THE PROTOTYPE...newsletter of the 7200 Trust
Chairman's notes
The A.G.M was held in early April because of the clashing of fixtures/events later in the month at our normal time and this contributed to the smaller number of members present. Had we been able to hold our A.G.M at the normal time then more would have attended as they had arranged work, trips etc on the revised date. It was nevertheless a good meeting despite this.
HON Treasurer's News
I must record the deep appreciation of all Committee members and Trustees to Mr and Mrs Bloomfield who wished all donations to Dave’s memory to the funds. This was a very considerable sum. As a token to Dave some visible parts will be engraved with David’s name. They will be a permanent reminder to members and visitors of his enthusiasm and effort over many years. They will also be a permanent token to the generosity of the donors and the esteem in which Dave was held. He was indeed a true “friend to many!”
Help Needed
Are you interested in working on the loco?
Tasks suitable for all levels of ability exist.
Please contact the Vice-Chairman John Porter on 01296 748273.
As a team we can get 7200 back in steam!
Secretarial jottings
Yet again we have been saddened by the loss of a founding member of the Trust at the early age of just 48 years. David Bloomfield was an original Trustee, a co-signatory, a working party member travelling to Swindon when the locomotive was there, an Officer of the Trust and his home had latterly been the registered office of the Trust.
He was a man who would never let you down, once he gave you his word, even if it caused him problems, it was his bond. Not for him the whinging, feeble, weasel-worded excuses that we are hearing and reading every day! A man, small in statute maybe, but a proper David when taking on a Goliath whether at work or at play!
His detestation of pedlars of untruths put the great majority of politicians to shame! Our sympathy goes out to his parents, sister and brother. David was buried at the Chiltern Woodland Burial Park at Beaconsfield in the beautiful, wooded surroundings. This is a spot he might well have visited on his many weekend hikes in the Chilterns with his pals and to quote John Milton he can now “sport with amaryllis in the shade and tramp the upward sloping lawns” for all time.
He is a great loss to the Trust and he is already being sadly missed for his constant work and efforts on our behalf. He was someone I had known for twenty years and whose judgement and good-natured decency I held in such very high esteem.
I was pleased to see the Trust so well represented at the funeral. Dave’s father suggested a small outline picture of the locomotive at the foot of his grave marker and I think this would be a superb tribute and memorial to Dave and his enthusiasm for our and his pet project.
David Bloomfield 1961 - 2009.
There will have to be considerable changes in the personnel of the Trust and the Trustees have been consulted to put them in place.
They are as follows:-
1) The new office address will be 33 Douglas Road, Aylesbury, HP20 1ES.
2) The new Hon Membership Secretary is E.J. Miller c/o Reg Office, 33 Douglas Road, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1ES.
3) The new trustees (Co-opted until 2010 A.G.M) are: i) J. Porter also (Hon Vice– Chairman); ii) P. Davis
4) S Dunne - Prototype Editor and Web Site Manager
With these new arrangements in hand we must continue with the restoration of the locomotive - we have gone forward a considerable way but we are now in the “dog days” where although work is going on, very little can be seen, new parts are being purchased and machined by our machinists, but you will hardly notice them when they are in place - one set of parts cost us £1200. All in all not conducive to new members.
Considerable work has been completed on the steam chest cladding, the old sheeting being heavily corroded in many places. New cladding is being fitted to the Holcroft curves at the front end of the foot plate and are being drilled out and welded where necessary.
Due to the recession we have lost some valuable members of the working party. With this in mind Sean is featuring (if possible) a membership form on the website. We are still getting “hits” so we may be lucky. Thanks to Ian and Frank we now have two new members for the working party, but we still need more!
Membership E.J. Miller Hon Membership Secretary
Due to the reorganisation membership reminders have been delayed but they will be posted in the near future. I would ask members to complete them and return them as soon as possible to the registered office. Could I ask members to please try to enrol another member, our numbers have declined somewhat due to a variety of reasons and we are below our immediate target of 100. We know that all restoration projects go through a spell like this, the Trust is not unique in this respect but we must try to defeat it. I thank you for your support.
7200 Trust A.G.M. Minutes
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Trust held at the Oxford Room, Rewley Road Station, Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Quainton, Aylesbury, Bucks on Saturday 4th April 2009 at 2pm.
Members Present:-
R. James, E. Miller, R. Collins, Mr & Mrs Davis, Mrs B. Manning, Lance Adlam, J. Porter, J. Sandwell, S. Dunne, M. Dubberley, Mrs B. James, M. Gibbs, R.B. Miller, C. Dunkley, Mrs J. Dunkley, D. Bloomfield.
