Following recent correspondence with the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) it has been determined that the NHLF would no longer be the right funder for D1013 Western Ranger’s Bogie Project, following the WLA’s Expression of Interest (EOI) application. In the opinion of the NLHF, “the combination of heritage importance, evidence of need and value for money would make it a low priority for lottery funding.” The application to fund a complete bogie overhaul to main line standard (estimated at £756k) would have been much stronger if D1013 had been the only locomotive of its type remaining. In addition, there were several other requirements stipulated by the NHLF, which unfortunately, would not make the project practical or achievable.
With the application process likely to take two years to work through, the WLA accepted that its time, money and efforts would be better spent on looking at alternatives, using existing resources. A plan is now being devised to bring the bogies up to standard, fit for towing on the main line at 60 mph, and costings suggest that the appeal should now be set at £30k, for which the WLA would need to raise a further £15k. Attention to D1013’s ongoing major overhaul will now become the main focus for 2023, now that D1062 Western Courier is back in traffic.
Despite the NLHF stance, the WLA has benefited from the application process as it now has much better web sites and information for new potential members, it has a fully prepared Technical Requirements Document for a full or part bogie overhaul (available for future generations), an updated business plan and some £15k already raised for bogie work. Most of these items would not have been in place otherwise.
The WLA would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the NLHF application, especially those who had taken time to attend meetings, contractors who had produced costings and in particular, the WLA would like to thank WLA member Pete Sandham, who had prepared the highly detailed Technical Requirements Document for a full Class 52 bogie overhaul.