Avon Valley News

Shovel · Post by **Shovel** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:44 pm

Later this week Class 31 31 130 Calder Hall Power Station should arrive at Bitton for a 5year period.
The locomotive is owned by the Suburban Preservation Group and is in Railfreight Coal livery.

get_that_bus_out · Post by **get_that_bus_out** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:41 pm

And it's arrived...!

https://twitter.com/#!/AVRbitton/status ... 9785396224

(sorry, can't get this to function as a link for some reason...)

Post by **madhattie** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:47 pm

https://twitter.com/AVRbitton/statuses/ ... 9785396224

Nice! Looking forward to seeing and hearing that!

get_that_bus_out · Post by **get_that_bus_out** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:09 pm

Thanks! Not sure what I was doing wrong...

Not sure exactly when it's due to enter service, I think late May was tentatively mentioned but will update if/when I know any more (unless someone else beats me to it!).

free2grice · Post by **free2grice** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:52 am

Let's hope the class 31 gets to see some action. The only time when the class 73 has been of any use was when it transfered to the Severn Valley Railway to help out with the problems resulting from the floods. <BJ>

get_that_bus_out · Post by **get_that_bus_out** » Tue May 01, 2012 7:59 pm

That is certainly the intention... Given that the loco has been at Bitton for less than a week, I think your somewhat negative attitude is rather premature.

free2grice · Post by **free2grice** » Wed May 02, 2012 10:39 am

>> Let's hope the class 31 gets to see some action.

Negative attitude. I think not.

>> The only time when the class 73 has been of any use was when it transfered to the Severn Valley Railway to help out with the problems resulting from the floods.

Simply the truth. <BJ>

get_that_bus_out · Post by **get_that_bus_out** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:38 pm

OK, I'm not here to pick a fight or start bickering: I should probably have taken a rather more diplomatic tone in my previous post. That said, I can't allow your previous couple of posts to go unchallenged, and I'm going to explain why.

I've been involved with the AVR as a working member for over 15 years, and qualified in various operational grades for 12. Despite currently living in the US, I still maintain my competencies and volunteer whenever my trips back to the UK allow. Over the years I have put a great deal of time and effort (and cash, directly or indirectly I guess) into the organization, and have taken pleasure in seeing it grow from what was there in 1996 when I joined to the railway that we have today. I also hold many of the AVR's staff and management in high esteem, and consider them to be good friends of mine. As a general rule I do not speak officially for the AVR (and if I ever do I will make this clear) but I am reasonably knowledgable about what's going on behind the scenes and will challenge any posts that I consider to be inaccurate, ill-informed or unduly negative, for which I make absolutely no apology.

I think it's fair to say that the long-term hire of the 73 has not worked out as both parties might have hoped; contrary to your inaccurate statement above, it saw a good deal of use in the first couple of years at Bitton but has seen very little action since. The reasons for this are varied and complex (and, I would respectfully suggest, not known to you), but it has not simply been due to a lack of willingness by the AVR to use the machine in traffic. There have been various mechanical issues, for example, which have taken a long time to track down, diagnose and fix.

This does not indicate that the AVR is incapable of making a success of hire agreements: quite the reverse in fact, as I would argue that the 73 has been the exception rather than the rule. Basing the class 107 DMU at Bitton has turned out to be a great success and beneficial to both the owning group and the railway, and various long- and short-term hires of steam locomotives (53809, 45379, the TKh, the Llangollen railway's Hunslet for much of the 2011 season, several locos fresh from overhaul at Bill Parker's workshop for running in...) have gone very well indeed. Lessons have been learned from the experience with the 73 and I have no reason to believe that the residence of the 31 at Bitton will be anything other than a success.

Hopefully you can now understand why it pains me when I see a piece of unequivocally good news for Bitton greeted by armchair grousing along the lines of "let's hope they can make a decent fist of this because the last time was rubbish". Of course I understand that one of the joys of railway preservation is that everyone has an opinion on everything (often regardless of the presence or absence of any good evidence to back that opinion up), but when I'm in a position to correct or challenge any of those opinions with facts then I will always do so.

free2grice · Post by **free2grice** » Wed May 02, 2012 8:27 pm

get_that_bus_out wrote:"let's hope they can make a decent fist of this because the last time was rubbish".

Your words, not mine. My words were: ''Let's hope the class 31 gets to see some action''.

My next sentence: ''The only time when the class 73 has been of any use was when it transfered to the Severn Valley Railway to help out with the problems resulting from the floods'' .....which in my opinion is true.

I walk along the cycle track every day and wish I could see the class 73 run once again. Is there any chance of it working again? <BJ>

get_that_bus_out · Post by **get_that_bus_out** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:08 pm

I can't say for sure, but my hunch is that this is very unlikely. The most recent internal communication I have received that mentions the loco states that it will be leaving, and @AVRBitton has tweeted that it is expected to return to the Dean Forest Railway "in the near future".