A flurry of activity during December has seen forgings made, parts machined and components fitted to No. 2007.

Robert Stephensons forged the coupling rods – Robert Stephenson Ltd.

The combined stays and spring hanger brackets were trial fitted – Daniela Filova

The Cartazzi planks were machined – Daniela Filova

…as were the axle-driven alternator components – Daniela Filova

…and the pony truck cannon box was delivered – Daniela Filova

The pre-fitting of the tender tank baseplate to the tender frames was completed at Ian Howitt’s works at Crofton near Wakefield where a total of 96 blind nuts were welded to the baseplate. The baseplate was then returned to North View Engineering Solutions in Darlington where the erection of the tender tank is proceeding rapidly.  With the main components in place, Ian Matthews bent up the complex beading for the front edges and tank sides and started fitting it in place.  Photos by Leigh Taylor and David Elliott.

Why not support The Tender Club and help fund the rapid assembly of this critical part on Prince of Wales? You can join The Tender Club by making a single donation. This form confirms your personal data and your £1,500 donation – please DOWNLOAD, print out, complete and return it to us with a cheque for £1,500 made payable to “A1 SLT – P2 Construction Fund” at the address shown. To pay by credit card, please contact the office on 01325 460163 or email .

Or you can support The Tender Club by making multiple donations by Standing Order. This first form confirms your personal data and the amount that you would like to donate – please DOWNLOAD, print out, complete and return it to us at the address shown. This second form confirms your bank details, please DOWNLOAD, complete in full and return it along with the monthly donation form, we will then forward it to your bank.

This series of photos by Daliela Filova shows the tender wheelsets being assembled by South Devon Railway Engineering.  You can support the Tender Club here.

Work continued this week with the manufacture of the locomotive’s steam heating pipe – here we see Ian Matthews installing the front two sections on the locomotive.

Following on from the arrival of the new stainless-steel handrail knobs, the first section of new handrail was fitted to the cab.  Work will continue over the coming weeks to make, polish and fit the rest of the handrails.

This is the first section of handrail being polished in the lathe.

We also saw the arrival of the new castings for the cylinder drain cocks.  This week our volunteer team has started to machine the faces of the castings to prepare them for hydraulic testing.  Only once they have passed a hydraulic test will they be fully machined.

The patterns for the new locomotive and tender spring boxes have arrived (locomotive pattern pictured).  We are now in the process of seeking quotes for the castings.

All photos by Richard Pearson.

The new 1” BSW x 2” long nuts for the Superheater header ‘T’ bolts have arrived and passed inspection.  The ‘T’ bolts themselves aren’t expected for another few weeks – when they arrive, we will be able to carry out the hydraulic test on the header.

The new patterns for the locomotive and tender spring boxes have also arrived.  We’ve also been preparing a number of items for shot blasting – the new cab seat cubicles, the driving wheel balance weights plates, and the guard irons.

Our volunteers have turned their attention to polishing the tyres on the driving wheels.  The photo below shows the mirror finish achieved on the left leading driving wheel.

All photos by Richard Pearson

General – We have reached that period in the project where there is a lot of essential but relatively unspectacular work going on including pipework and electrics, brake gear details and fittings. Having said that, the tender tank has been ordered and we are on the cusp of ordering the boiler.

Frames – We have at last received the first of the two outside motion brackets and following inspection, these will be fitted to the frames.

The last of the frame components in the form of the remaining 10 spring hanger brackets have been ordered from North View Engineering Solutions. The original designs used steel castings, however as they are all handed and are mostly different from one another, the pattern costs would be considerable. On first look they are similar to those on Tornado, but on closer examination and resulting in part from the difference in coupled wheel sizes, they are longer from top to bottom than the A1 type, preventing use of the Tornado patterns. They have all been redesigned as welded fabrications and the two pairs which are joined together across the frames – on the P2 by bolting a heavy section angle irons between them, have been replaced by the significantly stronger one-piece design employed on the A1 class.

Two of the spring brackets have bearing housings attached to the back of them to support the brake lever shaft for the rear pair of coupled wheels. As we have modified the design of the brake lever from vacuum to air operation which has slightly altered the distribution of forces in the brake lever shaft, the spring hanger brackets with brake shaft bearings have been subjected to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) by Daniela, which after a subtle improvement to some weld profiles, have been shown to have an adequate margin of strength and fatigue resistance.

The fitting of the motion brackets and spring hangers will complete the engine frame structure.

Wheelsets – After further protracted delays, the pony truck cannonbox is back with Timson Engineering at Kettering for final machining following replacement of some of the manganese steel wear plates. Delivery to Darlington is eagerly anticipated.

Our volunteers are making good progress with polishing the tyre rims.

The speedo drive return crank (which doubles as the crank pin nut on the LH trailing coupled wheel) has been delivered and is presently being fettled and polished by our volunteers.

