Engineering notes

By Tony Massau

"The boiler has left the building!"

Tuesday 17th June was another milestone in the construction of 82045 when the loco emerged from the boilershop carrying its new boiler for the first time and travelled through the station on its way back to the erecting shop for further progress. The boiler is very much a traditionally built boiler with a flanged and riveted firebox, screwed stays and copper inner firebox. The SVR boilersmiths have taken a great deal of care and attention to detail during the build and we are very grateful to them. The smokebox is currently only bolted to the boiler and will need to be secured to the saddle. Some of the flat cladding sheets have been temporarily fitted to the firebox backhead.

As is now well known the loco has a visit to The Greatest Gathering at Derby in the diary and the plan is for 82045 to be exhibited with only the left-hand side tank in place in order that visitors can see the boiler with its lettering proclaiming where it was built on the right hand side. The original plan was for both water tanks to be shot-blasted and then painted to a high quality finish, however, time is now too short for this to happen before the trip to Derby and so the left-hand tank is just being improved for now. Eventually, the boiler will have to be lifted out of the loco chassis again for the official steam test in front of the insurance company's boiler inspector which will entail removal of the water tanks once more.

In the meantime, most of the various controls will have to be temporarily fitted in order that all the pipe runs can be made and labelled so that hopefully when the boiler has passed its steam test and been certified as fit for purpose everything can be quickly re-assembled without too much head scratching and referal to drawings.

Whilst we have the majority of the motion, one or two outstanding items are on order and with the final items a quote is expected in the near future.

Chairman’s Chat – June 2025

Chairman's Chat - June 2025 - our regular insight into the 82045 wider world is now online.