V4 2-6-2 No. 3403

Highlanders have generally been royalist, but with terrible choices as to which royal they back...
(All the tartan shortbread scottery you like, but the clans were generally socially conservative. When they fought the English (or the lowland scots) it was generally for clan-based reasons)

 

You’re late to the party with that one.

 

Elvish - Sean Connery's favourite rock star...

 

Culloden?

 

I always thought Ashley Giles lived in Worcstershire?

 

Yup. Who were they fighting for?

 

Alot of my ancestors died there, thought it a nice name

 

Can paint it tartan now

 

Did someone say tartan?



Tom

 

Quite understandable if there has not been much happening - what with the battle to get Tornado back on the rails and a lot of P2 coming together and of course Mr Elliotts situation, but wondered if any news came out of the convention on this baby....

 

Brief reference at the convention. Nothing of any substance.

 

I can't see this getting built, or if it does it's 10 - 15 years in the future. I think that in the current financial climate, the funding model that has served the Trust well has now run out of steam (pun intended).

I wonder how many other new builds are stalling because of where we find ourselves?

 

Tend to agree. My gut feeling is that once the ones that are under way and have made significant progress are finished there won't be any more

 

Which are basically 6880, 5551, Atlantic, county, standard 3 tank, standard 2 tank, P2, G5.

The rest in my opinion will rely on people leaving large sums of money in their wills to see them complete. The F5 had been incredibly lucky in this way which has allowed some great progress in the last few years. Im hoping that that too will get into the list above.

 

I think the County 4-4-0 will get completed too, assume you meant 1014? Possibly the GC 567 too.

 

I'd love to see the F5 completed as well as the G5. Some time ago one of the magazines rather controversially ranked the likelihood of various projects being completed; maybe that is an exercise that should be repeated.

There's also the matter of to whom new build steam will appeal: whilst steam does seem to transcend generations, I foresee a time where it might become frowned upon. Turning to something newer I think it unlikely that anything else in the mould of LMS 10000 and D5910 will be made. Hopefully what will happen is a new generation of carriage restorers will come forth because some heritage railways really could use them...

 

What does the panel think about the Clan? I'd say frames, bogie, and a decent pile of ancilliary parts is not insubstantial, but is it enough? Boilers, driving wheels, cylinders (albeit the patterns are under way) and motion are a big hurdle.

The G5 has the big components, but they do seem to have slowed down at the moment.

 

I'd love to see the 'Clan' finished, if only because a dear friend of mine - now departed - was such an enthusiastic supporter of the project.

 

A small loco like the G5 is a lot cheaper to build and will be useful on heritage lines. The Clans were the least successful of the BR Standards do the question is why?
Soon after they started fund raising I raised this with them at an exhibition where they had a stand. I was told that they had plans to deal with the shortcomings of the design but the major one was that they were underboilered, if they address that they would end up with a Britannia.
At the time they were also looking for ideas for a name, I’m surprised that my suggestion of Clandestine wasn’t taken up!

 

Because they can? Smallness of loco hasn't been a factor in the success rate so far. The argument of usefulness is also an open question. In terms of commercial proposition arguably the most "useful" engine is Flying Scotsman, as it pulls most people in. Actual cost of operation is only one factor in the costs of running an engine.

"Will it be finished?" is the million-dollar question...