Apologies for absence:-
Sir Henry-Aubrey Fletcher, I. Putt, Mrs P. Miller, Miss E. Miller, Mike Clarke, Les Beaton, J. Minall, A. Hogg, M. Hyde, J. Jones, M. Hobbs, I. Lodwick, C. Horwood, F. Weller, P. Lee, C. Parr, M. Chuter.
The minutes of the last A.G.M. were confirmed, proposed and seconded. The Chairman’s Report had been previously circulated, was read, approved and adopted. The Chairman congratulated the sales team of Maureen and Barbara on their sterling efforts with the Swindon Foundry Cart. He thanked all of the members for the work done.
The Trustees Report had been previously circulated, was read and approved. A great need for new members was emphasised. Numbers were way down from our original beginning aspiration of 100. Can each member obtain another? Mention was made of the superb, professional display at the Quainton Christmas Bazaar by the Sales Team of Barbara and Maureen.
An estimate (labour only) had been received from the West Somerset Railway in the sum of £25,856 plus VAT. Estimated cost of materials fittings etc £120,000. Total of £150,000 including VAT. The Clay Pigeon shoot raised £160. Recycling income was down but we had a one off donation of materials from Tony Lyster which raised £350.
The Working Party report had been circulated and was approved, questions were answered by John Porter. The Treasurers report, previously circulated, was read and approved with two queries from a member.
Election of officers
President: Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher;
Proposer - E Miller, Seconder - J Porter
Vice President: Ian Putt;
Proposer - E Miller, Seconder - R James
Hon Chairman: R James;
Proposer - R Miller, Seconder - J Porter
Vice Chairman: J Porter;
Proposer - L Adlam, Seconder- D Bloomfield
Hon Treasurer: I Lodwick;
Proposer - R Collins, Seconder - S Dunne
Hon Secretary: E Miller;
Proposer M Dubberley, Seconder - Ron Collins
W.P. Co-ordinator: Chris Parr
W.P. Leader: John Porter
Committee Members: Elected on bloc
Bankers: Raphaels
Auditor: M Stack
Articles Donated/Purchased
Mainly castings for the locomotive. These purchases would increase as the job neared completion. The rocker arms castings had cost £1200. The Trust is looking for a robust glass display case to house the Halton Railway exhibition. Maybe a member has details of a shop closing down? The Vice Chairman is collating information, pictures etc of the current work for the Quainton News and other publications. The 7200 Library has been handed over to the Quainton Library and will be kept in their humidity controlled rooms.
Should we be fortunate to obtain a grant for the boiler then we will need to raise some 25% of the sum required. The total was estimated to be over £200,000. Roy Miller stated we need firm estimates for the boiler and suggested 3. The normal fund raising raffle was held and the meeting was closed at 14.45 hrs
E.W.J. Miller (Hon Sec)
These minutes were compiled from notes made by Dave Bloomfield (Hon Minutes Sec) at the time of the meeting and shortly before his death aged 48 years. I have no doubt they would have been much fuller and more correct had he been able to correlate them.
E.W.J. Miller.
Contributions to the Prototype
Please send any comments, letters, or articles for publication in the Prototype to the News Editor:
c/o The Registered Office address below.
For general queries please contact:
Mr E.W.J. Miller,
Honorary Secretary
7200 Trust,
c/o The Registered Office,
33 Douglas Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1ES, England
Tel: 01296 623762
The views and opinions expressed
herein are those of the contributors
and are not necessarily reflections
of the official policy of the Trustees
and Editor of the Prototype.
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THE PROTOTYPE...newsletter of the 7200 Trust
Chairman's notes
What a miserable so-called Spring so far – the latter days of May were more like November! Let us hope that July brings more seasonal weather. Work has been going on behind the scenes and I have been helping with visitors to the Travelling Post Office – vehicles – this is yet another attraction at Quainton.
I really enjoy being able to pass on my knowledge to the younger generations. What a pity they decided to stop using this service and use aeroplanes and diesel lorries – surely the carbon footprint will be much larger using these means of transportation? But if they hadn’t then the vehicles wouldn’t be at Quainton! Could the second coach be used as a classroom for schools visits I wonder? Just a thought.
From the Treasurer's Desk
Yes, membership is increasing, but some members have still not signed up for Gift Aid, Please do, it increases our funds by 28% if you do. Forms will be available at the office.
