With the recent completion of the smokebox door and the obtainment of secure space in which to store the components, we are now proceeding with the next stage of fabrication.
We are therefore delighted to announce that the Trust has signed an agreement and mailed a cheque to Tata Steel Plate Solutions in Wolverhampton for the fabrication of the front frame-plates with delivery in 5 to 6 weeks!
We will keep everyone posted.
Given that it has been over a month since the last update this post will cover a number of recent developments and upcoming events in one go.
The auction at Crewe Heritage Centre
Founding member Bruce Nixon attended the auction held at Crewe Heritage Centre on Saturday 26th April where we successfully sold the whistle once belonging to the last operational Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway class 4-6-0; a historically significant item that was generously donated to the Trust to be auctioned. We are of course grateful to the donor and to the buyer who paid £760.00. This provides a real fillip to our funds and greatly assist us in moving forward with the build.
During his visit, Bruce also had the opportunity to meet with a number of people from the South Cheshire Model Engineering Society and the LNWR Heritage Co Ltd. where he also was given a tour of the works. Bruce managed to spread the word about our build a little wider and received many expressions of support.
Matched funding and a Legacies
Donations such as the whistle and the invaluable financial contributions from our growing band of supporters has led us secure our next tranche of matched funding from our kind benefactor. I should also note that we have received our first Legacy. On behalf of the trust I would like to express our sincere and profound gratitude to the donor for this considerable and generous gift.
If you would like to make a one-off donation, a Standing Order, or provide a Legacy you will find links to the relevant forms at the top of this page and remember, it you’re a UK taxpayer, your contribution receives matched funding through Gift-Aid and additional funds from our good friends, the tax-people (HMRC). For example, a donation of £40 secures £10 from the HMRC, which when matched with Gift-Aid, results in a £100 donation to the trust!
Your contribution matters and it is through your generosity that together we can complete this build sooner rather than later. Month-by-month the momentum is building and together we will recreate one of these beautiful and powerful machines, filling a hole in the preservation ledger (an operational early 20th century express type and an LNWR engine at that), to be enjoyed by present and future generations on heritage rail and certified for mainline running. Fabrication has commenced, parts have been donated and I’m pleased to say that we now have a place to call home so why not be a part of (re)creating history?
A home-base
We’ve held back from committing ourselves to fabricating anything substantial until we could secure a home for the parts, however temporary. While we’ve had the funds to commit to works that are far more substantial than the smokebox door, there has been the matter of storage.
We are therefore pleased to announce that the completed parts will be held in secured storage at a work in Heckmondwike in Yorkshire (next to a former LNWR trackbed where some new build LNWR fish vans are being constructed). Erection will occur elsewhere at a site that’s yet-to-be-determined but having secure storage within the works of like-minded friends provides us with the opportunity to commit to the next significant stage of fabrication.
Regarding this, while I would love to share the details, contractual agreements and pending discussions over the final details prevents me of sharing it just yet. Very soon. Suffice it to say, the next stage will be substantial and during the course of June and July, all will be revealed so stay tuned!
Upcoming events
The Trust will be at Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway this year for the annual LNWR Society event. All are invited and welcome to attend and more details with be forthcoming.
Easter weekend at Quorn
To conclude, the newly fabricated smokebox door was on display at the Great Central Railway’s ‘Easter Vintage Festival’ at Quorn station over the Easter long weekend from the 18th to 21st April. As you can see, the door made for quite a sight as it traversed the East Midlands from Bingham to Quorn! The tractor (in keeping with the vintage theme) is a 1953 Turner with V4 diesel and the LMS dray has been painstakingly restored by the talented chaps at Keyte Smith Ltd. We thank Jamie and his crew for their sterling work on the door and for transporting in such style to and from the event.
Well here is it and I’m sure you’ll agree that even with a temporary coat of paint, the result is fantastic and it’s worth noting that this is the first large LNWR smokebox door with original fittings seen since the 1920’s. The work is a credit to Jamie and his team at Keyte Smith Ltd.
