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Q. What do you do with all the locos?
A. No locos have yet been bought for the collection in “perfect running order”. Invariably they have been made redundant by their previous owners because of replacement, termination of rail traffic or simply 'not worth repairing'. Indeed, more than one has been acquired for no other reason than otherwise it would have gone for scrap. Consequently each locomotive requires a varying amount of work, often stripping down to frame level. Every weekend (*) Andrew and his father are out and about maintaining or restoring them in turn. Typically work will be proceeding on 3 major projects at a time, with maintenance work on others slotted in as required.
Wherever possible, Andrew wants to see the locos used - a loco that is stood doing nothing develops more faults that one which is run regularly - even if he is not there to drive them! Most of the railways where Andrew's loco are based therefore get "free use" in return for their housing the operating one(s) and the projects not yet in hand.
(* Earlier on this answer had a reference to 'university commitments' - Andrew was on a 4 year BSc in Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough. He graduated in summer 2009 with a 2.1 and now works for a train leasing company.)
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