Fantasy: Lottery win - go on, be outlandish!

[Howardh]

I would seriously think about opening a bar on Bolton Trinity St, but not where it was threatened to be on P5, but on P1/3 where the footfall is. The shop already there does sell small amounts of booze which can be drunk in the uncomfortable seating area, and it closes early too.

So first thing I'd do is ring my pal who already owns two bars in town and did show interest in this previously "but not on P5, wrong place" and get the wheels in motion!

Just before COVID I came into some inheritance and had a joint venture in mind, but simply not enough if it all went wrong, but anything over £5m I'd risk some of it in such a venture!

Another alternative would be to rebuild the disused pub by Lostock Station, would that amount of money cover it? Ideal if there could be a direct route to the platform,be specially if the Wigan line were accessible again!

 

[Ken H]

Set up a charter company and buy 2 * cl 37 and 5 main line certified carriages, and run a once a week Leeds - Carlisle out and back charter. Stop at Skipton, Settle and Appleby.

Open to ideas where it could do similar on other days. Leeds - Scarborough? Leeds - Backpool? Harrogate Circular.

 

[Trainlog]

I won't reopen lines, but I would consider:-

A generous donation to allow the Strathspey Railway to build an "authentic" two platform station at Grantown-on-Spey with capacity and canopy to accommodate a visiting nine-car 80X series unit (or eg the Belmond train) ready for when they have enough money to re-connect.

A donation to a miniature railway to allow them to decarbonise their diesel/petrol locos. I was at one last week and my little nephew insisted on sitting behind the "steam train" the exhaust fumes were awful.

Sponsoring the extension of an existing franchise or OA service to include extra stops. Eg a TPE extension to Dundee, Lumo West Coast extension to Perth, additional Avanti call at MK. If it happened, I think this one would set the message boards (and Whitehall) into an absolute frenzy over the ethics of allowing someone wealthy to influence timetabling and diagrams.

I like the Strathspey railway idea. That line does strike me as one that if it got to its full potentail with the extension to Granton-on-Spey, a Fairburn tank loco, and some more restoration of its pre-grouping coaches it could definetly be a massive attraction for enthusiasts and mainline charters.

The miniature railway one is something I can get behind, also. I appreciate that in the recent hot weather spells its more ideal to run diesel, however the fumes are strong at this scale as you are low down to the engines height. Providing the line is not too long Batteries do seem more responsible and actual diesel train are more enjoyable at narrow gauge scales and above, not minature. I doubt the public would really notice or care that the diesel outline is electric or run on a petrol Honda generator and would welcom the reduction in carbon emissions also.

Steam really does shine on this scale from experiences on miniature lines such as the RHDR, Hastings miniature and the Beer Heights light railway. As for steam at this scale its much more enjoyable as you can hear and smell the loco well without it being too overwhelming and its a good introduction to steam for those who might find a full scale 9f raising its safety valve a bit much.


Now for what I would do with the £56m for rail, or more so in this case, heritage rail.

Now I appreciate that only a few of them could be achieved with such money, however, this would be some of the options in the notebook i would narrow down to 3 to do in such a position.

New build locos

1. Collaborate with the former J50 trust and the A1 locomotive trust and resurrect the newbuild construction plans for this locomotive
2. Purchase the T1 boiler from the Avon Valley Railway and consider if a T1 or an A12 should be built with it
3. Consider a newbuild 15inch gauge 'Henry Greenly' Pacific loco
4. make a newbuild project for a Caledonian Railway 721 class loco.

General loco restorations

1. Ensure that all the surviving 4mt tank locomotives are restored from Barry scrapyard condition. Maybe consider making one mainline certified once again
2. Purchase one of the GCR 8ks from the Dorrigo railway in Australia and restore it to run on a UK heritage railway

Heritage railway ideas

1. Sittingbourne and Kemsley: Expand past Kemsley down station and build a balloon loop track on the land above the site.
2. East Kent railway: Purchase the railway and consider either make it the optimum industrial tank engine railway museum with Austerity tank locos or convert it to a 2ft narrow gauge railway in a similar way to the Leighton Buzzard railway.
3. Spa valley railway: Optimise Eridge station by completing the run round loop, and building a mainline connection for the line.
4. Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway: Restore some more of the line where it was originally singled to double track if possible.
5. Isle of Wight steam railway: Expand the line from Smallbrook Junction to Ryde st Johns road.
6. More in General: Invest more in Biocoal trials and make the data available to the public on a page on the HRA website, and help fund oil fired loco trials for some mainline locos.

