Current and Proposed New-Builds

The Doncaster P2 I think can be discounted, I put it in the same category as the second B17 project, Manchester United, which never got very far and was, eventually, wound up. The Tornado group one I think is a cert, very impressive progress.

 

Page 2 there has a couple more meaty engineer-y updates. Yes looks like someone has a bit of catching up to do on that construction so far page.

 

I thought the Doncaster P2 project had already gone under?

As far as enthusiasts go it’s another P2, and to the public it will just look like an A4, so I, personally, never really saw the point…

 

I'd wondered - however, at least at a formal level, they appear to still be filing annual accounts so are still in existence as an organisation.

The most recent balance sheet showed £18k of tangible fixed assets (presumably the frame plates they had cut); £2.5k of stock (presumably mugs, t-shirts etc) and £39k of cash in the bank. There was no change from 2021/22 to 2022/23 in tangible fixed assets, which suggests that in that year, there was no activity to actually construct any component for the loco.

So it is a bit of an oddity: either a few people are still holding on against all hope that somehow it will get built and keeping the organisation alive; or else - as a charity - they are pondering how to wind themselves up, the normal process for that being that in the first instance the assets are distributed to a charity having compatible aims. If so, you'd have to imagine that the cash has its book value but the tangible assets are basically good only for scrap. I don't know where they are stored.

Disclaimer: I have no connection, but was simply looking at the accounts since I was intrigued to find that they were still in existence.

Tom

 

According to their Facebook page, the frames are stored at CBE Engineering and the group will be attending an event at Doncaster racecourse on 10th/11th of this month. Someone asked if any work was planned for 2024 and the reply given was that it depended on funding and time available at CBE.

 

Like the second B17, just seems pointless to me to have a second P2. Just my opinion

 

I agree, wasn’t the announcement for the Doncaster one made in something like 1995? Slightly worrying as I was mere youth of 11 at the time and my 40th’s next month!

 

Can’t see how they expect to get much public support when there is another project much further advanced being undertaken by a group with a proven track record.

 

Turn it into an A2/2, obv...

 

And do it sensibly this time

Thompson A2 Forhjul by Hermod posted May 22, 2019 at 9:05 AM

And rear truck from a MN,BoB or Britania
or even better

Chalapon by Hermod posted Feb 7, 2024 at 4:05 PM

A crushed wood pellets dust burning narrow firebox will make it more powerfull than a SNCF 4-8-0

 

“Do it sensibly this time”

It was done sensibly the first time. Go re-read the Thompson thread.

As rebuilt, Thane of Fife was one of the best performing Pacific locomotives on the LNER for five years after rebuilding.

Stop the nonsense, please, where Thompsons concerned. Its wearying.

 

I really don’t like to be negative but I really can’t disagree with that.
I’m possibly misremembering things but didn’t someone somewhere ask one of those in charge regarding the Donny P2 about their progress compared to 2007 a few years ago and the response was ‘yeah but we’re building a real P2’ and wasn’t very happy about being asked further questions?

 

Opinions evidently differ as to what would constitute a "real P2". Was the later choice of A4-style casings just for the sake of better smoke lifting? The streamlining would have saved little power on the duty that they were intended for.

 

Might well have been for image as much as anything. After all, they put streamlining on a pair of B17s which had no practical benefit from an operational standpoint.

 

Why would the public put money towards something that, externally, looks almost identical to an A4?

 

Well i would put in towards having a B17 Streamlined, once its built. One wonders whether a real P2 ( Low pressure boiler and massive cylinders, bearings that run hot, derail risk, prone to snapping its axles etc) would be such a good idea in anycase...

 

4-6-2 to 4-8-0. Isn't that pretty high on the radical end of the scale?
Pat

 

Less radical if you consider it 2-8-2 —> 4-8-0. Same number of driving and carrying wheels, what could possibly be difficult about that?

Must admit, I’m enjoying the white metal kit-bash school of locomotive design. A Tri-ang Jinty chassis fits under pretty much any loco body, doesn’t it?

Tom

 

I quite like the wheel arrangement but, recognising I'm no expert on loco design, where does the fire go…?

Simon

 

Chapelon did it in 1930

Chapelon 240P by Hermod posted Mar 29, 2022 at 5:02 PM