Current and Proposed New-Builds

There is the project to recreate a LNWR George V 4-4-0, which appears to be proceeding but very slowly.
There was also a project to recreate a D16 Claud Hamilton 4-4-0, but that looks as if it may have died (web-site disappeared, facebook page last update 2019).

 

Some personal observations on New Builds. It's reassuring to see so many of the current projects heading successfully to completion.
We may have seen the peak in New Build projects for the foreseeable future for several reasons.
1. The industrial decline of the Nation has resulted in a large decline in our manufacturing base, with several major suppliers to New Build projects no longer in business.
2. Our unfortunate industrial decline also means that the number of skilled people has also declined dramatically, resulting in a declining number of volunteer workers available to New Build projects.
3. The number of us who remember the days of steam is unfortunately declining daily. The result of this is that financial support has increasingly to be found from new sources.
4. The current political climate against the use of 'fossil fuels' simply makes steam New Builds even more challenging and difficult.
5. Correct material specifications are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.
Everything changes, but in the short term efficient New Builds must be the way to go. Lets all hope that the climate eventually changes so that future generations can enjoy the sight, sound and smell of another generation of New Builds.

 

NCC mogul

 

I would adjust your last sentence slightly: Neither approach is right or wrong. Tornado is a new member of the A1 class for good and sufficient reason. Beachy Head is a recreation, also for good and sufficient reason.

 

Do we know how that is going by the way?

 

Very well.
Frames erected, cylinders cast, wheels refurbished, motion brackets cast machined and fitted, most motion parts refurbished or manufactured, lots of smaller parts made/cast, boiler well advanced, GNRI tender being considered for rebuilding to NCC design. still a lot to do, but well on the way.

 

The US lot building a Pennsylvania Duplex are motoring on - their website says they are 43% complete. Which is an awful lot of engine

 

43% in weight (which is what they claim) is not necessarily the same as 43% by cost, time or complexity of course!

Tom

 

Could I ask?

The original Ivatt GNR Atlantics had balanced slide valves with a very direct exhaust: essentially straight through the middle of the slide valve from the steam passages to a carefully curved pipe through 90 degrees up to the bottom of the blast pipe.
Did the first batch of the Atlantics for the LBSCR have them too?
The second batch , H2 with superheaters did not apparently have them. (The drawing is in the NRM library & they seem to have been a good design, doing no harm to the performance of the two Marsh 4-6-2 tank locomotives which had them as well as the superheated Atlantics.)

Balanced slide valves were fitted in quite number of the larger American locomotives in the USA I suppose from about 1890 to when superheating swept in but were barely known here. So I wonder wether Kitsons had reservations about making them or if they were never neve asked for when they tendered.

 

There's also the boiler (though I think it's a shell at present), driving wheels and parts of the frames. Lots of big, heavy components, but it's all the little ones that cost time and money to produce.

 

Further progress on the cladding:

 

Good to see the progress on 1014.

 

More Beachy Head action - doing the shunting to assemble a heavier test train. Not my video.



@TheModster has some video (on the Bluebell thread) of the assembled train out on the line.

Tom

 

Event details and tickets for Beachy Head's launch event:

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/beachy-head-2024/

Timetables:

23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 August, 1 September
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp...ebell-Railway-Beachy-Head-Timetables-2024.pdf

24-25-26 August ("Brighton Works Weekend")
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Bluebell-Railway-Timetables-2024-3.pdf

Tom

 

So 14 significant projects with three recent completions - Saint, Atlantic and Grange.

 

Is the V4 still going ahead? I thought it had been shelved (along with the V3 and K3)

 

Well, they own a set of driving wheels for it along with other parts that came from someone else's attempt to re-create a V4. That's probably slightly more than the Doncaster P2 team have (the other, seemingly forgotten New Build project).

 

Are either "in build"? Clearly they have cut new metal for both, but is it doing other than gathering dust?

 

They only have the tyres - not the wheel centres.