No. 2007 now has a full set of boiler cladding fitted, the pictures speak for themselves! (Photographs by David Elliott)

A start has been made with the trial fitting of the cladding on the frames and so far it appears to fit!

Photos by David Elliott

Excellent progress continues to be made with the process of wheeling and tyring at South Devon Railway (Engineering).  These photos show the steps involved in preparing the wheel centres (now all fitted to their axles) for the tyres to be shrunk on.  Assembling Tornado’s wheels used numerous contractors and multiple road miles so, for the Trust, having a ‘one stop shop’ that could do all the work has saved a lot of haulage and time.  All photos by David Elliott.

Boring a tyre on the vertical borer.

A fully machined tyre ready for fitting.

Machining back faces on the other wheel lathe and boring crank pin holes on the quartering machine.

Profiling a flange on the wheel lathe.

Work continues at a great pace at South Devon Railway (Engineering).  The tyre fitting is being done using the ex Swindon works tyre heating equipment.  The quartering machine is a special form of horizontal borer which can bore crank pin holes or turn crank pins (if already fitted) from both sides of the wheelset at the same setting; provided the setting is not altered whilst swapping wheelsets, this ensures that the distance between the crank pins and the axle centres and the angle between the crank pins is consistent for all four wheelsets which is vital for smooth running of the finished locomotive.

All photos by Rob le Chevalier

The crank axle in the wheel lathe for turning the back of the rims

Another view of this operation

The leading coupled wheelset in the quartering machine

Tyres fitted to the trailing coupled wheelset