Prince George Featured by TimeOut

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We’re delighted to share that Prince George has been featured by TimeOut! You can read the full article at the link below:

TimeOut: A steam engine named after Prince George is fundraising for its completion

Letter From The Chairman

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Despite the pandemic 2021 has been a year of very constructive changes within the Trust.
In March Terry McMenamin and Tom Mainprize resigned and the Trust thanks them for their past services, which were much appreciated. It has however cleared the decks for a major reorganization as follows:
David Costello, Graham Connelan and Alasdair Hibberd have been appointed as trustees, bringing the total to five, a common figure with newbuilds. This has greatly increased our expertise in marketing, project management and digital skills. We have also benefited from guidance on fundraising from Oliver Edwards who runs his own consultancy, his fee ultimately being paid by the National Lottery. We have also appointed Jack Eagles from Keele University to a Summer Student Internship financed by the University. He has a background in Customer Relations and communications and is around five years older than most students. He also has the advantage of living in ‘George country’ (within the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation). He starts on 1 June.
In respect of engineering it was decided to put engineering services onto a contractual basis. We have therefore engaged Martin Shepherd who has long been associated with the A1 and P2 projects (besides us he is also working on the cylinder design for the P2). We have also separated out the engineering from a responsibility for engineering compliance. We also think it very relevant to point out that it is written into our contract with Keyte Smith Ltd our principal contractors and recognised suppliers to the modern rail industry that they carry the responsibility for the locomotive meeting the required vehicle acceptance body standards.
We have also started conversations with Technical Connection, a rail consultancy based in Eastleigh. These make clear that obtaining clearance is a multistage process. There has been clarity on rules for steam since 2017 even though a careful study of the small print is crucial. Our first step will therefore be a meeting between us and Technical Connection and the Office of Road and Rail in London. A by product of this is expected to be acceptance by a leading train operating company. We will also work on approval for the boiler from British Engineering Services and finding an insurer for the locomotive as a whole.
This obviously represents an immense amount of invisible work but we felt we should spell this out to avoid any apprehension that nothing was happening.
In fact my chairmanship has largely coincided with the period of pandemic and followed the retirement of Bruce Nixon on health grounds. Despite this the Trust has been notably active producing both the upper parts of the cab and the cab roof and the rear main frames.
Paul Hibberd, Chairman, LNWR George the Fifth, Locomotive Trust
May be an image of train and railway

Women In Science Day

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Today is Women In Science Day.

February 11 is  the ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’.

We could say STEAM to us means STEM plus.

S   Science

T   Technology (including IT)

E   Engineering

A   Art

M Mathematics (and maybe marketing as well if that is a science).

We  can say that as a charity we believe in diversity, that we think we have done quite well on BAME, providing work experience to somebody of Asian ethnicity and having somebody with us of African ethnicity for the sandwich year of his mechanical engineering degree.
Our project has also been used in the school context for learning how to produce CAD drawings and a model of the valve gear has been used to teach simulation. We have also done quite well in terms of age, giving a sixteen year old real responsibility.

Our weak area is involving the fifty percent of the population that is female. We have a great range of opportunities that could lead into careers in engineering or elsewhere in science and would  be delighted to help….we would be delighted to help. Please contact Paul in the first instance at: paulhibberd@gmail.com

Support The George with Easyfundraising

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Fed up with covid lockdown and the cold -try a little escapism, support the George!.

Visit: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/lnwrgeorgevtrust

Arrivals in Nottinghamshire

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First site of our new cab and upper cabsides at our private North Nottinghamshire base in afternoon daylight last Thursday.

Frames arriving at our private North Nottinghamshire site this morning.

Main Frames Completion

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Please refer to the image  below as it provides context  of the manufacturing process  including a human working at his desk screen immediately behind the frames which is how things are done these days. Tata will be profiling and painting these frames before they are delivered to our private CCTV protected North Nottinghamshire base where a site is being prepared for them.