FIRST WHEELS FITTED TO NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TORNADO

Significant new developments at Darlington Locomotive Works The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for 40 years at a cost of over £1.7 million, today announced the fitting of the first wheels to No. 60163 Tornado at Darlington Locomotive Works (DLW). The four 3ft 2in wheels have been fitted to Tornado’s front bogie, leaving the two, rear 3ft 8in ponytruck and six 6ft 8in driving wheels to be fitted over the coming months. The wheels were cast by William Cook plc on very advantageous terms to the Trust. This is the first time that a new set of wheels has been completed for a mainline steam locomotive since British Railways received its last new steam locomotive in 1960.

David Elliott, Head of Engineering, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented: “The fitting of the first wheels to Tornado is a very significant step forward for the Trust and a major step forward for the heritage railway movement. In addition to keeping steam alive in the 21st Century by building new locomotives, we seek to apply the best of both modern and traditional engineering methods, processes and technology – seen at its best in Tornado’s wheel
manufacture.”

Other Engineering Progress:

Inside motion bracket – The inside motion bracket (which supports the slide bars and valve gear for the inside cylinder), cast by Wm Cook Cast Products at Burton has been moved to Ufone Precision Engineers, Dudley, West Midlands for machining.

Coupling Rods and Motion – The rear coupling rods have had the machining completed by Ufone, meanwhile the machining of further rods is underway. The crosshead machining has also started in preparation for welding on the crosshead arms, which drive the drag links that are connected to the combination levers.

Wheelsets – Work continues at DLW to fit the manganese steel liners to the hornblocks to enable the wheelsets to be located in the frames. Serco Railtest have conducted the mandatory ultrasonic inspection of the axles and crank pins to confirm their metallurgical integrity and to provide reference traces against which future scans will be compared.  Machining of the roller bearing axle cannon boxes for the intermediate and trailing driving wheelsets is well advanced at Ufone.

Smokebox components – The chimney, chimney liner, blast pipe and three steam pipes have been delivered to DLW following completion of machining by Ufone Precision Engineers at Dudley, West Midlands. Good progress is being made by Ian Howitt of Crofton, Wakefield on the distinctive superheater header covers, which are fitted to the rear of the smokebox. These deceptively simple looking items would originally have been made by pressing red hot plate between male and female dies. This process is not viable for making two covers, as the tooling costs would be excessive. Instead, a single male former is made and the covers are manually ‘panel beaten’ from 10mm plate using the former to create the right shape.

At Darlington Locomotive Works, the smokebox has now been removed from the locomotive following its trial fit. This is to enable further work to be done including welding the stiffening plates into the bottom of the box, fitting the blast pipe and steam pipe extensions, fitting the chimney and liner assembly and tidying up the remaining platework.

Cab – In anticipation of lifting the engine to fit the wheels, the cab has now been removed. In the mean time a group of A1 Trust supporters from East Anglia led by Alan Lusby, have made the cab floor from Iroko hard wood.

Changes at Darlington Locomotive Works – The development of Darlington Locomotive Works, home of Tornado, continues to accelerate. Recent equipment acquisitions include:

• A new 6mx6m five tonne overhead crane funded by a grant from Darlington Borough Council. In addition to enabling DLW to take delivery of the 6ft8in driving wheelsets without complication, it has been invaluable in both production tasks, such as the drilling of the bogie, and material hand. It has also been used to lift the smokebox and cab off Tornado to enable the frames to be lifted and the wheelsets fitted.
• The long-term loan of a set of Matterson jacks from the Severn Valley Railway (SVR). Initial investigations indicate that the jacks are mechanically sound but require a complete rewire. A representative of Matterson is working with the Locomotive Construction Company Ltd (LCC – the subsidiary of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust that is assembling Tornado) to bring the jacks up to full working order. In addition Matterson’s will produce drawings of jacking brackets – for the LCC to fabricate – to enable a straight “in one go” lift. The existing beams would require two lifts. The jacks will be restored by the LCC, but ownership will remain with the SVR.
• Production has started with the CNC turning centre and the LCC recently acquired a new volunteer, whose company did the CNC retrofit on its machine.
• The LCC workforce now consists of Damian Brown (IT, Engineering and Design), John Shiel (Utilities), Edward Farms (Apprentice), Jennifer Cox (On University work placement, reading Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College) in addition to Bill Brown, works manager.