Boiler – The draft of the updated boiler design has been received and “best and final” updates for quotes for the boiler sought. By the time this article appears in TCC, we expect the decision on supplier will have been made and contract negotiations to be well in hand.

Major boiler fittings – Preparations are being made to carry out the hydraulic test on the superheater header (including finding the 86 rubber dog balls required to block the superheater element connection holes).

Cylinders – Further detailed design work has been done on the cylinder block and valve gear in anticipation of commencement of manufacture. In the meantime Alan Parkin has produced drawings and quotations for valve cover patterns have been sought.

Brake rigging – four fabricated brake cross stays (similar to those made for Tornado) have been delivered by North View Engineering Solutions.

The front and rear short brake links have been completed, the latter being a complicated offset design which have been machined from solid at Darlington Locomotive Works. Brake blocks have been ordered and all the brake pins made. We are expecting delivery of the two brake lever shafts from I D Howitt at Crofton shortly.

Cab – With Daniela having completed the drawings, material has been delivered and cab seats and cab seat cubicles are under construction.

Tender – The order for the tender tank has been placed with North View Engineering Solutions. Delivery of the base plate to Ian Howitt at Crofton is scheduled for pre-fitting to the frames during June, with the completed tank delivered to Darlington Locomotive Works in September, by which time we expect to have the frames on site.

Ian Howitt continues to make good progress with the tender frames with the spring hanger and tank brackets attached to the frame plates. Major components have been made including the drag boxes.

We are still awaiting delivery of the remaining tender axle, with a current promise for mid-June. At that stage the four axles will be dispatched along with the wheels to South Devon Railway Engineering.

Fittings – Our first attempt to appoint a machinist was not successful, so we have re-advertised the job. In mean time urgent fittings and machining work is being subcontracted out.

Efforts are being made to secure the loan of patterns from the 71000 Duke of Gloucester team for the Davies and Metcalfe class K exhaust injector. Manufacturers are also being sought for the grease separator which is located in the exhaust steam pipe to prevent oil and grease from the exhaust steam being injected into the boiler.

Pipework – The critical path on project plan is pipework, so effort has been concentrated on design and installation of the major pipe runs.

The first to have been made is the exhaust steam injector exhaust steam pipe – a 4in bore pipe which carries exhaust steam from the cylinder block all the way back to the exhaust steam injector under the cab; being the largest pipe we have to accommodate it was routed and made first with Ian Matthews fabricating it. It has been trial installed but each of the sections will require hydraulic testing before permanent installation. This pipe also serves as the exhaust pipe for the two air pumps.

The next pipe run will be the 2in vacuum pipe including the DV2 air/vacuum proportional valve.

Design is well in hand for the air brake and air reservoir pipes which also run the full length of the frames.

Electrical – The casing for the new belt driven alternator prototype has been fabricated by North Bay Railway Engineering in Darlington and has been christened “Noo Noo” due to its similarity in appearance to the vacuum cleaner in the Teletubbies!  Meanwhile Alan is seeking quotes for the remaining detail components.

Alan has made very good progress with routing the stainless steel electrical trunking and conduits through the frames. He has also worked up a design for a slightly enlarged battery box which will permit fitting of batteries of greater capacity than those on Tornado to provide greater margins for when the ERTMS cab signaling system eventually has to be fitted to the locomotive. The new battery boxes look very similar to the BR AWS (Automatic Warning System) battery boxes fitted to Tornado which is somewhat anomalous as P2s were never fitted with AWS!. However, we do not have enough space to locate the batteries anywhere else so have adopted the same location as Tornado. The BR design is not very conspicuous and had the P2s survived into original form into the 1950s, they would have been fitted with AWS.

One change we are making from Tornado design is the means of disconnecting cables between the cab and frame so that the cab can be removed from the engine – which is often needed for firebox repairs. On Tornado, the cables from the frames pass through holes in the footplate and the bottom of the brake equipment cubicle in the cab floor and plug directly into the equipment in the under-seat cubicles. The process of disconnecting these requires great care and leaves the cables with their connectors hanging from the trunking above the battery boxes where they are vulnerable. The chosen solution is to set military standard plug sockets in recessed boxes in the underside of the cab base which enable short cables to be plugged in directly. When the cab is removed, the plug sockets have dummy covers fitted and the cables and plugs (which are much shorter) can be coiled up and stowed in the trunking above the battery boxes.

A further electrical design review has been conducted with Rob Morland, Alan Parkin and David Elliott to assess the design work to date and decide if any changes were needed. Fortunately, very little alteration was felt to be required, and Alan is clear to proceed under Rob’s direction to complete the detail design of the trunking installation.

GENERAL – Design and manufacturing resources have continued to be diverted from time to time to support Tornado’s return to the main line, however some good progress has been made on Prince of Wales.