Mainline steam idea

Granted it would have to be fully mainline compliant steam locos and coaches, but I would help fund an annual steam takeover day on the West Highland railway Fort William to Mallaig section or the Settle and Carlisle railway in a similar way to how they did it with Tornado in February 2017.

 

[Peter Wilde]

Maybe none of you are thinking big enough!

I’d us the money to pay NASA (or the Chinese space agency if likely to get there first) to include some of my N gauge models and track on a lunar flight.

I’d thereby become the first person to build a railway on the Moon! Surely enough to give undying fame in perpetuity.

 

[Harpo]

1. Ensure that all the surviving 4mt tank locomotives are restored from Barry scrapyard condition. Maybe consider making one mainline certified once again

Brilliant!!

I would help fund an annual steam takeover day on the West Highland railway Fort William to Mallaig section

McPlanDampf!

Might have to rethink my £56 million.

 

[Trainlog]

Brilliant!!


McPlanDampf!

Might have to rethink my £56 million.

Well 4mts are certainly valuable locos, and any preserved ones certainly dont deserve the cutters torch in the 21st century. The mainline part is more so that Fenchurch to Southend could run a 4mt tour on a quiet day like they did during the 1990s.

As for the McplanDamf as you put it. Basically, I want a steam railway gala on a 'national rail line that is a heritage railway all but in name' albeit I can imagine it would be spoiled by constant trespassing. Perhaps with the A1 loco trust building some locos such as the V4 it could be a possibility one day as a publicity stunt.

 

[Howardh]

Anyone with £m's up for making the (Alderney ex-tube stock) line electric?? Might even have some change from your £50m

 

[Egg Centric]

(Or indeed plans for money you legitimately earned, or embezzled through crypto or whatever)

Mine are pretty simple - purchase a mainline certified heritage diesel + coaches set (cl 37 or similar), a couple of drivers who are happy with my "plan" (possibly doing it as an extension to their real job), and whoever else I legally need. Then run railtours around the country where I'm the driver (presumably supervised by the real drivers along with spot hired route conductors and so on although if I can find a way to get the route knowledge I will), making hand over fist losses but that's fine because there is no intention of turning a profit anyway and tbh I'd prefer no one on the train.

My semi-educated guess is this is in the under £10 million range to pull off for a few years, so reasonable on a euromillions win.

 

[Iskra]

I've pondered similar. Then I realised that buying would be a waste of time, just hire a similar train from LSL etc for a fraction of the price and energy.

 

[Egg Centric]

I've pondered similar. Then I realised that buying would be a waste of time, just hire a similar train from LSL etc for a fraction of the price and energy.

But then you can't drive it, which makes it pointless (or at least not what I want to do).

 

[Iskra]

But then you can't drive it, which makes it pointless (or at least not what I want to do).

I think you could probably come to an agreement with a heritage railway to make a substantial donation, to learn a Class 37 for example. Then you could drive it and it would still be a better deal.

Old trains are money pits so owning them makes little sense.

 

[Egg Centric]

I think you could probably come to an agreement with a heritage railway to make a substantial donation, to learn a Class 37 for example. Then you could drive it and it would still be a better deal.

Old trains are money pits so owning them makes little sense.

That's like buying a Bugatti Veyron and doing no more than driving it in first gear around Knightsbridge. Sure, it's what a lot of owners do, but it's not for me. I need to drive it how it was meant to be driven and that means taking it on to the mainline. Or are you suggesting renting one off them to do the latter? I'm not totally against it if the financials stack up but if they do it suggests the heritage railways is making a mistake in letting me the train for less than it's costing in wear and tear.

 

[Iskra]

That's like buying a Bugatti Veyron and doing no more than driving it in first gear around Knightsbridge. Sure, it's what a lot of owners do, but it's not for me. I need to drive it how it was meant to be driven and that means taking it on to the mainline. Or are you suggesting renting one off them to do the latter? I'm not totally against it if the financials stack up but if they do it suggests the heritage railways is making a mistake in letting me the train for less than it's costing in wear and tear.

Learn on a preserved line. Then move over to mainline.

Personally, if I won the lottery I’d just charter my own private trains as and when I felt like it and do a lot of cruising.

