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Here is a further update from Richard Pearson following the progress of Tornado's winter overhaul.  All photos by Richard Pearson. In order to ensure we have the funds available for No. 60163 Tornado’s overhauls we need to raise in excess of £250,000 each year. Our Covenantor scheme – an A1 for the price of a pint of beer a week – raised the funds to build Tornado and now provides the essential support to keep our locomotive in tip-top condition. If you are not already a Covenantor, we would be delighted to welcome you on-board, from as little as £2.50 each week, to ensure we keep Tornado on the main line where she belongs. Our Covenantor forms can be found here including a registration form (including a Gift Aid declaration) and a standing order form which can be completed and returned to Darlington Locomotive Works.

The service of the exhaust injector continued at DLW.  The water valve, water control valve piston, and the overflow clack received attention, as well as the cones from within the main injector.  The combining cone has a sacrificial tip, which is renewable - the old tip showed slight signs of wear, so this has been replaced, the first picture shows the old and new tip.  The second picture shows the new tip in position inside the combining cone.

The exhaust steam cone was removed for cleaning (this is the cone that moves when you adjust the water feed handle in the cab). During the cleaning process, the ‘O’ rings both split showing signs of age as they had become brittle.  New ‘O’ rings were ordered to finally finish the work on the injector. Both of the outside pistons had new piston rings fitted last week, then it was the turn of the inside piston.  This job however presented far more challenges as we first struggled to remove the inside gudgeon pin, and then the cross-head cotter.  We did eventually achieve our goal and here we see Ian Greenan and Alex Jude refitting the cylinder cover.

Since the new year we have been blessed with the presence of Terry Newman.  Terry has been conducting an inspection of the engine’s lubrication systems, cleaning oil pots, and making and fitting new trimmings as required.  Here we see Terry working on the LH little end oil pot and new volunteer Adrian Wood can also be seen cleaning the centre cylinder cover.  Terry was one of our first Responsible Officers when Tornado first entered traffic on the main line.

A task which wasn’t planned for and took considerable time was the removal of the old and the replacement of the safety valve studs.  After several days of blood sweat and sometimes tears, we did eventually manage to remove the old studs and fitted the new studs.  The photos show the new studs in position, gaskets and blanks have new been fitted in preparation for the boiler hydraulic test.  The safety valves were both sent to LMS for annual inspection and overhaul.

Another challenge was the removal of the boiler bottom belly door.  This was needed to allow the welding of a new washout door aperture into the belly door.  There are 20 large nuts which hold the belly door onto the bottom of the boiler, and the door is under the engine in a very difficult to reach position.   They were all very tight and all required heating to ‘cherry red’ before then using a large spanner and a large hammer to remove them.  Due to their position it was only physically possible to remove 3 or 4 an hour so removal of the door took a couple of days.  The first picture shows the door in position on the boiler and the second shows the door after removal, the old aperture which will be replaced can be seen in the centre of the door.