Sir Nigel Gresley overhaul – update 6

In The Works, the overhaul of Nigel Gresley continues. Locomotive Engineer Darrin Crone provides us with an insight of the previous couple of weeks’ work.

This is the sixth update –you can catch up on the previous posts here.

Week commencing 9 August


The crank axle wheelset lifted out of the wheeldrop pit and moving across the workshop toward the truck.


The frame stripping marathon end seems to be in sight. The frames are now stripped to the cylinder block, with some work left around the dragbox area. Not only has there been paint to remove but some areas of corrosion, so the needle gun and wire brushes have had continuous use.

Again this week everybody has had a go and the Engineering Team volunteers should be thanked for their perseverance. Inside the frames below and in front of the cylinders still need to be stripped but cleaning in this area is well under way.

Again on the frames the middle steam chest has now been thoroughly cleaned. All have now been treated so they can now all be inspected. However we will have to return to the accessible parts of the steam passages in the future to remove as much carbon as possible.

The wheelsets were transported to our re-tyring contractor this week. Priming the bogie wheelsets was completed on Monday in preparation. On Tuesday, the day before the wheelsets were due to be loaded, we had to get the crank axle wheelset in position ready to be lifted.

This wheelset has been in front of the loco but preventing it from going under the overhead crane was the GUV. So we pinched the GUV forward as far as we could. Unfortunately we still couldn’t get the wheelset far enough forward to get a lift off the crane, but the wheels were on the wheeldrop, so we lowered the wheels in to the pit. In the pit the wheels could then be moved to get a straight lift off the crane.

Next day the haulier arrived and left his trailer in the west car park and brought his rigid chassis truck round to the workshop. The rigid allowed the truck to be reversed under the workshop crane. The first wheelset, the cranked, was lifted from the wheeldrop pit and put on the lorry. The haulier had gone to a lot of trouble in preparing an impressive jig to safely support and secure the wheelsets.


The first bogie wheelset was loaded using the truck’s crane after the workshop crane failed.


After this first wheelset was loaded the crane button was pressed to traverse the crane back into the workshop but it refused to go. It was realised that the power supply cable had snagged and had pulled from the crane.

Charlie Bird of the NRM immediately swung in to action to repair it while the Engineering Team manhandled a bogie wheelset out of the workshop and in to the yard where the truck’s hi-ab crane was used to load it. Both loaded wheelsets were then taken to the trailer in the west car park and loaded on to the trailer.


All wheelsets loaded, trailer hitched and ready to go.


By the time we had trans-shipped the wheels and returned to the workshop Charlie had fixed the crane and loading the remaining wheelsets was straight forward. Finally the full consist was assembled in the west car park and the wheels disappeared down Leeman Road. They were unloaded at Buckfastliegh the following morning.

It was a magnificent effort from the Engineering Team volunteers as there was a lot to do to load and help secure the wheels on the truck. The co-operation from the National Railway Museum was outstanding. In the workshop Charlie was fantastic, not only fixing the crane but co-ordinating with other NRM departments to get us access and space in the west car park and organising the use of the workshop crane through the workshop viewing gallery when the NRM was open to the public.

Week commencing 2 August


Our first working Monday of a 6 day working week went well. The Engineering Team made good progress with our main job of the moment, the stripping of the frames to bare metal for thorough examination. Needle gunning of the frames has continued non-stop this week and we have now progressed as far forward as the centre coupled wheels.


The outside steam chests have been de-carboned and cleaned. Bob Shearman cleans the right hand.


Also this week the de-carboning and cleaning of the pistons has been completed and the 2:1 lever has been stripped of paint and cleaned. The packing of the crank pins of the coupled wheels has now been completed. On the subject of the wheels the haulier for the move to our re-tyring contractor was sorted this week and the wheelsets are to be moved next week.

De-carboning the steam chests has been started. Our CME has briefly inspected the steam chest and said he was very pleased with the results. Our CME was on site to measure the middle slidebars before removal.


The middle and left hand crossheads. The middle has just been removed.


The invitations to quote for the boiler were sent out at the end of last week. We have had a couple of works saying they are not available to do the work due to their own workloads but we have had other promising responses.

The outside ones have been measured and were removed last week. While on site the driving wheelset crank pins and journals were inspected and measured. This wheelset can now be prepared for transporting to our re-tyring contractors.


Taking his turn with the needle gun is Malcolm Hutton. He is sat on the frame stretcher that also provides support to the boiler. A view looking forward.


Back on the frames the 2 sand boxes that feed the centre/driving coupled wheels were removed this week, with their associated filling pipes. With the availability of the overhead crane they were easily removed and left at the front of the loco for cleaning. The inside of the frames where the boxes were appears to be in very good condition though interestingly while being cleaned it looks like there are traces of red paint. So what should be the correct colour between the frames, white or red?

Also this week the middle crosshead and slidebars were removed. They were measured last Saturday and this allowed us to remove them this week. With needle gunning and the removal of the sandboxes going on between the frames the job of removing the slidebars was set up on Tuesday but had to wait until Thursday before we could complete the removal.




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