Engineering notes

The photos show the continuing work on the front footplating. The left hand side of the loco is beginning to look like the final product with the right hand side some way behind at present.

Work continues on the manganese liners and their backing plates for the horn guides and horn blocks. A small test piece was made to ascertain how easy or difficult the manganese plate would be to machine on the miller. Thankfully the machining went well.

We hope to receive the machined right hand side motion plate in the near future. The pattern for the left hand side one is at The Boro' Foundry for casting.

We have enquiries out for pattern making, casting and machining the cylinders.

Wheel Appeal

We now have a separate account with Barclays for the Wheel Appeal. It is operating in tandem with our existing bank account, and funds not earmarked specifically for the wheels should still be remitted to this. Please see the How to Help page for a downloadable Wheel Appeal standing order application form. Cheques intended for the wheels should be made out to The 82045 SLT - Wheel Appeal.

The Wheel Appeal account now stands at over £6,500: a good start, but we still have some way to go to reach our target of £150,000 for the complete wheeling job. With projected funds in hand for the cylinder assemblies, we are very hopeful that these will be in situ by late 2012, by which time we will have started on the wheeling process. This will be broken down into manageable chunks and the costs itemised over the next few months, so please watch this space! We are anxious not to appear too strident in our requests for cash, especially in these difficult times, but please do consider whether you feel able to help us achieve this next big step in the construction of 82045 within the envisaged time scale of the next two years. Please get in touch with Chris if you would like to have a chat about this.

Once the wheels are on the home straight and we have funding in hand for the motion, we will then start the last really big push - for the boiler and firebox. All of us - and the Severn Valley Railway - want to see 82045 running as soon as possible. At the present rate of progress with the engine, it is entirely reasonable to believe that we can achieve this in five years, but we must not, for one minute, relax our efforts!

New Book

Back in April, "Heritage Railway" Editor Robin Jones rang Chris to ask him to provide a chapter about 82045 for a book he was writing about new build steam locomotives. A member has notified Barbara that the book has now appeared and is entitled "Steam's New Dawn", ISBN 978-0857041258. We haven't had a look at it yet - the member told Barbara that it contains a chapter about our engine - but the cover is encouraging! While the main photograph is of "Tornado", the K.L.Cook image of 82030 at Swindon is prominently displayed top left.

Easy Fundraising

It can't have escaped your attention that Christmas is fast approaching and with all that extra shopping it is an excellent time to help 82045. When you shop online – do it via Easy Fundraising – and let the participating retailers give our loco a Christmas present. It won't cost you a penny extra and your feet will feel the benefit too!

Facebook

Matt Bull who is a very good supporter has fixed us up on Facebook.