October 2025

It’s been a quarter of bits and bobs.

Tender

The two tender water feed brackets and clips have been final painted and fitted.

Replacement of stolen items continues, with new bronze bearings for the tender front brake shaft bearing brackets having been machined to size ready for press fitting into the brackets.

Alignment and adjustment of fittings for the front brake shaft progresses, ready for final setting and drilling of the bearing brackets.

Valve Gear and Motion

Work to the middle big end cotter clamps has been completed. After a lot of fiddly setting and machining work the parts were assembled onto the locating studs and put into store. 

Boiler

The boiler clack valves have been machined to the correct size and shape, with just a final skim required to the valve faces, after removal of excess material from between the guide fins.

The boiler returned to Quorn in early June and has been stored on a well wagon. There have been discussions with a potential contractor for completion of the remaining work and a subsequent site visit by them to view the boiler and firebox.

‘Leaky Finders Ltd ‘ (engineering specialists, from Exeter in Devon) are currently machining a new set of super heater tee bolts and nuts for another West Country pacific and for a Merchant Navy. They contacted us recently to see whether we were in need of a set, which they could make while their machine was set up.

Inspection of ours showed that 20 of the 32 that we require need to be replaced, so we’ve taken them up on their offer. The bolt shaft is 1" in diameter.

Last, but certainly not least, the cleaning and painting of the large boiler cladding sheets has started. This has been helped by the dry weather, as it’s easier to carry out this task outside, where there is more room.