FRAMES – Daniela has completed the FEA study of the pony truck crosshead which has emphasised that it is satisfyingly over engineered! She is presently working on the completing the study for the pony truck frame. North View Engineering Solutions in Darlington are asking good progress with the outside motion brackets with delivery expected in March.

WHEELSETS – The saga of the pony truck cannon box continues! Due to a machining error, one of the bearing seats was bored oversize which has necessitated having it welded by a specialist in this field. This inevitably caused some distortion in the castings so they were stress relieved to restore them to the correct shape. Unfortunately, the stress relieving caused some of the manganese steel wear plates which form the liners where the cannon box slides up and down in the pony truck to crack. At the present time, under instruction from Timson Engineering who were contracted to machine all the cannon and axle boxes, North View Engineering Solutions in Darlington are welding on new liner plates. Based on satisfactory experience with Tornado, we have encouraged North View to maintain a welding code and procedure in welding manganese steel liners to steel axleboxes or hornblocks – hence their use for this work.

Otherwise Ian Matthews has got as far as he can with preparing and painting the wheel centres and spokes of the coupled wheelsets – we have had to leave the areas around the built-up balance weights until the lead/antimony alloy is poured into the spaces between the balance weight plates and the spokes to provide the desired level of rotary and reciprocating mass balance. These areas will be painted once the balancing is complete which can be concluded when the motion parts are weighed. Our volunteers have started sanding down the outer tyre faces as similar to the original P2 No. 2001 Cock o’ the North, Prince of Wales will run with polished wheel tyres.

BOILER – We are expecting receipt in the near future of the updated design for the boiler from Meiningen incorporating all the modifications and improvements fitted to Tornado’s boiler over the years. Once this is complete we will be in a position to make a final decision on where the boiler is to be built.

The machining of the superheater header is complete at MultiTech Engineering of Ferrybridge. Two sets of regulator castings have been ordered from H Downs of Huddersfield. This one set to for a regulator for No. 2007, the other as a set of spares for both locomotives.

CYLINDERS – With Daniela having produced detailed models of external steam pipes and elbows for the cylinder block, she has refined the design using Finite Element Analysis and created manufacturing drawings. This has enabled us to seek pattern and casting costs for these items. In the meantime, David Elliott has been developing the Lentz/Franklin valve gear and detailing the cylinder block design.

BRAKE RIGGING – The brake cross stays have been ordered from North View Engineering Solutions.

CAB – The first attempt to fit the cab spectacle windows was not successful due to the sloping front plates of the cab not being sufficiently flat. Ian Matthews has partially dismantled this area and applied much heat and controlled percussion to rectify this problem and both spectacle windows are installed and fit properly. Daniela has modified the window catch design to suit the thicker frames which are required to hold the 21mm thick glazings required to meet current Railway Group Standards.

Daniela is also working up a slightly modified version of the electrical cubicles which form the bases of the cab seats. These are closely based on the design used on Tornado but amended to suit the different cab profile and curved in rear edges of the P2 cab.

TENDER – With a total of four quotes to build the tender tank, we are near to making a decision on which supplier we will select.

Unilathe at Stoke on Trent, which is supplying the tender axles, have delivered the three plain axles, but have had problems with the 4th axle (which has an extra seat on it to carry the tender alternator pulley). Two attempts to manufacture this axle have failed when the finished axles have been rejected during the final Non-Destructive Testing procedures. This has resulted in Unilathe’s axle forging supplier carrying out further tests on their stock blank forgings resulting in a sizeable batch being scrapped. A new forging has been made and we are promised delivery of the finished axle in April. Once it is received, the four axles will be sent with the wheels to South Devon Railway Engineering for assembly (they already have the tyres).

Ian Howitt is making good progress with the tender frames at his Crofton works. Castings are being machined and bolted to the frame plates and several other components have been manufactured.

FITTINGS – Progress on steam and air fittings has been limited by the diversion of time to the Tornado repair and the difficulty in finding machining capacity in our contractors. Fortunately, Alan Parkin, whilst taken on part time for electrical design, has proved to be a good mechanical designer so has been producing 3D models of several fittings to help us catch up which will enable detailed pipe work layouts to be designed.

Following a trawl through the project plan, we have identified three person-years of machining work so have taken the decision to advertise for a machinist and to acquire some better machinery with digital readouts and power feeds on all axes so that we can carry out this machining in-house.

ELECTRICAL – The new trial turbine wheel for the turbo-generators has been completed and at the present time an arbor and attachment cone are being made to enable it to be dynamically balanced. Alan Parkin is continuing to oversee manufacture of the structural components of the new design of belt driven alternator for the locomotives and support coaches.

Rob Morland is continuing to develop the electrical design and specification of equipment. A start-up meeting has been held between Alan Parkin, Rob Morland, Paul Depledge (the electrician who installed most of the electrical system on Tornado) and David Elliott to discuss design and routing of the conduits and trunking for the wiring. Following experience with Tornado it is intended to use stainless steel for this equipment to minimise corrosion.