 

[Stossgebet]

I'd be interested in buying some property and land next to the existing railway, on a busy route, in a rural location. And build some kind of viewing platform for photograhy and video.

And pehaps a private yatch, for the same purpose, but to holiday along the railway sea walls of the world.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Reopen/refurbish a railway in a developing country and let the locals travel on it for free...

 

[Mike Machin]

Start up a company building basic versions of a 70s/80s car, maybe Marinas or Mk2 Escorts for the modern world. They'd be powered by hydrogen combustion (like JCB are developing) and be totally no frills. And built in the UK too.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see 'railway linked'. My point still stands though.

A lovely idea, but without lane-keep assist, speed limit monitoring, anti-submarine seats, side impact protection beams, numerous air bags, anti-lock brakes, high level brake lights, front and rear crumple zones, pedestrian protection, ultra-low emission engine or electric power, rain sensing windscreen wipers, emergency brake assist etc., the cars wouldn't be able to gain 'Type Approval' for volume production to be used on UK roads.

Back to the thread, I would try and help to stabilise the financial footings of a couple of heritage railways to try and ensure their long-term survival.

 

[MattRat]

If possible, buy the abandoned rail shed next to Birkenhead Central, and bring it up to modern standards, to be able to store old Merseyrail stock, and convince current owners of any old stock to bring it to there, close to where the people of Liverpool can enjoy them.

If I have anything left over, get the stock up to mainline running standards, and run excursions along the Merseyrail network when possible

 

[Dr Strider]

If we can't have stock or new lines, I would focus on station experience. Before we get to that, my priority - bar none - would be to bring back some of the big lovely clackety-clack Solari departures boards. I miss them so much! (I'd settle for one in my garage if this were not possible).

Big, readable station clocks seem to be disappearing (or being merged into LED departures board) so bring back lots of those too (analogue or digital). If there was any loose change left over I'd probably push it towards more water refill stations and getting rid of charges at all toilets which still do so.

 

[sprinterguy]

As for the McplanDamf as you put it. Basically, I want a steam railway gala on a 'national rail line that is a heritage railway all but in name' albeit I can imagine it would be spoiled by constant trespassing. Perhaps with the A1 loco trust building some locos such as the V4 it could be a possibility one day as a publicity stunt.

Didn't seem to cause any drama when they did it in October 2001. Though that was in the days before camera phones and widespread social media.

 

[Trainlog]

Didn't seem to cause any drama when they did it in October 2001. Though that was in the days before camera phones and widespread social media.

I think that is the problem. Rules have become a lot tighter in nearly 25 years since the Plamdamf happened, and unfortunately, the return of Scotsman nearly 10 years ago in the age of social media exposed that the minority of enthusiasts/members of the public that did trespass whenever it passed can spoil it for the rest of us. I am pretty sure this was also one of the reasons the Royal train wasn't used for the Queens funeral back in 2022.

A Plamdamf is certainly possible on the West Highland lines 'Jacobite', though I am not sure how they could enforce revenue or deal with crowding on that train. The type of mainline steam gala I would like to see on that line might not exactly be popular with locals as I am sure they are getting a bit sick of the Harry Potter fans going to see Glenfinnan viaduct.

I do think, however, the Settle and Carlisle railway would definitely be more appropriate for such an event. They already did one Plamdamf back in February 2017 with Tornado, and providing it was just one weekend at a time, such as January/February or Late October/November I can't see why the Settle and Carlisle line can't have a steam takeover event providing enough notice was given to locals, it was marketed well, and there was good enforcement of tresspassing rules and a Network rail announcement saying that diversions might be unlikely in the event of disruption because of this event.

Sure that might be a downside; however, the tourism revenue brought in for this event, publicity for Northern, Network rail, and West coast would be also welcome. I am also sure that there would be those who would buy the rovers who are in the demographic that think railtours are too expensive and aren't interested in touristy cities, but think heritage railways are too slow for express engines and want to see what it's like to ride behind a steam loco above the speed of 25mph.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2104695/tourist-attraction-breaking-point-harry-potter-fans

 

[Ken H]

I think that is the problem. Rules have become a lot tighter in nearly 25 years since the Plamdamf happened, and unfortunately, the return of Scotsman nearly 10 years ago in the age of social media exposed that the minority of enthusiasts/members of the public that did trespass whenever it passed can spoil it for the rest of us. I am pretty sure this was also one of the reasons the Royal train wasn't used for the Queens funeral back in 2022.

