that the Ruddington workshop has been re-organised and that the B1 group are on site.

 

Did anyone on here go to the Supporters meeting yesterday at Ruddington?

 

Yes. Lots of frustration was voiced by the Trustees that no real progress has been made, however the recomissioning of Building No.1 and the machine shop has reached the point where we can start cutting metal again, in fact one of the bogie hornblocks was worked on the weekend before the AGM (first real action on any of those since February 2020). Also a lot of time has been spent this year working on the relationship between the Railway and the project, part of the Railway's plan to getting back on its feet being trying to get a handle on all the various projects and groups using its site and asking for justification why they're there and do they fit in with the vision for the NHR.

So the last year has been more working on the personalities side of things rather than nuts and bolts engineering.

Financially the project's in a good place to go out to tender for subcontractors to work on items, but the quandry is that if that's done there's nowhere really to store the finished components- there isn't somewhere at Ruddington that we could point to and say 'that is 567's space'.

Moving on toward 2023 there a number of options for things that could be done to move the project forward:
1. Making the pattern for and casting the driving wheels, if the offer of sponsorship for these is still on the table;
2. Building up the leading bogie;
3. Building the running plates and valances, maybe also looking at some of the sheet metal items like the splashers, cab sheets and smokebox.

 

I'm reminded that in the recent article on 'Beachy Head' in Trackside magazine, the project leader was quoted to the effect that building Atlantic House right at the commencement of the project was the best decision they ever made.

Tom

 

I think there's certainly something to be said for that, but in fairness to the 567 Trustees, when the project was launched nobpdy would have thought that the fortunes of the GCRN/ NHR would turn out quite as they have over the last few years. Two of the Trustees are former member of the GCRN/ NHR board, prior to 2019 the talk was 'we'll be able to move the engine inside Building No.1 whenever we need to' and yesterday that became 'the NHR has decided it needs to monetise its workshop space, if we come indoors we'll be paying rent'.

This led to discussion of how much construction work can reasonably be done outside, how much space we'll need and how much renting that would cost for activities that must be done in a workshop, and if any workshop rental quote is exorbitant what do we do then- do we, for instance, build something in the plastic polytunnel line to get undercover when we need to?

 

Happened to have a couple of hours to kill in Nottingham yesterday, so popped into NHR and took this photo.

Victorian New Build by brmp201 posted Nov 6, 2022 at 4:07 PM

 

There is also a welcome update to the 567 website....at last!

 

So, what company is this 567 from?

 

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, which following a name change, became the Great Central Railway.

Tom

 

Trivia: the MSLR bonded warehouse in Manchester is now an "Aparthotel" called The Place.

 

Nice to see. Let's hope they can get some momentum after a lot of knock-backs.

 

I see.
Well, I am always happy to see a pre-grouping engine being newly built, Great Western or otherwise.

 

There is a comprehensive write up about 567 in the latest "Main Line" magazine. It does seem as though more machining has been done and there is a clearer way forward. Finances are strong, so some subcontracting may well be taking place in the near future.

 

At the AGM the Trustees were certainly very enthusiastic and eager to pretty much pick up where things had been left off, now that the machine shops are back in commission. They'd even started cutting metal again on the bogie hornblocks the weekend before (so this would have been mid-October), so I'm confident we'll start seeing bits coming together now.

 

Just seen that there is a 4 day old posting on the 567 FB page which seems to show holes being drilled in the loco frames at Ruddington.
Perhaps one day we will get another Supporters Newsletter to tell us what's going on......