Bill Brown, Works Manager at Darlington Locomotive Works, added: “Darlington Locomotive Works is now staffed and fully operational. The construction of Tornado occupies a significant proportion of our workforce’s time but we are looking for additional contract work such as tender and coach bogie overhauls. We are currently overhauling, and fitting with roller-bearings and air brakes, the second tender for No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester.”

THE A1 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TRUST APPOINTS NEW CHAIRMAN

David Champion resigns due to family and business reasons.

The trustees of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for 40 years at a cost of over £1.7 million, today announced it had appointed a new chairman following the resignation of David Champion, its chairman for the past eight years and project manager for the previous two years. Mark Allatt, Marketing Director of the Trust for the past six years will replace David Champion who is standing down for business reasons and care for his wife Gill, who is seriously ill.

Commenting on his appointment, Mark Allatt said: “The Trust is greatly saddened by David’s decision to stand down but completely understands his reasons for doing so. David, supported by his wife Gill, has been the powerhouse behind the Trust for the past 10 years and he will be greatly missed by not only those of us on the board but all who have come into contact with him during this pioneering period.  David has left behind a great legacy. Tornado is now over 50% complete and is expected to be on its wheels by the autumn. Our focus for the next few months will be on growing our income and preparing to start construction of the boiler.”

David Champion added: “I couldn’t be passing the Trust over into more capable hands and I’m delighted that Mark has taken up the appointment.”

Mark, aged 34, is a professional marketer. He is Marketing Director of GVA Grimley, international property advisers, a former Head of Marketing for KPMG Consulting, one of the worlds leading management and IT consultancies and a former Head of Corporate Communications for Cap Gemini UK, Europe’s largest IT services company. He has been a covenantor to The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust since its launch and a member of its management team since 1991. He is also a member of the Gresley Society and The A4 Locomotive Society.

ALL SIX 6ft 8in DRIVING WHEELS FOR NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE COMPLETED

Finished wheelsets delivered to Darlington Locomotive Works and trial fitted to axleboxes

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for 40 years at a cost of over £1.7 million, today announced that its 6ft 8in driving wheelsets have been completed and delivered to Darlington Locomotive Works for fitting to Tornado.

The wheelsets, which comprise the six 6ft 8in driving wheels, two plain and one crank axle and the roller bearings have been a major undertaking for the Trust, costing over £89,000, involving nine suppliers and has taken over five years. The wheels were cast by William Cook plc on very advantageous terms to the Trust. This is the first time that a new set of wheels has been completed for a mainline steam locomotive since British Railways received its last new steam locomotive in 1960.

David Elliott, Head of Engineering, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented: “The completion of the driving wheelsets, and hence all of the wheelsets for Tornado, is a very significant step forward for the Trust and a major step forward for the heritage railway movement. In addition to keeping steam alive in the 21st Century by building new locomotives, we seek to apply the best of both modern and traditional engineering methods, processes and
technology – seen at its best in Tornado’s wheel manufacture.”

The Trust has already made a successful trial fit of one of the leading coupled (crank) axle’s axle boxes. This clears the way for permanent fitting of the axleboxes with the assistance of the Timken Service Engineer to ensure that the correct adjustment is made to the bearings to achieve the necessary running clearance.

Work continues to prepare all the wheelsets for ultrasonic testing of the axles (this is undertaken at this stage to provide traces of the axles in the new state to as a reference for future routine ultrasonic inspections). Under a new Railtrack rule, we also have to have the surface of the middle portion of each axle subjected to magnetic particle crack detection. Again this should be a formality for new axles. Both of these testing procedures will be carried out by Serco Railtest of Derby.  This will pave the way for final fitting of the axle and cannon boxes. The bogie cannon boxes should arrive in Darlington in early July with the coupled wheel cannon boxes in early August.