Since we posted this on our Facebook page, we’ve received over 100 hits on the photos in the first 20 minutes. As mentioned in the previous blog update, the door will on display at the Great Central Railway’s ‘Easter Vintage Festival‘ at Quorn Station from tomorrow through to Mondat 21st. So come along, be a part of something special and help us create a legacy for present and future generations by donating or volunteering your time!
At last, the newly fabricated smokebox door will be on public display at the Great Central Railway’s ‘Easter Vintage Festival’, with the festivities taking place across the Easter long weekend from the 18th to 21st April and centred at Quorn Station.
There’ll be plenty for everyone – from steam-powered gallopers and a big wheel, traction engines, drays, steam powered farm equipment, live music, craft stalls, real food and real ale and of course timetabled steam-hauled rides along the GCR line with events at every station.
The LNWR George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust will be there from noon Friday and our stand replete with smokebox door – on public display for the very first time – will be adjacent to the “Edwardian Saw Bench” Steam Powered Wood Sawing demonstration at Quorn.
For more information and to book tickets, visit the Festival website here. Note that parking at Quorn Station is strictly limited. We do hope that our supporters and followers can make it for an exciting and entertaining three days. Tell your friends, tell your family and we hope to see you there!
In addition to the steady progress being made with fabrication, we are also making steady progress on the fundraising side of things. Your continued support now means that we have recently met the conditions to secure our next tranche of matched funding from our anonymous benefactor. In addition to your generous and indispensable support, these tranches constitute a considerable fillip to the project and mean that we can press on in a concerted fashion with the next phase of fabrication, which promises to be substantial.
Regarding this, we are presently in the final stages of signing contracts with contractors and to hope to soon commence fabrication beyond the smokebox door, which is nearing completion. Due to the sensitive nature of these contracts we regrettably cannot reveal further details at this point in time but rest assured it will be significant and the announcement will take place within the coming months.
In other news, we have recently secured our first legacy. We humbly thank the donor for this most generous gift. If you would like to know more about legacies, subscriber donations (otherwise known as a Standing Order Mandate) or even how to make a one-off payment we kindly invite you to visit the links at the top of this site, and remember that each donation option qualifies for Gift-Aid if you are a UK tax-payer. Standing Order Mandates, payments are monthly and can be easily cancelled at any time. It is only with your support that we can push ahead with the task of building a new example of these magnificent machines – a prime example of an early 20th century express type – something poorly represented in preservation – to inform and delight for generations to come.
While it’s been relatively quiet here on the announcement front, work has nonetheless continued on the smokebox door as this post will testify. The Trust has also been working to establish the foundation for future progress; a task that has occupied us considerably of late.
Our supplier, Keyte Smith has commenced stage three of the smokebox door. Here are a collection of photos taken at the commencement and during fabrication.
*The 20mm thick hinge plate has been pressed to follow the contours of the outer door – it only took 30 tons! It is now being prepped for welding.
*The hinge tube has been made from solid bar. This has had the hole put through it and is now away having the bush seats bored.
*The outer door profile has been marked out and the holes for the plug welds drilled in it.
*The handle has been bent up. This was made from a piece of profiled plate, 20mm thick, and was bent hot over a former. It has been trimmed to size and welded onto the base plate. The base pate was pressed to follow the curvature of the door prior to welding. The handle is also set at an angle to the base (6 degrees) so it projects true to the smokebox front when installed, as per original design.
*The bosses are all turned ready for fitting.
*The next few stages are to trim most of the excess from rim of the outer door, weld in the hinge plate and fit the inner profile.
We of course are immensely thankful for the continued support of our supporters. We kindly ask you to spread the word in whatever manner possible.
Stage 3 kit of parts.
Formed Hinge Plate
Handle 3
Handle 2
Handle 1
Drilling Plug Weld Holes
Hinge Plate Plug Holes
Handle Parts
Greetings to all our followers and supporters for 2014. We hope that you all had a restful and joyous festive season.
The trust has signed off on the next phase of work on the smokebox door. This phase is the most expensive and extensive so far and it moves the door on a long way from just being a pretty face to an important component of a working locomotive.
