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Steam for Ever, thank you for your private message in response to my post. You've covered a lot of ground since - all very informative and convincing.
I was keen to find out more about the meeting as I didn't want to miss out with there being only 50 seats at the Methodist Church - I was going to call them but luckily I noticed you'd said they didn't know anything about this yet. Sorry, I see in a later post you're going for 150 in the main function room but have you considered how you will cope if thousands do indeed turn up?
This Bollington railway thing is a massive project and will involve mind boggling amounts of funding given your outline of what will happen. I think a good turnout at the meeting will be important so shouldn't you think about a bigger venue - what about one of Manchesters football stadiums?
I see locos appear to be high priority - good stuff - a South African Garratt and Heritage diesels on 2 ft guage is intriguing - that'll bring in the crowds. However I'm not clear on your final loco decisions - you listed possible manufacturers but you then said your first loco has been found. Is it the Garratt?
Are you confident the Heritage Lottery guys will fund the loco ahead of somewhere to run it - I heard from another railway friend that they wouldn't part with the funds until their head honcho had actually driven their loco (the guy almost wrecked it as he was so useless he kept distracting the fireman who then didn't keep an eye on the water level in the boiler - he did manage to fry an egg on the shovel however.)
I've got some books on how to drive a steam loco - do you want to borrow them for when your lottery bods pitch up?
Another thing to consider is the Health and Safety Executive - they might have a view on steam trains running right alongside a cycleway and footpath but I suppose your chum Lord Millett will have these boys in his pocket already.
I see you guys are having real bad luck with your computers right now - Lord Millett with his activation codes and you having to use your nephews computer (I saw your separate post). With the problems you're having maybe PC World will feel obliged to make a donation to the railway. The short guy with the specs at the service counter in our local PC World branch likes trains, I often see him waiting for one.
By the way John, Swisstrains, I remember reading somewhere that a disillusioned member of HOLTS actually challenged Beeching to a duel on the lawn outside the House of Lords when he heard his local railway was to be axed. Press got a hold of the story putting the future of the Society in some doubt and it went Underground for a while. It was a godsend for the then Minister for Transport, Earnest Marples, who was very much a "roads" man and anti railway who took the opportunity of describing such railway enthusiasts as "unbalanced nutters in need of help" - much to be learned from that.
Mike
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