FUNDS FOR ‘P2’ REACH THE HALFWAY MARK AT £2.5M
Funding for ‘P2’ No. 2007 Prince of Wales is halfway to the finish line, with £2.5 million donated towards its total cost of £5m.
The announcement came on November 14 – the 70th birthday of the LNER 2-8-2’s namesake, His Royal Highness Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales.
It was announced five years ago that the Gresley ‘Mikado’ would bear his name, to coincide with his 65th birthday celebrations.
The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has now spent over £2m on the construction of the locomotive – bringing it to the ‘rolling chassis’ stage – and funds pledged towards the project have now passed the £3.1m mark.
Current funding streams for No. 2007 are the Boiler Club, which has raised over £400,000 towards its £600,000 target; the Motion Club, which has over £100,000 of the required £210,000; the Dedicated Donations component sponsorship scheme, which has raised over £315,000; and the ‘P2 for the price of a pint’ covenantor scheme, which now has almost 900 members. For details, email enquiries@p2steam.com, visit www.p2steam.com or call 01325 460163.
Mark Allatt, P2 Project director and trustee of the A1SLT, commented: “Over the past five years we’ve made dramatic progress towards our aim of completing Prince of Wales by 2021 and there could be no more appropriate occasion than HRH The Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday to announce that our fund-raising has passed the halfway point. Now is the time to get on board this groundbreaking project and help the trust to raise the £5m needed to ensure its completion in 2021.”