We have repaid the loans, thanked the loaners for their help when needed. Funds are building up and the working party will not be inhibited for funds for their work.
Help Needed
Are you interested in working on the loco?
Tasks suitable for all levels of ability exist.
Please contact the Vice-Chairman John Porter on 01296 748273.
As a team we can get 7200 back in steam!
Switzerland 2008 and the Snow Blower Feb 2008
By: Michael A Hyde
The Snow Blower courtesy of M Hyde.
The train from St Moritz brought us to Pontresina after a change at Samedan. Here we met our special 2 car EMU with a strange apparatus hooked on behind. This turned out to be a steel framework with side flangers which was to scrape the snow from the side of the tracks into the middle of the rails for the blower to pick up and discharge.
Our Rotary Snow Plough was Xrotd No. 9213 built by SLM for the Bernina Bahn in 1910. It is a self propelled 0-6-0+0-6-OT rotary steam blower weighing 64 metric tons. It is possibly the only self propelled rotary snow plough still in service anywhere in the world and only comes out for a few 'specials' each year or at times of really severe weather.
So we departed ahead of the snow plough, which had a single carriage EMU attached at the rear for crew and to provide assistance with propulsion if needed. A distance up the line we disembarked and holding cameras, awaited the monster. Soon it appeared in a huge cloud of steam and smoke and made short work of a layer of snow on the track. A prelude to what was to come. Next we were off to the station at Ospizio Bernina just short of the railway summit in the pass. Here we again spread out across the railway to get the best position. But a problem faced our crew. The third track which was covered in a couple of feet of snow and due to be attacked by our snow plough, was to be reached by a frozen point. The mechanism was ‘protected’ by a metal box itself under feet of snow and ice. It took over half an hour to reach the box before finding the lock frozen and points locked!
So the executive decision was taken to temporarily abandon the current exercise and adjourn for lunch a mile up the track at Alp Grum, a popular stop for walkers, skiers and para-gliders. After feeding the inner man (and lady) we returned to the station at Ospizio Bernina where the point was now functioning. Our Xrotd duly charged at the blocked line producing a wonderful spray of snow to the lineside and allowing some fantastic photographs. Closer and closer the snow plough came with large sprays of snow being ejected.
We then advanced up the track to another photo-spot (already occupied by some linesiders). Again shots were taken but little snow was on the line at this point to make other than a passing shot. On to Alp Grum where a unique (?) turntable exists in a brick shed. We were invited to watch and record the 360 degree movement. Outside, a flatcar had been positioned on the middle of three tracks. The first track was for passing service trains and the third was to be cleared of the three feet of snow that covered it.
So once again cameras were at the ready. Something tells you (but not everyone) that close up to the snow blower, not all the snow gets ejected to the lineside. By its very rotary motion, some must be shot out the other way, albeit lower, ie, waist high. Plus all this ejected snow does not keep to an even trajectory. Consequentially all on the flatcar had a wonderful close up of the plough working as well as a considerable covering of snow. But all in fun and in the warm sunshine, it quickly disappeared off persons and clothing. Our return to St Moritz was a good time to compare stories and photographs.
Secretarial jottings
As the Chairman has written the latter days of May have been very un-spring like; let us hope that the weather improves. The Spring Bank Holiday attendance figures at Quainton were appallingly low, so if you can put leaflets out at any locations and publicise our hosts functions please do so. Quainton’s success is our success and vice versa.
I think the bus owners who turned up all deserved a medal - again it was a heartening display despite awful weather! Our Sales Team deserved a medal likewise, Trust members were seen in the refreshments area, grounds and other places all helping to keep visitors happy.
The Trust have suffered the sad loss of two of our first members, in Dave Wharton - our first Treasurer and a Trustee and John Parminter – a very well known figure in Haddenham whose shop always has a good supply of Quainton leaflets. It is my privilege to write the obituary for both of them – they had been very good friends for many, many years with John right back to my early childhood in the first years of the War. No! not the Boer War Mr Porter thank you! I was advised that it could be helpful for the Trust to join Heritage Railway Association and accordingly we have applied for membership. They are an umbrella association and have special rates for small groups such as ours, but they have advisory and professional staff who can assist us in many ways, eg. grants etc. They have a small group section to which we will belong and they give prestigious awards to small groups like us. Joining them will be yet another part of the “growing up” more professional approach that the Trust must adopt if we are to be recognised by other Railway Centre and Companies.
