I don’t have enormous faith in the Doncaster P2 Locomotive Trust project gaining much ground and succeeding in their aim of completing an operational P2. For a start, I don’t think their blind insistence that “we will build it in Doncaster at any cost” is the right way to go about the process of sourcing a suitable location for building a working steam locomotive, especially not one as massive and complex as the leviathan P2. Their hopes of them having the engine completed within a decade could well prove to be exceptionally wide of the mark. Unless anyone knows different, they have no practical experience of building a steam locomotive. Fair play to them for wanting to do it, and everyone has to start somewhere, but I’m sceptical of their chances.
I feel much more confident about the A1 Locomotive Trusts’ plans to build 2007, should they decide to do so. They have already proven that they have the necessary skills required to undertake such a project and have proven that they can make it work and work well. They’ve completed one locomotive, so completing a second should be a slightly easier task now that they have been through the experiences associated with building “Tornado”.
And if both projects get up and running, I think that building two P2s simultaneously by two separate organisations is overkill, and will be stretching the financial support available as supporters will be split between the two projects, rather than united behind a single project. And that’s not to mention the difficulties that would arise when the two locomotives are operational: The P2s were massive beasts that had well documented troubles with their long wheelbases, which means that their use would be limited to the larger, more established preserved lines, and on the main line there are only a limited number of steam charters that can possibly operate each week, so as well as potential problems with the wheelbase issue, which is a key part of the reason that 9Fs are kept off the main line, two operational P2s would probably be saturating the market.
I would dearly love to see a working, full size P2 in all its’ glory, in original semi-streamlined form, as they are fantastically impressive looking locomotives and a sad loss from the world of preservation. I just hope that all parties concerned with these two projects are fully aware of the difficulties they are likely to face not only in building but also in operating such an unusual engine. On this front I would think that the A1 Locomotive Trust have the upper hand by quite a margin.
