City of truro

As truro is mainline registered is there any plans for a return to the main of probably one of the nicest great western locomotives that they produced prior to the thousand and odd panniers etc that they built I for one would love to see her out on main and don't see any reason prohibiting it apart from OTMR

 

Is her main line ticket still valid.

 

she is listed as having a valid certhttp://www.uksteam.info/tours/locos.htm

 

She doesn't have OTMR fitted, so can't run on the mainline at present.

 

Any plans to dit OTMR tho...

I had a fantastic run from York to Tys.

 

Unless she visits the Moors.

 

What’s the cost of putting OTMR on her and could it be justified for the amount of main line work she would get.

 

isnt Otmr some where in the region of 50K?
and what about her doing a run hellifield to carlisle

 

Even if NR let 3440 run Hellifield-Carlisle they would limit the load to around 5 coaches. Cost of charter, say £30K plus fitting costs of OTMR @, say, £15K how much would the tickets have to cost to cover these costs? 3 passenger coaches with 64 seats in each M1 brake at one end, non passenger carrying and support vehicle at other end, again non passenger carrying. The end vehicles being "barrier vehicles as MK1 coaches at either end of a train cannot carry passengers under current regulations. That allows 192 seats for sale, I'll let you do the maths!

Even if you amortised the cost of OTMR over, say, 10 trips the load restrictions means it would never cover it's costs.

And believe me weather a charter runs with 5 or 12 coaches £30K is a realistic ballpark figure for the cost of running a railtour on today's (fragmented) railway.

 

I think when it ran on the main line in 2004 it mainly run with another engine which also pushes up the costs. Regarding buffer coaches I went on the NYMR Esk Valley Railway in April shuttles with 4 coaches and there wasnt any barrier coaches.

 

The Whitby branch is an exception to the barrier vehicle rule because A) the line speed is quite low and B) It runs as a single track branch, split into sections with only one train allowed in any section at a time.


I must make it clear that I would like to see 3440 back on the main line but I fear the pressures main line steam has to face these days will preclude it.

 

If City of Truro was to have OTMR put on her for main line work would the money be better spent on putting another loco back in to steam.

 

Exactly, it would the only way Truro would really be suitable on the mainline would be double heading with a larger class or on a regular working which was suitable with view to load, length of run and gradients. I have seen footage of it on the SSE's many years ago with 9 on. With it mid way through ticket there isnt much point putting it back on the mainline but if work could be secured once the next overhaul is complete then maybe it could be considered. It all comes down to whether the NRM are happy to let an engine like Truro back on the national network.

Alex

.... imagine it on the Cambrian Coast Express

 

I don't think the cost of an OTMR kit for 3440 would be such a poor investment as some seem to think, assuming it happened, don't you think the NRM would have the brains once 3440 had finished it's current boiler ticket to take the OTMR off and fit it to another potential mainline performer thus avoiding the investment in a kit for that loco ?.

Truro's tractive effort is the biggest problem to mainline workings, but if your willing to put Mk2's as either end of the train then places like Stratford & Scarborough (reasonably flat routes) are just about viable as repeat intineries.

 

:-k :-k .... nope, that ain't working for me.... I can imagine it on a plinth tho.. 8-[

 

Haha, i am sure some would agree with you. At the end of the day i would rather see it in steam and running rather than stuffed and mounted.

Alex

 

i quite agree with you alex barring one loco that being 4472 the flying scrapman

 

Its the closest thing to a Dukedog we could get though.

 

If City of Truro was to go main line and was double headed with another loco that had OTMR and Truro was not the leading loco would it still need OTMR to run on the main line. Would this be one way around not having OTMR on the loco?

 

Hi

I doubt it would be allowed because while it was on the mainline it would be required to stay connected to the other loco, this wouldnt always be possible especially when running around stock.

Alex