A Plamdamf is certainly possible on the West Highland lines 'Jacobite', though I am not sure how they could enforce revenue or deal with crowding on that train. The type of mainline steam gala I would like to see on that line might not exactly be popular with locals as I am sure they are getting a bit sick of the Harry Potter fans going to see Glenfinnan viaduct.

I do think, however, the Settle and Carlisle railway would definitely be more appropriate for such an event. They already did one Plamdamf back in February 2017 with Tornado, and providing it was just one weekend at a time, such as January/February or Late October/November I can't see why the Settle and Carlisle line can't have a steam takeover event providing enough notice was given to locals, it was marketed well, and there was good enforcement of tresspassing rules and a Network rail announcement saying that diversions might be unlikely in the event of disruption because of this event.

Sure that might be a downside; however, the tourism revenue brought in for this event, publicity for Northern, Network rail, and West coast would be also welcome. I am also sure that there would be those who would buy the rovers who are in the demographic that think railtours are too expensive and aren't interested in touristy cities, but think heritage railways are too slow for express engines and want to see what it's like to ride behind a steam loco above the speed of 25mph.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2104695/tourist-attraction-breaking-point-harry-potter-fans

when a special runs over the S&C, bad parking, racing the train in cars and trespass becomes a problem. if there were quite a few pf te specials you describe, would they become boring to those whose behaviour is an issue?
For the locals, reserving a coach for those with standard rail tickets would keep them on side. A timetable with some Cl158 services would be best. Could a steamer + 8 keep to 158 timings?

 

[yorksrob]

Would I buy an all line rover ? Probably not - it's still not a very good product except for track bashers.

A season ticket from Penzance to Wick might come in handy.

I think generally swanning around on the train and staying at the coast would be the order of the day.

And funding injections for various slammer preservation groups.

 

[styles]

Buy a ton of old saloon cars, join or weld them together into a sort of maze formation, use as a paintball venue.

Combine this with a few coaches used for camping, a couple as a bar, one as a breakfast cafe, one a pizza or hog roast car for the evenings.

Basically a paintballing and camping venue with food options.

Part of me would also like to offer footplate days but I'd probably have to blow some serious cash on consultancy as I wouldn't have a clue where to get started building and operating that!

The other thing I would say is that if I won £56m I'd want to keep it quiet. We have a decent household income so we could blag buying a more expensive house and a couple of nice cars as just saying my consultancy business has been doing well. The campsite venture is blaggable with saying some money was borrowed etc to start a business.

The rest of the money would be spent on travel and good food mainly. I would just not share photos of me on luxury yachts or whatever. It's easy to be selective with which photos are shared of a holiday to mask the amount of money spent on it.

A load of the money would boringly go into trusts etc for the nieces and nephews as well.

The reality is, if I won £56m I'd book a 2 week 5* all inclusive holiday so incan spend 2 weeks not planning anything, just processing the fact that I've become a multi-millionnaire. When I get back, I'd be straight on to an IFA to do some planning.

 

[Ken H]

Buy a ton of old saloon cars, join or weld them together into a sort of maze formation, use as a paintball venue.

Combine this with a few coaches used for camping, a couple as a bar, one as a breakfast cafe, one a pizza or hog roast car for the evenings.

Basically a paintballing and camping venue with food options.

Part of me would also like to offer footplate days but I'd probably have to blow some serious cash on consultancy as I wouldn't have a clue where to get started building and operating that!

The other thing I would say is that if I won £56m I'd want to keep it quiet. We have a decent household income so we could blag buying a more expensive house and a couple of nice cars as just saying my consultancy business has been doing well. The campsite venture is blaggable with saying some money was borrowed etc to start a business.

The rest of the money would be spent on travel and good food mainly. I would just not share photos of me on luxury yachts or whatever. It's easy to be selective with which photos are shared of a holiday to mask the amount of money spent on it.

A load of the money would boringly go into trusts etc for the nieces and nephews as well.