The work will include the fabrication and assembly of key components of the door including the central hinge, hinge plate, hinge tube and stop. The fabrication schedule also includes the inner door profile and inner ring, handle and baffle stand-off.
At the completion of this work, the door will undergo non-destructive testing to satisfy and comply with National Rail standards. This testing is critical for certification for mainline running and will be undertaking throughout the fabrication process.
We will of course provide photos as the work progresses.
LMS Drawings showing LMS period modifications and original LNWR features.
We thought we might share with you some of the small progress recently made on the smokebox door, which is nearing completion with our supplier Keyte Smith Ltd.
The first image shows the dart handle on the lathe. There is a little bit of hand fettling to finish off and the turning centre to remove. The second image is the hand wheel post welding. Note over size boss at both ends to allow it to be turned. The third image shows the door boss welded on the inside of the door and the final images shows work commencing on the profiling of the hand wheel in the lathe.
We thought we’d take this opportunity to share a collection of photos of the work currently being undertaken on the Smokebox door at the workshops of AJB Engineering. We have to thank Jamie Keyte of Keyte Smith Ltd for the photos and his work and also the fellows at AJB Engineering.
Photos 1 and 2 shows the dart being heated up ready for forging. The bar is 50mm diameter and the end needs to be thinned to a thickness of 25mm and 75mm across. The chap doing the heating is Tom, Keyte Smith’s coded welder with Jamie at the hot end.
Photos 3 and 4 show the dart in the press having the end forged. This gets the initial thickness close to 25mm. The next stage is to upset forge the end to get the required width 75mm, followed by a final thickness setting. We needed about 20 tons to get it flat.
Photo 5 shows the material profiles for the hand wheel and the dart handle prior to machining.
Photo 6 shows the door mounted on the radial arm drill for opening out the hole to the required diameter of 90mm to accept the boss. The door profile was supplied with a 27mm pilot hole from Purdie. A temporary boss was made (just visible behind the top of the wheel on Photo 12) so that the hole saw had a true centre to pick up on. The hole is then prepped ready for welding in the boss. The door has also been marked out with horizontal and vertical centrelines (where the cross of red oxide paint is) so there are datums to work to once the centre has been cut away.
Photo 7 is more for general interest (although the door does feature in the background) and I put it in due to the railway connection. It is a wheel from an LMS dray (probably built at Wolverton) that is currently being restored. One of the Ed, one of the fellows at AJB Engineering is an expert in the ancient art of making things from timber and he owns the saw seen in this clip from the recent country show at Harby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIuGzha7L6I
Thanks again to Jamie Keyte and the teams at Keyte Smith Ltd, AJB Engineering and Purdie. We’ll be sure to keep everyone up-to-date with the progress on the door and on other developments as and when we’re able. As stated in an earlier post, the frame-plates will be the next parts to commence fabrication and we hope to have more information in due course.
Glad tidings of great joy!
If yesterday’s news wasn’t exciting and promising enough, in yet another piece of fantastic news I can hereby confirm that the LNWR George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust has successfully met the required conditions for our first tranche of matched funding from our anonymous benefactor. Originally the agreement specified that the Trust was to receive matched funding at £10,000. That is, for every £10,000 that we raised through our own fundraising efforts minus Gift Aid, our generous benefactor would match it with a Charities Aid Foundation voucher.
However, recently he agreed to lower that threshold to £5,000. What this therefore means is that the project will be receipt of an additional £5,000 through a Charities Aid Foundation voucher. We are of course immensely grateful to him and to all our donors and supporters in assisting us get to this point.
And just to reiterate, there is a commitment to match our funding until a £50,000 is reached! As you can imagine, this is a real filip to the project and means that we can begin to initiate our plans beyond the fabrication of the frame-plates! We therefore ask that all our readers and supporters help spread the word. You’ll find a button at the top of this very post which will enable you to forwards the details to others through a number of platforms, from email to various social medias such as Twitter and Facebook.
I think this news deserves a good and proper British Ale or two!
