34039 Boscastle WC class

There is good news that the six main forgings for the inner valve gear components (To replace those stolen in 2022) have now been completed, with the relevant certification. They are due for a final inspection before despatch to Daniela Works.

 

As a more general question, there are quite a few people who have posted on this thread who presumably like Boscastle in particular. It would be interesting to know why they have that particular liking....to start things off...
In my case I had a vague general interest in railways but got into "00" scale modelling. I concentrated on Southern, as most at that time was GWR and I fancied being different. I shed bashed to get details for my layout. I supported the MLPG from its start and so when Boscastle arrived at Quorn in 1973 I was particularly interested....and became a (tiny!) part owner when the "Syndicate" started in 1986(?). I have become more involved ever since!

 

(Pic courtesy Daniela works)
Here is one of the valve gear forgings, the others were being heat treated. It is believed that all six forgings are now at Daniela Works.

 

It was great to see the six forgings at Shildon on Monday.
On all six, a corner had been cut off so that a steel sample has been tested and a report prepared on the properties of each forging.

In the machine shop a large CNC milling machine was cutting to shape a similar Radius Rod. This is a long process as the forgings are considerably larger than the finished part. It is usual to take smaller cuts and keeps rotating the component, cutting from alternate sides to even out the stresses. When close to the finished dimension, the parts are heat treated to normalise, then finish cut and nitrided to surface harden and then finish ground to final size.

I was also able to see the latest purchase - a (SH) CNC milling machine with an even larger bed (2.5m). Both machines will be used to produce our parts and so can still maintain the original timescale for our order.

One of our forgings was being cut to length as I left and all six are due to have an initial machining to get them “square” prior to marking out and a fully dimensioned program created for machining.