Cost of Flying Scotsman restoration tops £2.67m (From York Press)
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Cost of Flying Scotsman restoration tops £2.67m
9:56am Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News
By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter
The Flying Scotsman being unveiled to the public at the National Railway Museum last May, but delays have continued with the full restoration
ALMOST seven years after the £750,000, two-year restoration of the Flying Scotsman began, the bill has topped £2.67 million and work still has not finished.
Now visitors to the National Railway Museum in York will be able to see the refurbishment work taking place in front of them – after the project was taken in-house.
A museum spokeswoman said yesterday that it had been decided to carry out some of the work that would have taken place at Riley & Son (E) Ltd at the museum instead.
“This is great news for our visitors that can see Flying Scotsman in our workshop and witness some of the restoration work first-hand,” she said.
“The initial works being undertaken by the National Railway Museum engineering team include fitting the bogie stretcher, overhauling bogie components, the manufacture and fitting of ash pan components, manufacture and fitting of the cab floor and the overhaul and fitting of the lubrication system.”
She said a new cab radio had also recently been installed and commissioned.
The spokeswoman said the restoration project started in January 2006 and was originally expected to take around 18 to 24 months at a cost of £750,000, but by this June the bill had risen to £2.67 million.
She said: “As previously reported, there were a number of unexpected remedial works which needed to take place earlier this year and there are inevitable cost implications for all remedial work. We aim to have this locomotive operating as swiftly as possible but we have to accept that this comes with a cost implication.”
She said the Science Museum Group was committed to the loco’s restoration and would resource the additional repairs. “We will not be asking the public to make further donations.”
She added that the museum’s acting director, Paul Kirkman, who joins next month, would review the current state of the project and a thorough update on the project would be given to all media in due course.
She said the museum shared the public’s disappointment at the delays, but stressed that projects of this kind were “by their very nature full of complexities and uncertainties”.
She said funders, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, were aware of the challenges and remained very supportive.
Comments(15)
ian923
says...
12:06pm Wed 10 Oct 12
pedalling paul
says...
2:04pm Wed 10 Oct 12
ian923 wrote:Given the cost of imported coal it might be useful to burn it in the firebox and create a good head of steam....!
£2.67 Million! Absolutely ridiculous money spent on a train. It seems to me that this project was not properly researched . They must have money to burn.
Haywire
says...
2:35pm Wed 10 Oct 12
ian923 wrote:Ian, it's not a train.
£2.67 Million! Absolutely ridiculous money spent on a train. It seems to me that this project was not properly researched . They must have money to burn.
bloodaxe
says...
3:56pm Wed 10 Oct 12
ian923 wrote:Locomotive, not train.
£2.67 Million! Absolutely ridiculous money spent on a train. It seems to me that this project was not properly researched . They must have money to burn.
R'Marcus
says...
3:59pm Wed 10 Oct 12
There are people who can't get jobs and the U.K. economy is in a real mess and some folk want to spend more money on a clamped out old railway engine.
There is now't so queer as folk.
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
6:28pm Wed 10 Oct 12
Guy Fawkes
says...
8:57pm Wed 10 Oct 12
Almost seven years after the £750,000, two-year RESTORATION of the Flying Scotsman began ... She said a new cab radio had also recently been installed and commissioned.
(my emphasis)
Did railway engines have radios in their cabs in the 1920s? If they did, you could probably have boiled the water using the heat from the valves!
Since when did 'restoration' involve putting 21st century gadgets in a 1920s vehicle? Sounds like this restoration is being done by a Spanish pensioner to me!
Haywire
says...
12:15am Thu 11 Oct 12
Ignatius Lumpopo wrote:Why, Ignatius, you naughty, little troller! You play with fire (very appropriate!) by talking down the majestic steam locomotive in the City of York.
No-one has preserved one of these locomotives because they're unpreservable. It ruined previous owners and it'll ruin the NRM. It's had it - which is why it was withdrawn from regular passenger service 50 years ago. Why not gut the thing and put a diesel engine in the firebox. Or a pantograph on the tender?
Haywire
says...
12:19am Thu 11 Oct 12
Guy Fawkes wrote:Another man/woman playing with fire!
Almost seven years after the £750,000, two-year RESTORATION of the Flying Scotsman began ... She said a new cab radio had also recently been installed and commissioned.
(my emphasis)
Did railway engines have radios in their cabs in the 1920s? If they did, you could probably have boiled the water using the heat from the valves!
Since when did 'restoration' involve putting 21st century gadgets in a 1920s vehicle? Sounds like this restoration is being done by a Spanish pensioner to me!
In the dim and distant future, when the restoration is complete, the loco will require an in-cab radio in order to operate on Network Rail tracks.
Magicman!
says...
3:21am Thu 11 Oct 12
Even AndyD
says...
8:18am Thu 11 Oct 12
R'Marcus wrote:Interesting. So you think not spending money and not employing people would be good for the economy and unemployment?
What a waste of time and money!
There are people who can't get jobs and the U.K. economy is in a real mess and some folk want to spend more money on a clamped out old railway engine.
There is now't so queer as folk.
YorkPatrol
says...
11:13am Thu 11 Oct 12
R'Marcus wrote:There’s nowt as queer as you!!
What a waste of time and money! There are people who can't get jobs and the U.K. economy is in a real mess and some folk want to spend more money on a clamped out old railway engine. There is now't so queer as folk.
Where do you find the 2.67 million was spent???? Employing people to restore the thing, keeping people in employment who manufactured and supplied the materials, kept drivers in jobs who delivered the components, managers in job who overlooked the project etc etc. For me there’s needs to be many many more of these projects financed
Think a little harder, before you post utter garbage
Braveheart55
says...
12:27pm Thu 11 Oct 12
jumbojet
says...
11:33pm Thu 11 Oct 12
3.8liter says...
10:24am Wed 10 Oct 12
If it costs this much, it would be better to mothball it and build another new replica, like they did with Tornado.