I should think as long as people continue to attend on Founders day (and of course Thursford make some ££££) the founders days will continue, as for comments I very much doubt if they give a **** about any of the comments on here as no doubt they have heard them all before.

I will always remember the old days at Thursford with an engine occasionally in steam.

Lets hope one day live steam will return to at least one engine.

Jim S

I doubt the tittle tattle on TT would make much difference to them opening or not. After all I guess not many of you would voice your views at Thursford lol. Out of curiosity has anyone ever approached them and asked if the would consider selling some of the outdoors collection?

I would personally rather see engines repaired, restored and in use than preserved and displayed unless it it a common engine in exceptionally original condition. Anything of rarity I would rather see in steam. Yes they all wear out but in the end of the day it's all just a pile of shaped metal although i would be loathed to throw original worn out parts away when replacing them, especially if a lot of work went into them.

Ryan

Out of curiosity has anyone ever approached them and asked if the would consider selling some of the outdoors collection?


Yes, About Fifteen years ago i wrote and asked them if they would consider selling an engine to me and they came back with a definate No. I was told that none of the engines would be sold as they are all part of the Cushing colection.

my Sentinel was part of that collection , but they sold it, and another as well i beleive, they got 100% proffit selling it to be put back to work , then that owner scrapped it sometime in the 60s

Chris.

Me too. About a decade ago my family were looking at buying a roller to restore and we got the same reply.

There is no doubt in my mind that one day some money will be needed there, and someone will look across the shed and see ££££££. A sale/tender auction/whatever to look forward to!

Was No1 not part of the collection too?

There have been a number of engines that have passed through the collection, I'd be interested to hear if anybody knows anymore Some of the ownership arrangements were different, this was the case with No 1 I think which stood behind the Gondola's when I visited in the 1990's. Fowler BB1's 15334/15335 were also sold out of the collection at some point.

Well everything is for sale at the right price. Clearly they don't need the cash at the moment which is fair enough but one day they may so lets wait and see. I doubt there will be any irreversible legalities that say the collection has to be kept as a collection as nobody in their right mind as a businessman or engine lover would do that!

Ryan

I realise that this is a discussion forum and probs won't make any difference but I've had half an idea. The National Railway Museum have a number of loco's in their 'collection' that appear on the mainline and are operated by preserved railways by arrangment. It may be possible, in the future, for some similar sort of arrangment to come into play here....just an idea....

i would say that one of the showmans would go first, as why sell 10 rollers for 20k each when you could get £££,£££ for one engine.