7760 for sale?

As reported in Heritage Railway this month, supposedly in good condition too, an ideal loco for many lines but will there be any takers in the current economic climate?

 

I'll give you a fiver for it

 

I'll make it another fiver and we'll go halves!

 

Ill stick 20 on the table right away...

 

What's this, a NatPres project? What colour's it going to be...?

 

How about LT, as L90?

 

I will paint it Pink and call it Pansy the Pannier

 

The licence from HIT will cost you more than the locomotive :-#

 

Tell you what we should do - have one of them 'lowest individual bid' auctions! Lowest individual price given gets the loco!

 

Interesting one,just 6 month ago the PDSR valued their out of ticket small prairie at 300k.I cannot see tyseley letting 7760 go for anything less than 200k which as you say in the current economic climate is questionable.To make itself pay it would have to work almost every day during the summer season on a line that can accomodate it and afford the steaming fees.Either a well off railway or a hosking type dude will show interest...have the PDSR ..sold that prairie yet..

 

The last pannier to be offered sold quite quickly (?9642 to Andrew Goodman), so I suspect it will be sold, but it will be interesting to see where it ends up. Ideal for the SDR and they do seem to be interested in small-ish GWR engines.

 

I would imagine this engine would command a good price, it tick's all the boxes for a preserved railway.. exBR, can pull 6, economical on a branchline, somewhat popular..

Is this one in ticket ?

Ive always questioned the value of Panniers to Vintage Trains in Birmingham.. maybe 1 for the odd open day and then hire it out for the season, but a fleet of 3 panniers onsite steamed once or twice a year ? (7715,7760, 9600 and then 9466 periodically ?)

nice as they are to have, there must be a financial drain if there' not being used and i'm sure they would be much more valuable to a number of preserved lines.
Any reason why Tyseley havent hired them out this year ?

 

I reckon that 7760 will find a buyer, even in this economic climate. A 57xx pannier is an ideal loco for many preserved lines, and being ex-Tyseley, it will have been well looked after.

As to where it will end up, that is anybody's guess. Most ex-GWR lines either have a pannier or two already (eg SVR, SDR, B&W, Llangollen),would like one but can't afford one or need something with a bit more power (P&DSR, WSR) 5775 has ended up a long way from GWR territory, but they seem to like her at Keighley. It will be interesting to see where this machine ends up. I would not be surprised to see it end up away from traditional GWR territory, but there is no point in speculating any further at thsi stage.

 

Hmm..

I wonder how a Pannier would go down at Strathspey ? (They did after all work north of Inverness once)

Has Gloucestershire and Warwickshire got a Pannier ?

 

As I mentioned earlier, Andrew Goodman bought ?9642 a couple of years ago, so it is a fair bet that it will go to the GWR. If the SVR's panniers can haul useful loads, then one would have thought that they could fulfill a similar role on the GWR

 

Tyseley's Main focus these days is mainline running and there's is limited scope for that with 57XX's so this doesn't suprise me to be honest, of the trio, currently only 9600 is in ticket so is likely to be kept, not sure what the future holds for 7752 but often the Pannier tours are doubleheaded so maybe a need for it (remember 9466 is a hire in job).

As for not hiring loco's out, allegedly in the past loco's were going out with new components and returning with ones showing wear wear far in excess of the loco's loan...

 

Since 7760 was part of the TYS "hire fleet" is was later fettled to mainline standard and ran some trips, notably double headed with 9600 in December 2001. Since then it has been stored indoors so should be in pretty good nick for an out of ticket loco.

 

It doesn't matter how good a loco looks, that's only cosmetics.
The key questions for any interested party should be;
How worn is the cylinder block, valve faces and cylinder bores.
Boiler condition, grooving around the foundation ring, plate thickness etc.
Could cost a lot more to bring back into service than it would to purchase.
Lets face it,... they've got three, and they're not going to get rid of their best ones!

Interestingly, with all the other projects under way and completed, no one has yet
made a pattern or cast a replacement cylinder block for a pannier. I know what our
dimensions are, but there must be a few out there that are running close to, or
beyond scrapping sizes.