5972

As 5972 has been to the West Highland line before, what is stopping it from working the Jacobite?

If my memory serves me right did some platform coping stones had to be removed to allow it to pass certain stations? I would have thought a Hall being a 5MT could cope with the load to Mallaig or are her wheels a bit big for the tough climbs? Just idle speculation!

 

Don't think the Hall's wheels are any bigger than a Black 5 and I've always understood Stephenson valve gear to be better suited to lower speed hill climbing than Walschaerts, but perhaps Mr Smith is averse to quickly wearing out his loco's tyres and prefers to leave that to others!

 

Hall and Black 5 both have 6' drivers and a B1 has 6' 2" drivers so if the last two can work the Jacobite then I can't see a Hall having problems.

 

I don't doubt it - still looking at £800 a day steaming fee though :-(.

 

(I cant edit my previous post for some reason).

I remembered reading recently something along these lines:

http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201310/3742/

Also, didn't Waner Bros create a clever mockup of the loco that fooled people into thinking it had already been deported?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/HogwartsExpressUniversalStudios.JPG

I doubt it'll be leaving the UK, but if it is, why is it such a big deal? There are enough unrestored locos here as it is (including Halls), and its one less loco with a dodgy livery . Even it it moves to WB UK, just wait till the fads died off and buy it back at a cutdown price - would fit in great on a number of heritage lines even if it can't find a place on the mainline.

 

Gradient wise at least, the West Highland has nothing Halls didn't deal with every day in Devon & Cornwall.

As Tyseley have shown, working off region isn't a problem when the crews familiar with their charge.

 

Quite true... hence why Id quite like the Earl to go north of York!

 

I thought that the 5972 has already worked the line during filming of harry potter?

 

It has, and an angle grinder was used to remove the edge of the platform at Banavie before it could venture any further.

 

I think you will find that like some engines there is a scale of charges depending on what the event is ie gala or normal service. Making sweeping statements like this causes missunderstandings that don't help. The only other thing I'll say is that after 10 years of running a loco owner will generally need in excess of 350,000 for the rebuild. Indeed 7820's recent boiler repair was around £250,000

 

£350,000\10 years \ 44 steamings a year =£800 per day.

How many engines get more than 50 steamings a year outside the big few lines ?

 

So, if a loco was only likely to get 22 steamings/year you would expect it reasonable to command a fee of £1600 then?
Steaming fees are subject to all the usual laws of demand and supply.

 

Agreed and on the whole, loco owners subsidise the running of their locos out of their own pocket and via ancillary fund raising.

 

Define big. 34081 achieved 75+ in some years. Others were not so busy. All depends on availability of the loco, number of services on the timetable and how many other locos are available to the host railway at any given time.

 

I think that comment shows something quite telling.
As Spamcan says 75+ is readily achievable if maintained and if the initial restoration/overhaul was a committed and thorough one.
I have known of over a 100 steamings per loco being achieved in successive years and I would not classify that as being one of the few big lines. But investment in planned preventative maintenance and also initial overhauls made those figure possible combined with superb efforts from the running staff.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Careful what you say.. if I turn tables here and suggest £800 per day x 100 days a year £80k a year adds up to a good ROI on a £600k steam locomotive complete with a 10 year ticket..
I might suggest stop buying flats to let and start buying locos to let instead.

 

Funnily enough I was thinking much the same?! Would anyone care to divulge what sort of amounts are typical for steaming fees for varying sizes of loco (perhaps not specific examples but categorised generally by size/power classifications)? At £800 a day with say 50-70 steamings a year I would have thought probably fund its upkeep/overhaul reasonably well accepting the use of volunteer labour. I'm definitely no expert in these matters- simply going by some of the figure I have seen on here and elsewhere for maintenance and overhaul costs. I would be very keen to see roughly how it all stacks up.

Chris

 

As long as nothing wears dramatically or breaks half way through it's ticket........

 

Getting 100 days would not be easy most lines but I agree not impossible. Getting £800 a day would be much more difficult though. One thing to consider is the cost of maintenance during the length of a boiler ticket. Not all the money earned in this time will go towards the next overhaul. As sure as eggs are eggs, something will need doing and take money out of the pot.