Other news:

• Hardy Non Ferrous Metals Ltd of Middlesborough have cast all the coupling and connecting rod bushes from Leaded Gunmetal and Phosphor Bronze as appropriate to the application. The bushes are all at Darlington for machining prior to white metalling where appropriate.
• Machining of the coupling and connecting rods, pistons and crossheads continues at UfonePrecision Engineers in the West Midlands. Likewise the chimney and chimney cowl.
• At DLW the bogie frame is being assembled using fitted bolts made in the Locomotive Works. When this is finished, the manganese steel liners supplied by Firth Rixon Liner Products at Sheffield will be welded onto the frames. Similar liners will also be fitted to the driving axle hornblocks.
• The new crane at Darlington Locomotive Works will be put to good use in lifting the smokebox and cab off to enable the frames to be lifted to fit the wheelsets.

MAJOR STEP FORWARD FOR NEW 21ST CENTURY STEAM LOCOMOTIVE  

Major Motion Components Forged

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for 40 years at a cost of over £1.7 million, today announced that the first major motion – the equivalent of a car’s gearbox – components have been forged for its half completed locomotive.

These massive steel forgings include the three connecting rods, which will transfer the power from Tornado’s three cylinders to its six 6ft 8in driving wheels. These forgings were formed from one foot square,  cast steel billets weighing a total of 5 tons and were forged into shape using a 1 ton air hammer whilst at between 860 and 1200 °C by John Hesketh & Son at Bury. The forgings are being forwarded in batches to be machined by Ufone Precision Engineers at Rowley Regis to be delivered to the Trust’s Darlington Locomotive Works (DLW) to be fitted to No. 60163 Tornado by July 2000. The total cost of the three sets of motion (including valve gear) will be around £130,000.

Mark Allatt, Marketing Director, commented: “The completion of our first major motion components is a major step forward for the Trust. In addition to keeping steam alive in the 21st Century by building new locomotives, we seek to
apply the best of both modern and traditional engineering methods, processes and technology – seen at its best in Tornado’s motion manufacture.”

NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE APPRENTICES FOR 21ST CENTURY  

First outside contract for Darlington Locomotive Works

New steam locomotive apprentices are being hired to build new steam locomotives forthe first time in over 40 years. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years at a cost of over £1.6 million, today announced that its engineering subsidiary, the
Locomotive Construction Company Limited (LCC), would be taking on its first apprentice, Edward Farms, and its first undergraduate trainee, Jennifer Cox (before going to university to read mechanical engineering), in June 2000.

Bill Brown, Works Manager, commented: “In addition to keeping steam alive in the 21st Century by building new locomotives, we are now training the steam locomotive engineers of the future. At the LCC we seek to apply the best of both modern and traditional engineering methods, processes and technology, enabling the new construction and overhaul work done at Darlington Locomotive Works to be of a higher standard than when steam was in its heyday.”

In addition to the apprentice programme, Darlington Locomotive Works recently hired Damian Brown to assist the works manager. Damian has been involved with railway engineering since he was six, working on BR Standard 2MT No. 78018 at Darlington. Now 24, he has worked on many locomotives, including Merchant Navy Class No. 35005 Canadian Pacific, A4 Class No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, Peppercorn Class A2 No. 60532 Blue Peter and K1 Class No. 62005 on the Fort William- Mallaig steam.

First Outside Contract – The LCC has recently received its first outside contract, to convert an old Gresley Class
V2 tender chassis into a chassis for the second water-only tender for BR Standard 8P No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester. As the new tender will be fitted with air brakes and roller bearings, the work involves replacing the old vacuum brakes with a new air brake system and the plain bearing wheels with roller bearing wheels, with some of the parts being made at Darlington Locomotive Works. The V2 chassis has already been stripped of all parts and is ready for shot blasting before the total overhaul can begin. Once this contract is completed, the LCC may also be involved in the construction of the new tender tank.

Darlington Works Development – The Machine Shop has been wired in under the expert supervision of covenantor Keith Bottomley from Holmfirth. The newly commissioned CNC turning centre will soon be producing boiler stays for locomotives from across the UK as well as components for the new Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60163 Tornado. Ian Cox of Darlington College has surveyed the site of Darlington Locomotive Works and is producing an architectural model of the whole works site as part of a college project with his students.

