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3 Engines to Swanage Railway


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3 Classic 1920's Southern steam engines are to be heading to Swanage as part of a 25 year deal.

1. U class 31806. Only surviving rebuild K-class
2. N class 31874. Only Surviving N class. Complete, but in need of restoration.

3. U class 31625. In need of restoration.

 

http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/news/detail/swanage-railway-strenghtens-its-fleet-with-three-classic-1920s-southern-steam-locomotives

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Interesting.  Its a shame the U's and the  N's languish.  They would be a lot more useful to preservation than the later Bulleids of which there are sufficient to say the least.

 

Brian.

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They could equally have gone to the Bluebell, which would then have almost all of the surviving Maunsell Moguls....

 

No doubt the Bluebell felt they could do without the accompanying baggage. Wise move.

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'Valour' you are right, given the past history I'm very surprised, but those responsible at the top of Swanage Railway today are different to those 35 years ago. It'll be good to see the moguls on the 'branch', but am dubious about the 'baggage'.

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'Valour' you are right, given the past history I'm very surprised, but those responsible at the top of Swanage Railway today are different to those 35 years ago. It'll be good to see the moguls on the 'branch', but am dubious about the 'baggage'.

 

Don't know about 35 years ago, not around then but I suppose it's possible that Swanage management have become more gullible and welcomed a pig in a poke. Nice engines, pity about the crew.

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'Valour' you are right, given the past history I'm very surprised, but those responsible at the top of Swanage Railway today are different to those 35 years ago. It'll be good to see the moguls on the 'branch', but am dubious about the 'baggage'.

Hopefully in this 'new' situation there will be some proper contracts involved and we will not get a re-run of the events on the MHR of some years ago.  Having been involved (with a completely different concern) in the past in drafting hire agreements for locos and then seeing them put into place it was sometimes remarkable to note how people had failed to read iior understand what a contract said - and there was absolutely no small print at all, just a couple of pages of A4 paper.

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I have never been sure who were the culprits in that dispute, the MHR or John Bunce.

 

What is the general consensus.?

 

Keith.

Without wishing to take sides (and I have no connection with either of them) I always had the impression that there was far too much in the way of 'verbal understandings', which meant different things to different people, and not enough in the way of clear written arrangements or contracts.  And therein lies a common story throughout UK railway preservation - it was just that this one got a bit nasty and attracted a lot of media attention.

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I have never been sure who were the culprits in that dispute, the MHR or John Bunce.

 

What is the general consensus.?

 

Keith.

 

There are so many rumors and stories surrounding what went on in the JB period that it's difficult for the outsider to get a clear idea of the events that led to this point, and you probably won't find many people wanting to rake up old ground. What is obvious is that the Mid Hants have done alot to try and move on from the whole unfortunate affair, the departure of these locos being a final line drawn under it.

 

Although I'm sad to see the U leave the MHR, they do seem to have an embarrasement of riches compared to most other lines when it comes to motive power, and with 76017 nearing the end of it's restoration the line won't be without a Mogul for long.

 

Tom.

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Without wishing to take sides (and I have no connection with either of them) I always had the impression that there was far too much in the way of 'verbal understandings', which meant different things to different people, and not enough in the way of clear written arrangements or contracts.  And therein lies a common story throughout UK railway preservation - it was just that this one got a bit nasty and attracted a lot of media attention.

What was it that Sam Goldwyn said? 'A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on'?

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I have never been sure who were the culprits in that dispute, the MHR or John Bunce.

 

What is the general consensus.?

 

Keith.

 

I'm not getting into a discussion over this, nor am I going to rake over old ground....but I'm going to say this - those that were there know what happened. We didn't read about it in the steam beano, we didn't hear about it third hand down the pub.

 

Those who were there are pretty much to a man glad that the MHR and Mr. Bunch can now both move on down our separate paths.

 

The end.

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So what's happening with Standard 5 73096? I thought that was a John Bunch loco - will it also be departing the MHR (shame if it does).

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I was informed the boiler certificate expires on this in August

post-8525-0-87367600-1402007175.jpg
So perhaps they need to get some extra locos sorted. For me much as I like the loco the 66xx pulling green coaches is what I remember.
Don

 

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I was informed the boiler certificate expires on this in August

You are correct

Then 80104 in 2016, 30053 in 2017 and 34070 in 2018

 

Without the 3 newbie's coming down here, they'd have had 3 going out, and only one possibly coming in! (34072)

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You are correct

Then 80104 in 2016, 30053 in 2017 and 34070 in 2018

 

Without the 3 newbie's coming down here, they'd have had 3 going out, and only one possibly coming in! (34072)

 

Swanage management should have some cast iron "agreements" then as this looks like developing into a pretty heavy dependence on one supplier. Just the sort of situation which caused problems before, combined with a lot of wi***y waving.

 

If those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it why be so coy about what went on anyway?.  

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Swanage management should have some cast iron "agreements" then as this looks like developing into a pretty heavy dependence on one supplier. Just the sort of situation which caused problems before, combined with a lot of wi***y waving.

 

If those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it why be so coy about what went on anyway?.  

To be honest there's no need whatsoever to rake over the past (as Phil has said) in today's presevation world.  If a Railway is not cute enough to have its head firmly affixed and the numbers and the wording sorted before both parties sign upon their respective dotted line it's a minor miracle that they are still in business and it might be another one if they are still there in X years time.

'

The days of sloppy verbal agreements., or a couple of notes on a piece of paper 'agreed between a railway and loco/stock etc owners should be long gone.  Some of the procedures (e.g fitness to run, compliance etc) will be covered by their SMS, manning should be covered by their Rule Book and parts of their SMS and some aspects of workshop procedure and relevant compliances will also be covered by their SMS (assuming they have a decent one).  The commercial and financial aspects of any contract should be dealt with by the appropriate officers or managers of the railway and they ought not to be in such a position if they don't know how to do loco use etc agreements.

 

All these things are the lessons of the very diverse history of the heritage/leisure railway sector and the sum of them is far more important than events on a single railway over a decade ago.

 

Edit to correct typos.

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