Atomic Systems

Is the flying scotsman for sale or not the owners are in debt and someone told me Auctioners have been notified and intrested clients should register intrest I thinck this was in a railway magazine is it true or not

If the loco is sold who will buy it a Heritage Railway
Railway Museum
A Owner \ Private buyer who will run in on mainline tours and hire out to
steam railways

Will it be based on Mainline or at a Heritage Railway??? or mayby the NRM

I didn't think it was for sale...

The NRM will probably be having it if it is though...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transp ... ory=466572

As for the NRM, I'm sure they'd love to have it, and even though they haven't got very much space they'd find some for it. I'm not sure they'd have the money to buy it though, so anyone want to chip in?

In todays paper it mentioned that the Japs or the Americans are interested, they want to put it in a shopping mall. It will be Butlins all over again.

Alan L

lwaxl00 wrote:In todays paper it mentioned that the Japs or the Americans are interested, they want to put it in a shopping mall. It will be Butlins all over again.

Alan L

That should never be allowed to happen. The loco is a piece of engineering history, and so more museums should show an interest

The last thing I heard was that it had been seized by Barclays Bank who were unsure what to do with it, some sources indicate that it will probably come up for auction, in which case it could end up anywhere in the world.

It'd be a sin if it went abroad. It didn't exactly have a fairy tale outing the last time it went to te U.S. did it.
If the National Lottery/Lotto can give tens of millions to art galleries, choi, orchestras etc, surely they can buy a legend and donate it to the NRM collection

If Barclays have the power to dispose of it then they should do the decent and proper thing and donate it to the nation (i.e. NRM). A huge financial loss to them but a source of great kudos. Selling by auction to a foreign bidder would be an outrage.

Problem is Tony Marchington has officially gone bankrupt and Barclays want to recoup as much of their money as possible, so keeping the loco in the country probably won't be high on the priority list

Better keep a watch on eBay.

Trouble is, all these locos owners run their locos at a lose. If anything, Flying Scotsman should be the most popular loco, as its internationally recongised.
Who ever buys this loco, must be in a finacial position where it can afford to get 4472 back up mainline operational standard, and still afford its yearly bills.
I refer you to football for a moment.
My team, Portsmouth FC were almost bankrupt 3 or 4 years ago.
Our new chairman came along, brought the club, brought in a new manager, gave him the cash and let him get on with it, believing he would make his money back when Portsmouth were promoted to the Premier division - in his eyes the next season.
It took several years, several managers, and about £50 million in transfere fee's, wages and other expenses, for us to even reach the premiership.
Now with a stadium capacity of 20,000, we cant afford to splash out big wages packets. Our chairman is no where near recovering the money he invested in the club, but he stuck with us for years when we were running at a lose.
All steam locos need somebody like that, because it currently costs around £1 million to overhaul a preserved locomotive, this can take between 6 months to 2 years.
All the time the loco isnt running, its running at even more of a lose to its owner.
When i was growing up, 4472 was my favourite loco, because it looked like a proper steam engine - as a pose to Mallard, so i'd like to see this wind up its days in the NRM, not some Texas ranch with kids crawling all over it and some oil tycoon shouting "Hey kids, do ya like my steam engine?"
Or a Japanesse shopping mall with 200 hundred Japenesse people all saying what an honour it is to have the Mallard {they wouldnt know the difference} in their shopping mall and thanks to msts, they'd also being telling people how this loco once did 140mph on the Settle and Carlise route.

thedarkness wrote:and thanks to msts, they'd also being telling people how this loco once did 140mph on the Settle and Carlise route.

The NRM haven't enough money to pay the £2million+ Marchington would want. I don't want 4472 to leave the country, I think a lottery grant to donate it to the NRM would be best option, as they have said that they think it should stay active on the mainline. However should I drop lucky on saturday's lottery,or next saturday, or the one after that..............................I'll buy a black Five!

A Lottery grant to keep it an any railway museum or steam railway where it would be run shame the GCR dod not have the money to buy it as the flying scotman was based at Leicester Central shed onec. Also could not national rail owned by the goverment buy it for the nation and put it in a museum.

The amercains will reck the loco it will be like we said in a shopping centre will net be maintined and will proberbly fall in to disrepair there are plenty of rictch people in the Uk who can afford to buy it oh what about Virgin Trains owner Richard Branson dont say he has not got the money

We should start a campain to keep the loco in the uk shame someone could not get a court order to keep it in the UK

I read about the £2 million price tag as well, but in the same article they reckon that £800,000 is a more realistic figure. Its a buyers market where Flying Scotsman is concerned I guess.

Alan L