FIRST MOTION COMPONENTS FOR  NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DELIVERED

250 attend Convention to see Tornado’s ‘face’ for the first time

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years at a cost of over £1.6 million, today announced that the first complete motion – the equivalent of a car’s gearbox – components have been delivered to it’s Darlington Locomotive Works (DLW). The three slidebars, one for each of its three sets of motion, were forged by John Hesketh & Son at Bury and machined by Ufone Precision Engineers at Rowley Regis and will be fitted to No. 60163 Tornado by March 2000. The slidebars were paid for under the Trust’s ‘dedicated covenant scheme’ at a total cost of £5,000. The total cost of the three sets of motion for Tornado will be around £130,000.

At the Trust’s recent Annual Convention for its covenantors, over 250 donors gathered to witness the unveiling for the first time of many significant components of No. 60163 Tornado including a wheelset from the 6ft8in driving and 3ft8in cartazzi (rear) wheelsets. The highlight of the day was the unveiling of the mounted smokebox and smoke deflectors, complete with chimney – giving Tornado her ‘face’ for the first time.

Mark Allatt, marketing director of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented: “The delivery of the first motion components for Tornado is a major step forward for the Trust in its project to build a new Peppercorn class A1 steam locomotive.

“Drawings are currently being prepared for the boiler, modifying the original design to reflect modern health & safety and construction techniques. The banner hung on Tornado for our Annual Convention states ‘£250,000 needed to fill this gap’ – representing the money needed to complete the boiler. With work now being carried out on the wheelsets, motion, boiler and tenders it is only the rate at which funds can be raised is determining the date on which Tornado will be steamed.”

ANNUAL EXPENDITURE ON BUILDING NEW PEPPERCORN CLASS A1 REACHES £¼ MILLION

Enough to restore more than one Barry wreck per year!

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years, today announced that its annual expenditure on the construction of No. 60163 Tornado has reached £¼ million for the first time. This is enough to completely restore from scrapyard to mainline condition a similar sized locomotive each year.

David Champion, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, said: “Over the past 30 years the railway preservation movement has achieved many ‘impossible’ dreams – No. 60163 Tornado is simply the next major step forward. However, most railway enthusiasts still do not recognise the step change that differentiates new steam locomotive construction from even the most thorough and complex restorations and overhauls, such as the
re-building of No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester. Tornado will be on its wheels in time for its Annual Convention in October. This will be the first time that a new mainline steam locomotive has been wheeled since the completion of British Railways last steam locomotive in 1960.”

 

The steel tyres have already been fitted to the two 3ft 8in Cartazzi (trailing) wheels by the Trust’s contractor, Ian Riley of Riley & Son (Electromech) Ltd of Bury and tyre turning is now in progress. This will be followed by the four 3ft 2in front bogie wheels.

Performing a similar operation on Tornado’s six 6ft 8in driving wheels is more complicated due to their size. The demise of steam on British Railways over 30 years ago has left few workshops able to machine such large wheels – modern diesel and electric locomotive’s wheels are much smaller. Tornado’s six 6ft 8in driving wheels will therefore have to be moved from Bury to the Severn Valley Railway’s workshops at Bridgnorth for turning, returning to Bury for the tyres to be fitted, before again visiting the SVR for the newly fitted tyres to be turned.

David Elliott, technical director of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, added: “The building of Tornado has meant the rediscovery of many old skills and new applications for the latest technologies. However, the wheeling of Tornado has proved to be the Trust’s most complicated logistics exercise to-date involving specialist suppliers from across the UK and one in Belgium. 40 years ago all of these processes could have been carried out under one roof at the then
Darlington Works where 23/26 of the original A1s were built.”

Before the wheels are fitted to Tornado, each of the locomotive’s six wheelsets have to be equipped with roller bearings. This involves the fitting of 42 different spacer, abutment and adjustment rings, cannon boxes machined by Ufone and 64 manganese steel liners from Aurora Metals of Sheffield.

