Re: Silly Pendennis Castle ideas

["Alan Macro" <AlanM@hpd.no-luncheon-meat.co.uk>]

Thomas Johnson <tej22@**REMOVE*THIS*BIT**cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
87bs13$vr$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk">news:87bs13$vr$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk...
>
> Bill McNiven wrote in message ...
> >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 :)
> >
>
>
> According to this months Railway Magazine:
>
> "The Australian quarrying company Hamersley Iron has generously decided to
> make a gift of 'Castle' class 4-6-0 Pendennis Castle to the Great Western
> Society
> . . . . . . . . .
> the society has to find the shipping costs of GBP125,000. That's the
'going
> rate' the P&O line has quoted for bringing the loco half way round the
world
> from the Indian Ocean port of Dampier."
>

The Great Western Society has launched an appeal to raise the shipping
costs. ISTR that they think that they need GBP 80,000. Is it too much to
hope that a shipping company will provide an "assisted passage", i.e.
shipping at cost or less?

--
Alan Macro
Campaigning for better passenger rail safety -
http://www.amacro.freeserve.co.uk/rail-safety.htm
AlanM@hpd.no-luncheon-meat.co.uk
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