Now for more good news the Trusts superb machinist Les Beaton is recovering well from his illness, and although indebted to his workshop pals and Mike has got the bus timetables sorted out to perfection to get to Quainton from Dunstable, we all wish Les a speedy recovery to full health and his irrepressable self. His work is first class and a bit more and his knowledge, garnered over many years immense! Also our friends at the West Somerset Railway are going to send us a general costing of the boiler work based on our surveys.
Membership Secretary Report
Sadly, as you have read, two of our very first members have passed away, a great shame not to see the project completed and their keenness unrewarded. If we are successful in our grant application we will still have to pay a proportion of the cost. Membership is important for this, the more members we have, the more people know of us and of our ambitious goal and the return to steam of our prestigious locomotive. Please try to recruit a member; our original goal was one hundred and we are nowhere near to it yet!
Working Party Report
We suffered a setback in April when our leading machinist Les Beaton was rushed to Hospital but thankfully he seems to have recovered quite well and is getting back to his old self. Other team members also seem to have had health related problems this year. It is inevitable I suppose with an ageing workforce. Owing to these setbacks my early optimism for 2008 has dwindled slightly but we are making slow but steady progress with most of the brake gear now fitted.
Les Beaton busy in the workshop.
Our Sales Team in Action.
The sales stand has been doing quite well despite the poor attendances at some of the events at Quainton, Full marks to our ladies who turn out to run it. Andy and Angie Ledger have taken some of seemingly unsaleable items to a car boot and raised some welcome funds, many thanks to them.
Hopefully the second half of 2008 should prove more productive on the restoration front and we have not given up hope of completing the welding of the steam chest and starting investigative works on the coal bunker in the restoration shed before the Winter comes upon us. Anyone interested or knowing someone else who could be interested in either helping the engineering team (experience not essential) or helping to man the sales stand please let me or one of the team know.
John Porter , Vice Chairman 7200 Trust
Contributions to the Prototype
Please send any comments, letters, or articles for publication in the Prototype to the News Editor:
c/o The Registered Office address below.
For general queries please contact:
Mr E.W.J. Miller,
Honorary Secretary
7200 Trust,
c/o The Registered Office,
33 Douglas Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1ES, England
Tel: 01296 623762
The views and opinions expressed
herein are those of the contributors
and are not necessarily reflections
of the official policy of the Trustees
and Editor of the Prototype.
To top of page
Chairman's notes
Well where do I start? Good question! The A.G.M. has been and gone together with Spring, the Summer never has and now the weather feels like the end of October, and my allotment was nearly flooded by the cloudburst.
The good news is that the work on the locomotive is progressing well and we have obtained more working party members.
The sales ladies are raising funds and the two “backroom boys” are turning (no pun intended) out their superb machined parts for the brake gear on the chassis.
The working party are now attending on the occasional mid-week day so that members who cannot attend on Sundays can join in on the Tuesdays/Wednesdays whenever.
Prospective attendees please contact John Porter.
Ray James
From the Treasurer's Desk
With the impending move and the high costs coming from Swindon, together with bills from Severn Valley and Peter Robinson and others in the pipe line, funds are going to be short. I have found out that the brake shoes together with delivery will be £100 per shoe.
I understand this is a good price for them. I am hoping that members may feel they can sponsor a shoe, we still have some to go.
With our loco in the workshop at Swindon, the 7200 working group turned their attention last autumn to the dilapidated Goods Van sitting in the Restoration Shed. A photo of this van is shown in the Stock Book and noted as – Midland Railway Goods Van (AD 47251).
The Midland Railway would have known it as a 17’6’’ covered goods wagon and it was probably built in 1911, but the works plate is missing and it’s number lost.
The team have replaced some of the boarding and other timber details on the sides and quite a lot of the flooring. A broken spring has been fixed and the door action has been improved. The external finish has been cleaned off (no evidence of army paint colour was found) and fresh lead grey paint has been applied with black below sole bars. It is soon to be finished in Midland Railway insignia circa 1912.
The wagon will be relocated in Rewley Road and used for storage, as it would have been many times in its past. And 7200 will soon be taking it’s place in the Down Yard shed.
(For further reading see ‘An Illustrated history of Midland Wagons’ by R J Essery.)
Chris Andrew
Prototype Models
Chris Andrew and John Porter showing off our new ‘7200 Trust Prototype Freight’ polo shirts.