Annual Convention – The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s 6th Annual Convention will take place at the Dolphin Centre, Darlington on Saturday 9 October 1999. The centrepiece of the day will be the unveiling of the wheeled locomotive chassis at Darlington Locomotive Works for the first time. This will be preceded by a progress update by the Trust’s board of directors.

Tornado on TV – The project to build Tornado was featured on BBC2’s One Foot in the Past programme on the
future of steam due to be shown on the evening of Saturday 29th May 1999. The programme showed Tornado under construction at Darlington Locomotive Works and featured a number of the Trust’s volunteers. This programme has resulted in a significant number of enquiries to the Trust.

Engineering Update – As well as work on the wheelsets, considerable progress continues to be made on other aspects of the locomotive’s construction:

• Motion: the first batch of motion components – the upper slide bars and the right hand reversing arm – have been sent to Ufone for machining. They are due for delivery to Darlington in August and are still available as Dedicated Covenants (see below). The patterns have been ordered for the piston crossheads, three spindle crosshead guides and the cylinder covers.
• Bogie: the bogies bottom centre, end stretchers and crosshead castings have also been dispatched to Ufone for machining. They are also due in Darlington in August.
• Boiler: the most complicated pattern needed for the construction of Tornado has been ordered from Kingsheath Patterns of Kingswinford. The pattern for the superheater header will cost around £9,000. The blast pipe and chimney patterns are with Charles W Taylor for casting with the remaining steam pipe patterns to be delivered to them in July.

Dedicated Covenants – The Trust’s Dedicated Covenant scheme continues to be highly successful, with existing
Covenantors having already funded most of the items so far made available. The latest batch of motion components are:

• Upper slide bars: an additional covenant of £8.33 per month, or a donation of £500, is needed for each of three of these vital motion components.
• Union links: an additional covenant of £5 per month, or a donation of £300, is needed to fund each of three of these motion parts.
• Outside eccentric rod: an additional covenant of £10 per month, or a donation of £600 is needed for the purchase each of two of these very visible parts of the locomotive.
• Right hand reversing arm:  an additional covenant of £5 per month, or a donation of £300 is needed to complete this part.

NEW STEAM LOCO ON WHEELS BY AUTUMN

Smokebox nearing completion in Darlington Locomotive Works. Two tenders and 90mph running for Tornado.

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years, today announced that No. 60163 Tornado will be on its wheels by the Autumn. This will be the first time that a new mainline steam locomotive has been wheeled since the completion of British Railways last steam locomotive in 1960. This part of the £1.6 million project will have cost around £150,000.

The trial fitting of the wheels to Tornado will be the culmination of the most complicated logistics exercise yet undertaken by the Trust. The fitting of the 12 wheels to their axles will be completed during September. The steel tyres have already been fitted to the two 3ft 8in Cartazzi (trailing) wheels by the Trust’s contractor, Ian Riley of Riley & Son (Electromech) Ltd of Bury and the tyres have been turned to their final profile. This will be followed by the four 3ft 2in front bogie wheels.

Performing a similar operation on Tornado’s six 6ft 8in driving wheels is more complicated due to their size. The demise of steam on British Railways over 30 years ago has left few workshops able to machine such large wheels – modern diesel and electric locomotive’s wheels are much smaller. Tornado’s six 6ft 8in driving wheels will therefore have to be moved from Bury to the Severn Valley Railway’s workshops at Bridgnorth for turning, going back to Bury for the tyres to be fitted, before again visiting the SVR for the newly fitted tyres to be turned.

David Elliott, technical director of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, added: “The building of Tornado has meant the rediscovery of many old skills and new applications for the latest technologies. However, the wheeling of Tornado has proved to be the Trust’s most complicated logistics exercise to-date involving specialist suppliers from across the UK and one in Belgium. 40 years ago all of these processes could have been carried out under one roof at the then
Darlington Works where 23 of the original A1s were built.”

