Engineering notes

Construction of the left hand water tank was well advanced at the beginning of June as the accompanying photos show. Work was just starting on preparation of the first pieces of steel plate for the right hand tank at that time.

Both cab doors are now in place.

A significant point in the construction of 82045 was reached recently with the first trial fitting of the centre coupled wheel axleboxes in the horn blocks of the chassis. Attention will shortly turn to the pair of axleboxes for the leading coupled wheels with welding on the manganese liners to be followed by machining. Once all the axleboxes are considered satisfactory regarding the fit in the horns on the chassis final machining of the bearing surface in relation to the axle and the thrust face surface against the wheel boss has to be undertaken.

Reaming of the cylinder bolt holes has now been completed and once all the fitted bolts are available final fitting of the cylinders can take place. This can then be followed by fitting the rear cylinder covers which will enable measurements to be taken for the manufacture of the slide bars. An order has been placed for casting the crossheads from patterns kindly loaned to us by The Bury Standard Four Group at the East Lancashire Railway for which we are very grateful.

Manufacture of the two drawhooks and screw couplings has been carried out by Stephenson Engineering of Atherton, Manchester and proof load testing of these components is anticipated imminently.

Waterloo Sunset

We are still hoping to run our special train in honour of Paul Anderson on Friday 6th October - Bridgnorth-Kidderminster and return behind Taw Valley, with a relaxed three-hour stopover at Kidderminster (we plan to make this a very pleasant experience for passengers) - but need to sell eighty tickets in order to make the exercise feasible. Sales have been slow, plenty of people saying that they intend to come along but not much in the way of ticket revenue forthcoming. We have therefore set a shut-off date of August 1st, after which we will decide whether or not to proceed with the train.

Please get in touch with Barbara if you wish to travel on the train: cost is £30-00 inclusive of lunch and other entertainments at Kidderminster, and cheques should be made out to The 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust. One of the full-length footplate rides over the sixteen miles-plus of the Severn Valley Railway has been sold, but the return leg is still available at a cost of £250-00. The occasion is also earmarked for the launch of the 82045 Future Fund, which aims to ensure that your loco will never be side-lined for longer than necessary by raising funds for its future upkeep. Please don't let this deter you: "Waterloo Sunset" will emphatically not be a hard-sell exercise but is intended to be a memorial to a dear friend and colleague who worked on the 82XXX tanks out of Waterloo in those far-off days of the 1960's and who loved them and was looking forward more than anything to seeing another one back in the land of the living.