P2 Locomotive Company and related matters

Suggested on Facebook that they might ask 'any chance of a Grant... as long as its not Shapps...' post removed as inappropriate .

 

"I'd love to help but I completely emptied the country's coffers over the past few years.............."

 

Wasn't it the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer who said something like that back in 2010?

 

Yes thats right. Emptied the coffers to shore up the economy after we inevitably imported the ''death of capitalism '' from the USA. Remember the sub prime malaise? Ironic it was left to the Labour party to do this !

 

A long-standing in-joke between departing chancellors that has been done for decades.

 

If I were Rishi Sunak and sensitive about my height, as he is known to be, I would personally avoid standing next to absolutely massive machinery

And was then cynically exploited by the current iteration of the Conservative party to portray Labour as fiscally irresponsible. Which they may well have been, depending on your point of view, but the traditional jocular note wasn't evidence of it.

 

I know it's a "different" P2 project, but, whilst attending the model railway exhibition in York last Sunday, I noticed that the Doncaster P2 project had a stand at the show. I didn't venture to ask the 2 people behind the counter how the project was going (too nervous!). I assume it isn't progressing very well as there never seems to be much news about it, unlike the Darlington example, which I subscribe to. Does anybody know how the Doncaster example is doing?

 

Last mentioned here with a summary of their financial position https://national-preservation.com/t...posed-new-builds.985610/page-254#post-2859682

 

Now you mention it, I was surprised not to see the A1SLT at The Model Railway Club exhibition at Alexandra Palace: both the BBLS and the DPS were there and I know the BBLS signed up some new members at the exhibition.

 

Despite the obvious difficulties I wonder if it would be possible for the Doncaster P2 group to work on creating an A4 style front end (casing and smokebox) to put on Prince of Wales at some point in the future. I realise that the valve gear would not be correct but it would create a new, and very saleable, change of image later on in PoW's life.

 

Perhaps the RHDR…?

 

Thank you for the update. I did notice on the day that the Doncaster P2 stall had a bowl for donations. Perhaps that's why I was reticent about getting too close!

It's interesting to ponder sometimes about fundraising, especially for "new build" scheme locomotives etc. Perhaps nobody wants another P2, even if it was to be built with the A4 style front end. By way of a contrast, I remember, as a youngster, watching Blackburn Beverley aircraft lumbering around the sky from their base at RAF Abingdon. The last one, stuck in a closed museum park at Fort Paull, has now been saved by the Solway Aviation Museum (Carlisle) and the sum of £60000 to cover the cost of dismantling it and moving it was raised in 64 days (the total was reached last night). Ironically, it was always a trials aircraft and never entered squadron service. Never mind, enough of us wanted to save it even though I'm sure Blackburns got the design idea from seeing a Dutch barn break free in a gale! I guess that if things are handled well and offered with a mild dose of nostalgia, the funding is out there. It doesn't seem to be working for the Doncaster P2, that's for sure.

 

I don't know if Solway Aviation Museum have had any social media training, but it's been very impressive over the last couple of months watching the progress. Daily posts that didn't feel over the top or excessive, a masterclass in keeping it in the public eye with their efforts being shared around the world. It certainly worked, £60k for a small volunteer-run museum in a couple of months is astounding.

 

I feel sorry in a way for the DP2LT, having landed firmly in the shadow of the A1SLT on a broadly similar project. It would seem they launched a "Founders Club" in 2018 judging by the website: I wonder if it ever got its one hundred members?

 

Was this the aircraft that on its take-off for the maiden flight where the Chief Test Pilot said to his colleague, "My side is airborne - what is your side doing?"

 

No one knows how the future will be

 

There's an interesting sentence in the begging leaflet about the valves and valve gear.

This suggests that they are thinking of the Tornado incident despite, surely, their having learnt all the possible lessons from that incident; and where anyway the shedding of parts was not caused by any faults in those parts but was a consequence of the seized piston valve.

 

Is there somewhere a published accident report?

 

I also would be interested to know of a report or simply any more details.

There seems to be a deafening silence on quite what the considerations were that appear to have stopped any further 90 mph running.
With freight trains speeding up, being able to run 15 mph faster might be quite helpful to keep a path comfortably.