76077

Another month has flown by with some more progress. Work has continued at LMS on the cylinder cladding, made some years ago we decided it needed some tweaking for a better fit. The two new sand boxes have had the sand traps fitted up and soon we will be attempting the 6 sand pipes which although made in sections bend there way down to the sand guns in every direction going! The new sand chutes are complete at Toddington and just need the mounting brackets welding on once we’re happy with the placement.
The new tender steps and rear ladder have had some paint and can be put back into store for when needed. We had a very successful Cotswold festival of steam gala at Toddington with new share purchases and sales amounting to more than £5000, our best result to date. We had a display of one of the completed tender wheelsets along with the new regulator and bracket assembly, which was a talking point with our visitors. Not much news from leaky finders except that work continues and recent work has seen the new crown stay nuts fitted to the crown stays not requiring changing. We will be launching a new fund raising initiative soon and I’ll let everyone know when we do!

 

TSLL have just launched two new fund raising initiatives to aid the costly additional repairs to our boiler. We have a raffle running with an online reputable company with a fantastic number of railway themed prizes. Tickets are a steel at just £5 each. Please do look it up and have a go!
Here is the link. https://raffall.com/420833/enter-raffle-to-win-in-the-76077-summer-prize-draw-hosted-by-locomotive76077?fbclid=IwdGRjcAS1jpdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeIChRuFlTB7POlHoyR_sZuA-yLpPhirhGl6UnHvQAt5ODtwyHChBPBjSGdOE_aem_SF5jK_j-_FQkzwVT-b10iw

additionally , we have another great offer of match funding, this time from our finance director. Steve will put up £25000 specifically for the purchase of the new 3/4 steel backhead. Match funding to £50,000 will enable the manufacture and fitting of this item. Work continues apace at both leaky finders and at LMS Loughborough. I’ll post pictures soon on another post.

 

It's only money!

 

Only money! It seems to be disappearing at a very quick rate with some hefty bills coming in from leaky finders. What’s great to see though is the progress they have made. I’ll post some boiler pics soon but in the meantime here are the latest updates from LMS in Loughborough. A lot of pipe fixtures and fittings have been produced. These include unions for where pipes enter the cab spectacle front plate, sand pipe unions and vac system. These include completed LH cylinder cladding has been painted whilst after some redial work, the injector steam valves have been tested to check for leaks. Finally we hope that cylinder and valve boring won’t be too far in the future. Do see my last post about the raffle (great railway themed prizes) and match funding we are running.
we really are cracking on with 77 and we need to continue to maintain the input of funds to see the amazing progress continue.

 

Paraffin overhauls are a thing of the past. Non ferrous material costs in particular are sky high and nobody with the required skills works for the minimum wage. It's still a cheap job compared to having your yacht fixed!

 

A nearly another month gone by, lots going on as normal at Loughborough and Devon. On the chassis side we have fitted the sand boxes and 4 chutes to check alignment, the two valve spindles have had the 4 cast iron heads removed with work soon to start on valves and pistons once the bores have been rebored. The repaired steam brake cylinder has been bolted into place under the new dragbox and the new piston for it is nearly finished. Various pipe unions have been fitted to there holes in the cab whilst the operating handles for the injectors have been made. On the boiler the copper half sides have been cut away and work undertaken on repairs to the copper tube plate. HBSS have been contracted to flange our new copper firebox tube plate and we’re hoping this isn’t to far off being delivered to leaky finders. Once this is in place then the new copper half sides can be fitted. At Toddington we’ve completed the regular operating rod and small brackets and sundries . All photos copyright tsll

 

Mini mid month update! The cylinder boring has begun! With a number of engines requiring cylinder boring LMS have acquired their own kit to carry out operations in house. The cylinders on a std 4 mogul start at 17.5 inches and with only 11 years service, we’re lucky that no liners are required and final bore size is around 17.75”. We can now start looking at our piston heads which are currently fitted to the re ground piston rods. In other good news the the steam brake piston is fitted and brake rigging starting to be assembled. At Toddington the sand chutes have been shot blasted and primed and are looking good. Sand pipes from traps to sand guns soon to be tackled. Finally our boiler fund total has now realised nearly £350,000 which will allow us to continue the rebuild of the firebox for a bit longer!