Re: Silly Pendennis Castle ideas

["Bill McNiven" <wmcniven@gunzel.ozemail.com.au>]

chris@enet21.com.au wrote in message <38994433.5C1B1E4A@enet21.com.au>...
>I know this will start a long debate again, By why doesn't the RTM grab
Pendennis
>Castle, its ideal for main line running and much cheaper to restore an
maintain than the
>57 or probably the 35. I bet sponsors would like it too.
>After a week of letter writing to virtually every politican and major union
in the
>country I reckon  Rio will give it away to any non-profit or public
standard gauge
>museum in Australia.
>Letters of reply are starting to flow in, and they are not favourable to
Rio Tinto.


But the RTM already has a large collection 4-6-0s awaiting repairs: 3001,
3203, 3214 (for which there was a half-hearted restoration appeal in the
early 1980s), 3526 (for which there was a restoration appeal late 1998, with
no action visible since), 3609, 3616 and 3642 (which retired very quietly
some time in the last few years).

Surely, if we armchair experts are looking for a main-line home for a GWR
locomotive in Australia, we should speculate about:
Hotham Valley -- beautiful SG line to Kalgoorlie and beyond and not a single
SG steam loco
SteamRanger in SA -- beautiful SG line from Adelaide to Mt. Barker Jct. and
not a single SG steam loco
West Coast Railway -- the name goes with Great Western Railway and an
oil-fired blue 'Castle' would be a change
Dorrigo -- it would make up for the fact that the greedy RTM has three 36's
while Dorrigo didn't get any
QR -- they do a pretty good job of restoring and operating 3'6" gauge steam.
With a Uniform Gauge steam loco, they could let Sunsteam run to Kyogle and
maybe put steam on the GSPE.

All of this of course ignores the facts that Rio Tinto own the machine and
are free to do as they wish with their property -- keep it, scrap it, give
it away -- and that 4079, as a participant with Flying Scotsman (then IIRC)
GNR 1452 in the 1924 Locomotive Exchanges, is a key part of British Railway
history.

Rgds <g,r,d>

Bill :)