Latest Production, Orders and Press News

Great news from Boro Foundry – our SG iron Frame Stretcher and Motion Plate have been cast.  The pictures above show the production stages: at top are the polystyrene patterns for the frame stretcher (left) and motion plate (right) which are used to form the correct shape of cavity in the mould of foundry sand.  Of course the sand isn’t off the beach, it’s formulated to bind together to hold its shape and withstand the heat of molten iron.  Sadly, once it’s in the mould it has to be burnt out, the patterns are single use only.  The two castings were poured at the same time, from the same melt.  The lower left picture shows the castings after fettling, which is the removal of all the risers etc necessary for the casting process.  At the bottom of the Stretcher there is extra metal which is cut off for chemical analysis and mechanical testing.  A test piece is machined and tested to destruction, to check its yield point, ultimate strength and ductility.  Yes, the tests do show it meets the specification requirements, as strong as mild steel and nearly as ductile.  The bottom right pictures show the two castings awaiting machining.

We have ordered the welded steel dragbox from TCL Seal of Sheffield and the plates for that will be cut any time soon.

The final major part for frame assembly is the machining of our front frame plates and the order has been placed with Goodman Metal Works of Nottingham.

In the press we are in Steam Railway magazine and in Railway Magazine article on new builds, we get about 1½ pages.

We are making Progress!