RMweb Gold PhilH Posted January 27, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 27, 2017 This was posted recently on British Airshow Review facebook page. Seems a shame if accurate. Some sad news today from Doncaster about the future of XH558..credit to David Robinson for the update. A very sad day today folks, made a final visit to see XH558 in hangar three, which you might think was sad enough, but there was more bad news to come... Today was an ideal opportunity to have a chat with one of the engineers, someone that we have known for many years, and when I asked him if he was being kept on, he dropped a bombshell by saying that no one was being kept on, all the engineering team, including Taff Stone were being laid off. Only two people will remain, possibly on a part time basis, and I think you can guess who they are, yep Robert Pleming and Andrew Edmundson, everyone else....gone. I asked if Taff was there today, he said no, he had left and gone for an interview, I believe he said at Cranwell. When asked if he would go back if asked to by the Trust, he said no, not after the way they had been treated. More info came to light, that 558 will move into hanger one and put into storage, but he said that it will only be allowed to stay there till April, if no new home has been built / found by then, she will be moved and stored outside. Also spoke to one of the volunteers, again someone we have known for many years, and he told us that all the volunteers will leave at the end of the week, and will only return if a new home is found for 558. At the moment folks, the future to me doesn’t look to bright. If there are no engineers, how are they going to keep her in taxiable condition, something that the Heritage Fund said they had to do when they got the grant, hope they wont want their money back. No one would be drawn into a conversation re WK163, except to say, that the Trust realise now that they made a mistake in buying her.. As I say, to me the future doesnt look to good, no engine runs, no taxi runs, no engineers, no volunteers and no visits for the foreseeable future for members of the public. There is a possibility of course that all of this, and more, may be in tomorrow nights newsletter, we will have to wait with baited breath to see… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 and for the rest of us who dont know what XH558 is, its the vulcan, i just had to look it up as i didnt know Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Nothing about this in today's weekly VTTS email. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted January 28, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 28, 2017 Railway Magazine, February 1971 Mr. W. O. Skeat advises us that a fund opened to restore a Stirling G.N.R. tender of 1893, and attach it to preserved G.N.R. 4-2-2 No.1 in York Museum, has had to be closed because of insufficient support - only £13 was raised out of £400 required - and donations have been returned to senders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERS Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Nothing about this in today's weekly VTTS email. Details of the survival plan were made public when Staff were briefed a couple of weeks back http://www.vulcantothesky.org/xh558-s-survival.html It is a very sad state of affairs and how the Trust have seemingly failed to forsee the situation bearing down on them is most unfortunate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Details of the survival plan were made public when Staff were briefed a couple of weeks back http://www.vulcantothesky.org/xh558-s-survival.html It is a very sad state of affairs and how the Trust have seemingly failed to forsee the situation bearing down on them is most unfortunate. However there is a big difference between what is reported on the website and the rumour that is circulating. The website says that full-time staff are being reduced from 22 to 8, plus some part-time workers. The circulating rumour is that all but two part-time staff are being released. Whilst some of what is happening was foreseeable, I think DSA have asked for the hangar back earlier than VTTS were expecting. However I don't think VTTS should have started the Canberra project until XH558 was securely homed. As it is, I think sale of the Canberra now ought to be considered to raise funds to re-house 558. Whatever the truth of the situation is though, I agree that it's a sad situation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Railway Magazine, February 1971 Mr. W. O. Skeat advises us that a fund opened to restore a Stirling G.N.R. tender of 1893, and attach it to preserved G.N.R. 4-2-2 No.1 in York Museum, has had to be closed because of insufficient support - only £13 was raised out of £400 required - and donations have been returned to senders. Was it a failure? http://forsytheonthenrm.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/stirling-single-and-its-tender.html Jason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted January 30, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 30, 2017 Was it a failure? http://forsytheonthenrm.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/stirling-single-and-its-tender.html Jason I knew that the late and much missed Malcolm Crawley was involved. I remember him talking about it but can't remember the details. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted January 30, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 30, 2017 Was it a failure? http://forsytheonthenrm.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/stirling-single-and-its-tender.html Jason It seems not, ultimately. This item http://blog.nrm.org.uk/a-tale-of-two-tenders/ says ..which has been known since the 1960s at least, when an original large capacity Great Northern tender was identified and saved for the nation to be paired with the loco. Now, over forty years on, the “new” tender’s time for repair has come, which strongly suggests that the subject of the 1971 appeal is the same tender as the one being restored recently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Hadyn Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 It seems not, ultimately. This item http://blog.nrm.org.uk/a-tale-of-two-tenders/ says ..which has been known since the 1960s at least, when an original large capacity Great Northern tender was identified and saved for the nation to be paired with the loco. Now, over forty years on, the “new” tender’s time for repair has come, which strongly suggests that the subject of the 1971 appeal is the same tender as the one being restored recently. The loco sitting about 100 feet from where I am typing has the large capacity tender as now restored. The 1971 appeal failed, the 2011-12 appeal by the Friends of the NRM succeeded and No.1 has the right tender at last. At least in 1971 the tender was not scrapped but stored, making the happy ending possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 That's what I meant really. The fact it wasn't scrapped at the time to me means it was ultimately successful. Possibly it was the wrong time to be asking for money to restore it. In 1971 there was quite a lot of things that were desperately in need of saving. Jason Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 1, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 1, 2017 That's what I meant really. The fact it wasn't scrapped at the time to me means it was ultimately successful. Possibly it was the wrong time to be asking for money to restore it. In 1971 there was quite a lot of things that were desperately in need of saving. Jason By coincidence I bought a bookazine about the duchesses published by the NRM. In it there is a lovely photo of the single with it's new 'proper' tender attached and the smaller one behind it. The credit says it was taken in 2014. It looks well. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted February 9, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2017 A couple from the December 1969 Railway Mag I think this has been mentioned briefly in this thread: Sandy & Potton society wound up Because lack of funds have resulted in its inability to reach its objectives, the Sandy & Potton Steam Railway Society, formed last year to purchase 5.25 miles of track between Sandy and Gamlingay on the L.N.W.R. Oxford-Bletchley-Cambridge lie, has been wound up. And more intriguingly: Steam engines at Walkden Last North Staffordshire Railway 0-6-2 tank on the National Coal Board system at Walkden, Lancashire, Sir Robert, which had been privately purchased, and was mentioned as a possible locomotive for use on the Lakeside Railway, was scrapped during the last week of September, advises Mr. R. S. Greenwood, though the reason for this action by its new owner is not known. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall5 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 My recollection was that 'Sir Robert' had only been 'reserved' rather than actually purchased and was cut up at Walkden when it was found to be in worse condition than originally thought. I'm sure there are others who remember it in more detail - Richard Greenwood is still around AFAIK. The recently published 'Locomotives of the central Lancashire coalfield' may have more information. At the time (1969) there was a lot of 'wishful thinking' in the preservation world and quite a lot of locos were claimed to have been "purchased" and got scrapped by their owners when they got fed up waiting for payment. What a lot of today's enthusiasts don't realize is that raising funds wasn't, in many cases, the biggest problem (industrial locos could be had for as little as a hundred quid) but it was somewhere to keep the things! Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzie Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Finding somewhere to park a tank loco and transporting it is nothing to the current problem of trying to find somewhere to park and then transport a 4-car EMU. When the time comes preserving a Pendolino will be quite challenging, and it is probably not long before all the 373s are gone and just a memory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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