Before the wheels are test fitted to Tornado, five of the locomotive’s six wheelsets will have had their roller bearings fitted. The 46 different spacer, abutment, sealing and adjustment rings for the 12 Timken taper roller bearings have to be manufactured and located on the driving and bogie axles before the wheels are pressed on. The leading driving wheelset has a total of four roller bearings in two individual axle boxes. This is necessitated by the crank for the middle of the three cylinders. The remaining two driving and bogie wheelsets have two roller bearings each which are each housed in a cannon box of a tubular construction that encases the axle across the width of the frames.

The cannon and axle boxes which were cast in steel by Wm Cook Cast Products at Burton on Trent and have been machined by Ufone Precision Engineers at Rowley Regis, West Midlands. This work has also involved welding a total of 96 pieces of highly wear resistant manganese steel to the guides in the cannon boxes which slide up and down in the horn blocks. The manganese steel liners were supplied by Aurora Metals of Sheffield. The trailing truck (cartazzi)
wheelset has outside roller bearings enabling the bearings and axle boxes to be fitted after the wheels have been pressed on to the axle.

Second Tender and 90mph running– The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has decided that No.60163 Tornado will have a second new LNER eight wheel tender to carry additional water capacity, enabling the completed locomotive
to run for over 250 miles non-stop when required.

The second tender, which will be constructed at the same time as the standard tender, will have a water capacity of around 9,250 gallons. The standard tender, which will have a coal space into which the oil tank will be fitted when Tornado is running in oil-fired mode, has been redesigned without a water scoop and higher back space to increase water capacity to around 6,250 gallons.

Both tender tanks will be constructed in stainless steel and contracts are due to be let in the next couple of weeks.

The Trust has also decided to seek 90mph approval for Tornado when completed, up from the maximum of 75mph for existing, old steam locomotives on Railtrack.

David Champion, chairman, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, added: “The additional tender and the decision to go for 90mph approval are both part of our policy of equipping Tornado for tomorrow’s railway. With a second tender and over 15,000 gallons of water, Tornado will be able to run from King’s Cross to Darlington non-stop. This, combined with a 90mph approval, will be a better fit with the other traffic on today’s mainlines.”

Further Engineering Update – As well as work on the wheelsets, considerable progress continues to be made on other aspects of the locomotive’s construction:

• Motion: the first batch of motion components – the slide bars and several parts for the reversing mechanism – have been forged by Heskeths at Bury and sent to Ufone for machining. They are due for delivery to Darlington in September and a few are still available as Dedicated Covenants. The patterns have been ordered for the piston crossheads, valve spindle crosshead guides and the cylinder covers.
• Bogie: the bogie bottom centre, end stretchers and crosshead castings have also been dispatched to Ufone for machining. They are also due in Darlington in August.
• Boiler: the most complex pattern needed for the construction of Tornado has been ordered from Kings Heath Patterns of Birmingham, who produced the patterns for Tornado’s three cylinders. The pattern for the superheater header will cost around £9,000 and it will be cast in SG Iron.
• Smokebox: the shell of the smokebox is now approaching completion, with the smokebox door, door fittings and  ring (built by Ian Howitt at Crofton near Wakefield) have been assembled in Darlington Locomotive Works in readiness for fitting to Tornado. The chimney, chimney liner and blastpipe have been cast by Charles W Taylor at North Eastern Foundry, South Shields through a very generous sponsorship arrangement.

Annual Convention – The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s 6th Annual Convention will take place at the Dolphin Centre, Darlington on Saturday 23rd October 1999. The day will commence with a progress update by the Trust’s board of directors, followed by a visit by several hundred covenantors to Darlington Locomotive Works to inspect progress on Tornado during the past year.

Tornado on TV – The project to build Tornado was featured on BBC2’s One Foot in the Past programme on the
future of steam broadcast on the evening of Saturday 29th May 1999. The programme showed Tornado under construction at Darlington Locomotive Works and featured a number of the Trust’s management team. This programme has resulted in a significant number of enquiries to the Trust.

FIRST WHEELS ON AXLES OF NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

Rape seed oil from Tesco’s put to a novel use

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years, is making novel use of rape seed oil from Tesco’s. The oil, more usually found in the average kitchen, is being used by the Trust’s contractor, Ian Riley of Riley & Son (Electromech) Ltd of Bury to enable Tornado’s six 6ft 8in driving wheels, four 3ft 2in front bogie wheels and two 3ft 8in Cartazzi (trailing) wheels to be pressed onto their axles.

