With the continuing storyline surrounding GWR Castle No. 7027 Thornbury Castle and its future, Jonathan Jones-Pratt has sent RailAdvent an update on current proceedings.
Firstly, a bit of background for readers, 7027 Thornbury Castle was once owned by Jonathan Jones-Pratt, but he sold the locomotive to a private owner at the Great Central Railway, who committed to and said they would ensure that the locomotive would steam again, and offered Jonathan a clean plan for restoration.
Jonathan says that Richard Croucher from The 4709 Project visited the locomotive back in 2019 and it was then that a request was made to see if the locomotive could be converted to a Star. This was discussed but no further action was taken as Jonathan hoped that the Great Western Society / Didcot Railway Centre would restore another castle but there wasnt the appetite, with two options available, Jonathan took the “restoration as a castle” path and the locomotive was sold to the private owner and moved to the Great Central Railway.
Fast forward to August 2022, and the news broke that 7027 Thornbury Castle had been sold to the 4709 Group who planned to break up the Castle and use its boiler for use on The Night Owl, with other parts being used for ‘future projects', which was later confirmed as plans for a Star locomotive to be born using 7027's frames and 2861's boiler.
A Petition was also launched by Ben Jervis to raise awareness of the plans.
Jonathan said “We sold the engine in good faith, the departed GM from the GCR made various commitments of which we were ensured the loco would steam again & they offered a clear plan to restore. To learn that engine is being broken up has now led to much upset, for me this is a total back track on what we embarked on and a total misguide to business respect of words and agreement, we honoured the sale on trust, that has allowed a total breach of that.”
Since learning of the news, Jonathan has already released a plan to say that he wanted to purchase the locomotive back from the 4709 Group and keep the overhaul efforts proceeding as 7027.
In his update, sent to RailAdvent on the 17th August, Jonathan said that he has reached out to the Acting General Manager of the Great Central Railway and is currently awaiting a formal response from the GCR PLC to see how this happened and how the locomotive has ended up being sold.
Jonathan has also said that he has reached out to the current owners but has so far not received any reply.
72 hours ago, Jonathan says that he formally wrote to the 4709 Group and offered to buy the locomotive. Jonathan says that he understands that a deal between the current owner and the 4709 Group has already been reached, but his offer will allow a U turn on 7027 and would avoid a “PR Disaster”.
On the offer being made, Jonathan said “72 hours ago I wrote formally to the 4709 group and have offered to buy the loco. My offer is to allow the engine to be saved and a U turn to be offered in good spirit to come back from this PR Disaster. We are yet to discuss numbers and I am yet to receive a reply back.”
The offer would secure the locomotive and Jonathan has asked through the Great Central Railway that, should his bid be successful, then they can meet to agree the next steps as Jonathan's wish is 7027 Thornbury Castle will stay at the Great Central Railway.
It is planned that The Thornbury Castle Society would be set up to get the Castle operating. Jonathan says he has no personal interest in ownership, he would like to stay as a shareholder but Jonathan's offer is to secure the locomotive in the short term.
Finishing his statement, Jonathan said: “The offer will be to secure the loco and I have asked through the GCR that should this be successful we will then look to meet with the GCR PLC to agree next steps.
“My view then will be to set up Thornbury Castle Society and plan with the many hundreds offering support to get the Castle operating and in safe hands, I have no personal interest in a long term ownership of the loco although I will offer a shareholding of course, but my offer is to financially support and secure the loco in the short term.”
“My view is to do nothing is a crying shame, I cant sit back and watch the old girl loose the opportunity she has right now, and that is a group of well placed people clearly making a dream become reality, we need to respect those who have the passion to see 7027 run again, this is why I sold her, she was in better hands than what I could offer at the time.”
“I also wish to thank the hundreds of messages received so far, its been overwhelming, I also thank the support I have received personally.”
If some people on this site feel so strongly about 7027, why did you all say nothing when new owners promised to restore Dumbleton Hall for main line use and purchased it on that basis, only to sell it to Warner Brothers for export to Japan to become a Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle.
Dumbleton Hall was the oldest Hall in preservation and should not have been allowed out of Britain.
A group seeking a suitable Dai Woodham Memorial Locomotive previously made an offer for Ex Barry 7027. I know their search continues and may well wish to step up.
I think we have a good representation of the Castle class whereas we do not have a 47xx and a Star that is or likely to be operational. The Editor of Steam I feel put a good balanced view about this plan in the most recent Steam magazine. I do not recall an outcry about Maindy Hall being the main donor to build the Saint which we are now all enjoying. Also I do not recall a similar outcry about Dumbleton Hall the oldest surviving Hall which had been restored to working order in the past being despatched to Japan. Whilst I would like to see all the Barry locos restored it is not going to be realistic given the number of locos that need to be overhauled having previously been restored e.g. Dumbleton Hall. The real test is are the critics able to provide the funding to fully restore Thornbury Castle. If not I respectfully suggest they get behind the 4709 group bold plan.
Pleased to see some more balanced views like this appear in this comment section as the days have ticked by. It’s sad the current owner wasn’t true to their word, but… Last I checked, indeed, we have no fewer than six other Castles either running on NR metals or being restored to do so already. Albeit it was in very poor condition, but another example that came to my mind was the last WW2-era LNER built Stanier 8F chassis was cut up for scrap after donating the boiler to the Hawksworth County project, and again nobody said a word then. Finally, considering this chassis’ retro-conversion back to Thornbury Castle would be very straightforward and the explicit plan is to allow added provisions for this in the future, I am baffled by the level of the anger that’s being displayed here.
The potential demise of 7027 is like a kick in the presentation stomach,only thing is, it reallyHURTS.
The worst aspect of this is the breach of trust and good faith that has led to this position. Up to now I have always regarded the railway heritage industry as being pretty good in this respect. In this case the proponents have stooped to society’s norms in that unless it is written down in a contact it doesn’t apply. Removing the moral aspect from behaviour will only have a serious negative effect on Heritage Railways. Good luck to Mr Jones-Pratt in reversing this plan
Disgrace to break it up…….Didcot has lost my support
It would be a tragedy not to restore Thornbury to a fully-working Castle. ,I would move her right away from where she is ;If it was me ,
I
d look at the West Somerset Rly or the Great Western Society at Didcot(preferably the the 1st);at least shed get a good run when working.An active “Star” running on the main line sounds good to me!
This should not even be a matter for discussion. Sacrificing 7027 for conversion to a 47xx or Star, no matter how worthy those projects are, is not an option. 7027 was/is a preservation project, not a donor or spare parts project.
Absolute disgrace of the 4709 society who should be ashamed of themselves.
Seems pretty obvious that the locomotive should NOT be broken up and used for spares. Just do the right thing people.
Now that Jonathan is a director of the West Somerset Railway, could he have not kept Thornbury Castle within the bonding’s of that company ?
Well done Jonathan.
It’s a shame that trusting people in society today is becoming a thing of the past.
I have signed the petition against the planned cannibalism of this great engine.
All the very best in your pursuit of acquiring Thornbury Castle again.
keep the momentum and resist attempts to destroy Thornbury – the GWS have other options and they couold use another boiler for the night owl. They also have other castles in their care. Should one of those be used as a donor for new build projects? The answer should also be a resounding no.