A review of Progress During 2012

All wheelsets now have a full set of tyres – quartering of wheels to be completed after Christmas. Crank pins to be manufactured and fitted during January 2013. Balance weights to be fitted during January 2013.
Wheelsets to be despatched to Llangollen mid February 2013, with painting of wheelsets to be completed during February/March 2013.

DRIVING AXLEBOXES

Preliminary axlebox machining has now been completed by FHT Southam w/e 19th Dec and the axleboxes will be shipped to Tyseley early in the New Year. Completion is anticipated by the end of March but this is dependent on frames being final assembled at Llangollen as some of the axlebox final assembly cannot be done until the frames are fully riveted.

FRAMES

The machined Hornguides and Tee Pieces will be shipped to Llangollen early in the New Year along with the tender wheelsets (see below). Fitting of Hornguides to frames should be started in early Jan 2013

Eddie Mocroft has now begun work on the Stretcher 5 pattern with completion expected end 2nd week of January 2013. Casting and machining should take place in late January/early February and it will be shipped to Llangollen mid February for immediate assembly to the frames.

Brake hanger brackets – pattern made, casting/machining about to be ordered.

Final riveting of the frames will commence immediately after Stretcher 5 is fitted. We hope Dave Owen will be able to complete the frame assembly by the end of April 2013.

Painting of the frames should commence end April 2013 with completion by the end of May 2013.

With all this complete we would hope to see the wheels assembled to the frames in early June.

Motion girders and motion brackets – drawings are nearly completed – we will then be seeking quotes for fabrication of these items – the originals were castings.

We are awaiting drawings from Kevin West for the cab & running plate. We expect to order a kit of parts for Dave Owen to assemble put together before Members' Day.

BOGIE

Kevin West, our Design Engineer, met Bob Meanley at Tyseley on Thursday 20th Dec to agree the bogie design. Subject to obtaining the second bogie wheel and boxes from a Turkish 8F (via The Churchill Locomotive Group) it is planned to have the engine visit Tyseley in October to have the new bogie fitted prior to arriving at the NEC in November. The revised design requires new hornguides which will be cast during the spring along with the bogie centre casting. Bob will take full responsibility for the assembly of the whole unit.

BOILER

The smokebox and front tubeplate are now well under way and should be finished by the end of January. We expect to fit this to the frames along with the smoke deflectors and chimney off 45539 'E. C. Trench' prior to Members' Day.

We have met with our insurers RSA who have suggested slight design changes to the boiler which they believe could run at 225 psi as compared to the 200 psi of the original design.

TENDER

We expect the Bury tender to be dismantled in January – the frames will then be shot blasted to enable Dave Owen to provide a quote to allow Richard to put in an application to the HLF (and others) for grant aid. Another loco group has expressed the wish to hire our tender for 2014/5 whilst their own is being overhauled. The refurbished tender wheels should arrive in Llangollen by early January 2013. We hope that the painting volunteers will be able to start work painting them immediately after they arrive at Llangollen.

OTHER ITEMS

We now have three lubricators – one (8 feed) for the right hand side of the loco and two 8 feeds for the left hand side. These will be combined to into one in a newly cast box to provide a 16 feed lubricator for the cylinders and valves.

We now have about 70% of the parts we need for the speedometer required for main line running.

On behalf of the LMS-Patriot Project thank you for your continued support.

David Bradshaw, Chairman

2012 Progress Photos compiled by Kirsten Shell.