Today, railway wheels are fitted the their axles by heating the wheels so that they expand and then shrink-fitting them to their axles. Due to the roller bearings having to be fitted to Tornado’s axles before the wheels, the Trust has reverted to the traditional method of pressing on the wheels to avoid the hot wheel damaging the bearing. Tests conducted on behalf of the Trust have shown that an initial interference of 0.00025 per inch of diameter, a taper on the axle of 1 in 500 and lubrication courtesy of rape seed oil from Tesco’s should see the required 10 to 12 tons per
inch diameter of pressing force.

David Elliott, technical director of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, added, “The building of Tornado has meant the rediscovery of old skills and new applications for the latest technology but this is the first time since the project was launched in 1990 that the contents of the average kitchen have been used in the construction of Tornado. When it comes to the force needed to press these large wheels onto their axles, I suppose ‘every little helps’.”

The Cartazzi wheels have already been fitted to their axle, with the bogie wheels due to be completed by early May and the driving wheels by the end of June.

Dedicated Covenants

The Trust’s Dedicated Covenant scheme continues to be highly successful, with existing Covenantors having already funded most of the items so far made available. The latest batch of motion components are:

• Upper slide bars: an additional covenant of £8.33 per month, or a donation of £500, is needed for each of three of these vital motion components.
• Union links: an additional covenant of £5 per month, or a donation of £300, is needed to fund each of three of these motion parts.
• Outside eccentric rod: an additional covenant of £10 per month, or a donation of £600 is needed for the purchase each of two of these very visible parts of the locomotive.
• Right hand reversing arm:  an additional covenant of £5 per month, or a donation of £300 is needed to complete this part.

New Prospectus Published

The Trust has just published the latest edition (version 12) of it’s Prospectus which provides detailed information on The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and its project to build the new Peppercorn class A1 60163 Tornado. This fully illustrated document, produced for potential individual covenantors and industrial sponsors, is now available from the A1 Trust’s hotline on 01325 4 60163.

Tornado on TV

The project to build Tornado will feature on BBC2’s One Foot in the Past programme on the future of steam due to be shown on the evening of Saturday 22rd May 1999. The programme will show Tornado under construction at Darlington Locomotive Works and features a number of the Trust’s volunteers.

A1 TRUST ORDERS FIRST MOTION COMPONENTS FOR NEW STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity that is building the first new mainline steam locomotive in Britain for almost 40 years, today announced that it had placed orders for the first motion components for Tornado with John Hesketh & Son Ltd of Bury. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust is raising £1.6m to build a new Peppercorn class A1 No. 60163 Tornado at its Darlington Locomotive Works through Deeds of Covenant for ‘the price of a pint of beer a week’.

This first tranche of forgings include the slide bars and several parts of the reversing gear for the locomotive’s three sets of Walschaerts motion. These components will be delivered in June and will then require extensive machining before they can be assembled and fitted to the locomotive.

David Champion, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented, “The order of the first parts of the motion means that work is now being done on every major section of Tornado remaining to be completed. Over the coming months orders will be placed for all of the remaining motion components, many of which are still available as dedicated covenants for supporters to fund.”

Since each batch of motion parts will require a tensile test to be conducted on a sample cut from one of the forgings, the Trust intends to order all the components from a particular material at the same time.

Sponsorship

Nickerson Fuel Oils (a division of Total Oil) has generously offered to supply lubricants to the Trust, starting with a quantity of machine oil for use in the machine tools at Darlington Locomotive Works. The next delivery will be several drums of grease to pack the roller bearing axle boxes for the locomotive. Additionally, specialist technical support for lubricants suitable for steam locomotive operation has been offered.

Construction Update

Work to enable Tornado to be wheeled continues. It is the first time that this very specialist and expensive job has been done on a brand new mainline steam locomotive since the completion of British Railway’s last steam locomotive in 1960.