70013

Santa could at least have left you some coal, Sounds like it will be ready, when its ready, at least it's not been promised on several Railtours, whilst still in bits

 

Now three years on from when it was first estimated to be operational. Any update ? No mention of 70013 at all in the most recent edition of Main Line.

 

I'm led to believe it's currently being worked on in Tyseley.

 

The frame was still at Loughborough a couple of months ago when I visited, boiler at Tyseley as mentioned above.

 

The boiler cladding has been shot blasted and primered in the last week or so, believe Tyseley have just put all of the small tubes into the boiler within the last fortnight and the shed fitters have been doing some work pre-Autumn steam gala on the cylinder chest non-return valves, cylinder main steam pipe studs and a few other smaller items.

Information from the GCR Shed Facebook page who also said back in September that they hope to have the boiler back this year, fit a new ashpan and then drop into the frames.

 

Here is the boiler cladding being worked on in the shed.

 

Know that the NRM arent keen on modifications, but Im sure the Clan chaps would be happy to offer the modified rear cylinder cover/slidebar support pattern if they fancy giving that a go.
Similarly the Lempor drawings...

 

Here is the boiler cladding being worked on in the shed.
View attachment 95226

 

What s used for boiler Lagging these days ? and is there anything to be gained from increasing the thickness of that ?

 

I believe the boiler lagging is fibreglass these days. I suspect there is so much heat lost up the chimney, any extra fibreglass thickness is just extra cost for minimal gain.....plus the appearance would be altered....and eyebrows raised!

 

I think it is mainly trying to keep the boiler temp stable ie when not in steam cooling slowly, there was a time some owners insisted on a chimney cap, and not cleaning the grate and ash pan, not seen it for a while as it can cause other problems.

 

There has been more work done on the various cladding parts and fixing bands, but still no word on the boilers return, other than "soon"...so when it arrives we will know.

 

The boiler's been due back 'soon' or 'any day now' or 'imminently' for about two years now. Hopefully it will indeed be back, errm, 'soon'

 

Just following up on this, and the shed team at Loughborough provide excellent weekly updates on all the work going on via their Facebook page 'GCR Shed Works' - def worth a follow for those on FB. The updates are really interesting - and appreciated.

Re 70013, Friday's update says: "Now the running boards are done the list of stuff to paint ready is much smaller, so the final bits are being done as well as a start on the cylinders and reminding running boards that are attached to the loco being the front end of the loco. The boiler is due back some time in March".

So if the boiler's back in March then I assume they will be cracking on with the final assembly. The only thing is, they didn't specify which year was 'sometime in March'