Llangollen Railway

Which locos are likely to be running the services on the reopened Llangollen Railway? Presumably the Trust owned locos will be involved - 7754, Jennifer and Austin 1. Are any more locos likely to leave such as 80072 and 3802, if there is reduced engineering capacity to overhaul them, or reduced funds available to pay their high fees? Or if the Trust makes a real go of it, maybe we’ll see other locos owners wanting to move to Llangollen.

 

80072 is out of service requiring overhaul,

 

80072 is out of traffic, so I think its future at the LR will depend on the financial situation of its owners and whether or not they get any good offers from elsewhere. 3802 will probably stay as it should get some decent mileage as the only working non-industrial. I would expect that Jennifer and Austin No. 1 will either be out on hire or sold (as rumoured for Jennifer) being of limited use on the LR and the pannier tank will be brought back to service as quickly as possible. Is 5532 still owned by an affiliated group, and is it likely to stay at the LR? If it does there should be plenty of work for it once it it is in running order.

 

Out of curiosity, not being precisely familiar with how administration works: who would authorise that work? A boiler exam has a direct cost - would the administrator have to authorise that expenditure, or does the remaining management have a degree of autonomy in continuing with certain activities that cost money?

Tom

 

Doesn't that raise another question though, about the SMS? A boiler inspection is a function of the inspection regime set out in the railway's SMS - so if the plc is defunct, isn't the SMS also defunct? Seems an odd thing to do until the structural shape of whatever is the ongoing entity is clearer - or maybe I am missing something?

Tom

 

I'm no expert, but I'd have thought that while a SMS requires a boiler inspection, a boiler inspection doesn't necessarily require a SMS to be in place for it to be valid as part of a SMS at a later date, when one is formulated, as long as everything matches up?

 

Well, that is sort of at the heart of my question. The boiler inspector, and the boiler inspection itself, are on behalf of the insurer. So I just wonder what would happen if the new entity has a different insurer that didn't recognise the previous inspection?

Hence my query - the loco can't run until there is a new operating entity with an SMS in place, so it feels to be putting the cart before the horse to carry out a boiler inspection until that new operating entity / structure is clear. Maybe it already is and I've missed it.

Tom

 

I guess that was what I was driving at, is that a likely scenario, that the inspection is not accepted by a new insurer?

 

Possibly not. But since you can't run until the new structure is clear, it just feels premature to be doing things like boiler inspections, at least until teh outline is clear. Maybe I am just being cautious and seeing tasks sequentially that others might be happy to run in parallel.

Tom

 

There is not that many boiler insurers that would insure a steam locomotive boiler, 2, or 3 at most I believe, and I would imagine that the standards of each would be very similar, i can't see another Ivor Situation, where by a loco is given a new bill of health, and later when examined by another inspector the very same boiler was condemned,

 

I imagine the insurance has always been in the name of the trust. They’ve still been paying a few grand a month for the cover. Same for utilities. Believe they’re in the trust name.

 

Why would it be premature to do boiler checks on an in ticket steam loco? Even if the Llangollen never ran again, 3802 will steam and haul passengers again. They need to know if she is fit for traffic or not. Even if they don't get the approved to operate, 3802 can go out on hire, earning cash. Isn't it an insurance requirement anyway?

 

Even if an loco is in ticket, it will still need an exam every 12 months, to pass the boiler as fit for use , for a further 12 months,

 

How come 35027 was out of traffic for 4 years?