The reality is, if I won £56m I'd book a 2 week 5* all inclusive holiday so incan spend 2 weeks not planning anything, just processing the fact that I've become a multi-millionnaire. When I get back, I'd be straight on to an IFA to do some planning.

shove some in gold to protect against hyper inflation

the footplate thing. is that on a preseved railway, where there is an established market, or do you want mainline. Steam, old diesel or do you want to drive a pendolino. or all three (as I would)

 

[styles]

shove some in gold to protect against hyper inflation

the footplate thing. is that on a preseved railway, where there is an established market, or do you want mainline. Steam, old diesel or do you want to drive a pendolino. or all three (as I would)

I think I'd like to create a footplate service accessible to as wide an audience as possible, so having it on an entirely disconnected railway line custom-built would be best. A mostly straightforward route with a couple of points would be sufficient I reckon.

I have never actually done a footplate service as I only learned they existed maybe a few months ago, so it's something I'm planning on next year!

 

[Trainlog]

when a special runs over the S&C, bad parking, racing the train in cars and trespass becomes a problem. if there were quite a few pf te specials you describe, would they become boring to those whose behaviour is an issue?
For the locals, reserving a coach for those with standard rail tickets would keep them on side. A timetable with some Cl158 services would be best. Could a steamer + 8 keep to 158 timings?

Basically, it would be a once-a-year steam takeover of the line for a weekend, designed to give members of the public the best elements of steam railtours and heritage railways like with the Tornado one back in 2017. The line would have a 'Steam replacement service' as I like to put it for that weekend.

Steam replacement service

• The Settle and Carlisle would be treated as if it were closed for Sunday engineering works. The service would be reduced but steam hauled for the majority of the day, except for the early mornings and late evenings when the typical 158s take over. Locals will be informed with plenty of notice when the event is happening.
• Rover tickets would be slightly more expensive to account for the steam-hauled services, but would be standard class coaches only and would still be cheaper than a railtour. The rover element would allow those who aren't interested in City exploring typically offered by rail tours to get out along the line and explore the stations.
• To further on from the 'Engineering works mentality' timekeeping would be kept to as much as possible but passengers would be advised as much as possible to bare in mind how delays could stack up and if they need to catch a connecting train at Carlisle to leave to get to there early.

To mitigate some of the issues

• As suggested previously, it would be in either Autumn or Winter to reduce the risk of lineside fires
• Locomotives would have 'Scotsman style cameras' to record instances of tresspassing
• locals will be given plenty of notice of when the steam takeover event is. They would be advised to treat it as a 'theoretical Sunday engineering works weekend' so sure you can travel over the route but it would take longer and be slightly less frequent. In the early morning and later in the evening, providing there is no serious incident/failure involving the steam locos, there will be the typical 158 services at these times.

 

[birchesgreen]

I'd buy a nice little Type 2 or 3 which was for sale then pay for it to "live" on a nice preserved line and take it for a drive now and then.

 

[Sun Chariot]

My £56 mill? Two thoughts:

1) I'd commission a full conversion of redundant carriages into LNER's classic 1935 Silver Jubilee train - together with converting NRM A4 4468 Mallard operating entirely on non fossil fuels (first BEV Pacific?).
I would keep my reserve funds for marketing, operating and maintaining it.

2) I'd buy the Lynmouth - Lynton funicular; then I'd tear up the Victorian-era infrastructure and have it converted to a "pinball plunger" type propulsion system, using the original carriages.
Thereby securing a world record for the quickest ascent of a cliff in a rail borne vehicle. The balance of funds being used to cover all the personal injury / whiplash claims....

 

[Trainlog]

) I'd commission a new-build of LNER's classic 1935 Silver Jubilee set, together with new-build A4 operating entirely on non fossil fuels (first BEV Pacific?).
I'd keep the reserve funds for marketing it, operating it (track access charges etc), maintaining it.

Or for slightly less than £1000, right now you could do that with a Hornby live steam A4 and a coronation coach set .

But to be fair, I would like to see an A4 back in the Silver link guise, even for a year or so on the mainline.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Or for slightly less than £1000, right now you could do that with a Hornby live steam A4 and a coronation coach set .

But to be fair, I would like to see an A4 back in the Silver link guise, even for a year or so on the mainline.

I've tweaked "new build" (which contravenes OPs steer) to "conversions" (thus guaranteed to eat up massive funds!).

I foolishly missed Bittern's temporary guise as 2509 Silver Link (too busy doing various Rail Rovers at that time!), so - yes - I'd love to see an A4 back in that condition.

I have all four of Hornby's 80th anniversary "Silver" A4s but sadly can't jistify funds for their glorious Coronation stock.