“No enticements. No promises of future benefits. Not even a footplate ride when it’s finished. This is just a 100% call for donations.”
Richard Croucher’s not pulling his punches. 4709 and the team (re-)building the loco from a small mountain of ex-Barry donor parts and new components have been languishing for almost a year and not solely because of COVID.
“4709’s recent history is littered with issues we’ve had to deal with before any new work could start,” he explains. “When the initial lockdown started, we waited and waited and finally got to move the loco’s chassis from Llangollen to Leaky Finders’ workshop in Exeter, at the beginning of August. That move also included several loads of refurbished components, that had also been stored at Llangollen for years. Then in another long-awaited move, the pony truck, horn blocks and many other items were also moved down to Exeter from Tyseley.”
And, as if that wasn’t enough, the initial efforts made to get 4709’s cylinders cast were encumbered by COVID, the liquidation of the foundry they were working with and then, yet more COVID-related lockdown problems.
“If you thought we’d given up, I’d have hardly blamed you. But we didn’t. Paul Carpenter’s engineering team has worked throughout, easily put in many hundreds of man hours, possibly thousands - no-one’s been counting, although we probably should have been. I have no doubt there’ll be a book appearing about it all, someday.”
The result has been the successful casting of 4709’s first cylinder, a few days ago. The second casting is due shortly.
“We’re fast getting back up to speed and anyone visiting the 4709 Web site will see there are now buttons requesting donations on every page. The more we collect, the faster we can get the essentials back under way and eventually, 4709 completed.”
Richard has fund raising plans which will start now and run until 4709 is complete. “This initial appeal is simple; give us some money and we’ll build you a great locomotive.”
By any standards, that’s a great deal.
Please don’t forget – there’s a “Donate” button at the bottom of this page.