Chris Andrew and John Porter showing off our new ‘7200 Trust Prototype Freight’ polo shirts which are embroidered with our logo. They are available in all sizes, colours burgundy or grey. Sweatshirts and fleeces are also available, all at affordable prices in support of the Trust.
Give Chris a ring on 01296 423755 if you would like to order or get more details.
Kate Moss has nothing on these lads!
Secretarial jottings
Everything seems to be a bit of an anti-climax since the return of the chassis of 7200, the last mainline locomotive and the last Great Western Locomotive to leave the renowned Swindon Works. So the locomotive can now claim to be the “first of the few” (7200 class) and the “last of the many”. Not a bad claim to fame in the Heritage Steam Roll of Honour!
We were unsuccessful in our claim for a grant from Aylesbury Town Council, their imposed guidelines and strictures about benefitting Aylesbury and its occupants would appear prima facie, to rule out another application, although some 30 – 40% of Quainton visitors are from Aylesbury (some 15 – 18,000) and numerous school parties from Aylesbury are guided round Bucks R.C by 7200 members.
In addition to this a high percentage of our members come with Aylesbury connections. This being so it is difficult to remain optimistic about future funding until a more informed and enlightened viewpoint comes to the fore! All visitors to the site will benefit from the locomotive’s restoration and it will be a massive draw to the Centre when this occurs.
It was a friendly meeting with the Councillors, some were for us and they all enjoyed their visit to the site. It was accepted that the Trust was an Aylesbury-based charity and this may be helpful in the future. There are other grant applications in the pipeline so maybe we will have some better news later on in the year.
The Sales Team will be trying out their new (to them) fund raiser over August – a Tombola stall. If successful they will run it on some days in the future. If you have any unwanted Christmas presents from years gone, this is your big chance to dispose of them for a worthy cause!
The Clay Pigeon Shoot will be on Saturday September 29th at the Oxford Gun Company Shooting Grounds at Oakley. I hope as many members as possible will be able to come along and “have a go”, you might not hit a clay but you will have some fun and staff there will be available to help you. Why not try it out? This remember, is one of our biggest fund raisers every year, so why not make it even bigger this time!
We have some new members, two of whom have volunteered for the Working Party, and we welcome them to the Trust.
Many members have acquired Trust Clothing, the items are still available, please contact Chris Andrew on 01296 423755 should you wish to purchase, polo shirts, sweaters, woolly hats and fleeces with our distinctive logo on them. When worn this all raises our profile on site or at home.
Working Party Report August 2007
Work has been progressing on a number of fronts by the small working party of John, Frank, Peter, Chris and Andy with Les and Mike in the machine shop.
On the chassis the 9 cut-off bolts on the L.H. plate which secures the boiler expansion plate have been drilled out and re-tapped 1 in BSW. 3 of the brake hanger chains have been fitted over the floating bearing of no 4 axle.
Two inner bearing seal covers, complete with new felt seals have been fitted to No 3 axle. As we only had 3 original G.W. style pressings for these covers, 3 more have been pre-fabricated by SORB Engineers of Marlow and these are in the process of being fitted to the front two driving axle bearings.
On the bunker front we are progressing a ‘budget’ plan for the reconstruction by cutting out the rusted bottom around the inside of the bottom framework and across the baffle plates so one day the bottom will literally – fall out. We have datum holes to produce a new bottom to be welded in at a later date once all the inside edges have been cleaned up. The R.H. side has been removed as are all the rivets.
In the machine shop Les is working on re-assembling the brake vacuum cylinder, and has machined 2 trunnions and has to thread the remaining 4 tie bolts. Mike is machining linkage parts for the valve gear. Thus all work has been on the rolling chassis and investigation work on the bunker section, sides, bottom and floor.
Activities for Members
Any member wishing to join the working parties will be made most welcome. Many hands make light work and below is a list of some of the jobs to choose from. No experience is required for many of the jobs that need to be done.
- Restoration work
- Painting
- Engineering
- Fitting
- Mechanical
- Fund raising
- Sale stands
- Sponsorship/contacts etc
- Lectures
Contributions to the Prototype
Please send any comments, letters, or articles for publication in the Prototype to the News Editor:
c/o The Registered Office address below.
For general queries please contact:
Mr E.W.J. Miller,
Honorary Secretary
7200 Trust,
c/o The Registered Office,
33 Douglas Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1ES, England
Tel: 01296 623762
The views and opinions expressed
herein are those of the contributors
and are not necessarily reflections
of the official policy of the Trustees
and Editor of the Prototype.
Modified: 6 November 2009
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