General - various events have conspired to affect progress on the P2, mainly associated with the protracted overhaul of and fitment of ETCS equipment to Tornado and the move to our new workshop.

Frames - The problem with the Philidas self-locking nuts used all over the frames showing defects in their locking devices has been resolved with replacements supplied for the defective specimens. Some of the easier to get at nuts have been replaced, however with the impending move to our new premises, it has been decided not to change the others until the frames are in their new home.

Cylinder block - The cylinder block is essentially finished and is presently being prepared for hydraulic testing. Howco discovered problems of porosity in the cylinder covers when machining them which has necessitated new castings to be made. A small adjustment to the casting process has resulted in castings which are free of porosity – Daniela Filova, through her company Daniela Works Limited, has machined the new castings which are now with Howco for the hydraulic test.

Meanwhile Daniela has completed machining of some sleeves required for certain of the valve chest covers and these are about to be dispatched to Howco.  The original plan had been to have all the exhaust valve covers roughly the same as per the attached illustration for the exhaust valve outer cover. However out of the six similar covers, it proved almost impossible to remove them due to things such as wheels being in the way. To overcome this the design was changed on four of them to remove the cylindrical sleeve and replace it with two loose split halves. Once the outer flange is removed, these can be extracted as two halves in the space available.

Pony Truck - The replacement manganese steel liners for the pony truck cannon box have been welded on by LMS at Loughborough whose welder Adam has a code for welding 11-14% manganese steel to plain carbon steel. The cannon box halves are now back at Darlington and require some further machining to complete the work. After this the liners on the frame can be machined to achieve the required fit of the cannon box in the frame.

Boiler - The P2 boiler has been further delayed pending resolution of some problems with the overhaul of Tornado’s boiler which was carried out at Meiningen. However, we should have it later on this year.

Tender - Details for the tender frame have continued to be manufactured by I D Howitt at Crofton, Wakefield. The axleboxes are now at Darlington and Daniela Works has carried out the CNC machining of the tender spring hooks on behalf of Ian Howitt, as his own CNC lathe is out of commission at the present time. We have held off delivery of the frames pending completion of our move to our new workshops.

Terry Graham and David Elliott ventured to Howco in Irvine to see progress on the cylinder block and to deliver some more items required to blank off all the holes to enable the hydraulic test to be carried out.  By and large the results are satisfactory - almost everything tried on the cylinder block fitted.