SVR Loco Newsy News / discussions

Hello,
813 will be out of action for some time...up 24 months. The bottom of the saddletank has failed and will need professional replacement which will require the tank to be sent to North Wales. The saddle tank is 120 years old! Various action regarding tubes and the boiler will allow an extended boiler certificate. I will update as and when I have further information. thanks

 

How absolutely gutting for you and everyone who’s worked so hard to repair the previous failure. Best of luck with it.

 

The Stanier Mogul straight out of the box on the Grange diagram would be a good result for me. Why everyone has homed in on one engine beats me, the Valley galas are a steam spectacle probably unsurpassed in Europe and the new management seem to have turned things around from the demoralised railway it was when I last visited

 

Presumably those who aren't focussed on 6880 aren't making any noise...

 

At the risk of asking a silly question, is fabricating a new one out of the question? Even if the preferred conservationist-thinking course of action is a complex repair of the original, that would surely get the loco back into traffic quicker to allow some breathing space (and allow it to earn some money) while figuring out what to do with the old one.
I can't help thinking that 24 months is a long time for repairing a tank. I can only assume waiting for the correct materials and/or skills to be available is part of the problem?

 

At an uninformed guess, if its lasted 120 years I suspect it must be iron rather than steel.

Got to feel for the 813 folks, quite a run of bad luck.

 

The correct grade of stainless steel plate deals with the corrosion problems. Zip it up with a MIG welder. Stick on dummy rivets, job done. And, the loco is back earning money. Put the old tank in a museum ( or the scrap skip).

 

How dare you bring some common sense or pratical thinking into this! I thought most people wore rose tinted glasses when it comes to items.

 

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of a quick job with mild steel and no dummy rivets, just to get the loco through a couple of years while the original is repaired. Either would be valid in my book, it depends on the owning group's philosophy. I wouldn't like to say what is right for them. But it is a unique loco and I can see why you'd want to repair the original.

 

Corten steel would be a better option without the disadvantages of stainless.

 

I’ve fibreglassed the inside of a leaking riveted saddletank before to day, something I copied from seeing the Talyllyn do it many years ago. It wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs and it needed the right PPE, etc and a mask with an air supply but it’s lasted 20 years without any further problem. I didn’t do the whole tank, just the lower two thirds.

 

Taw Valley being advertised as running for the final final time prior to overhaul this coming weekend.

 

An iron saddle tank? Very, very unlikely I would think. Far too brittle. How would you shape it?

 

I would have thought your mixing up wrought iron with cast iron. Cast iron is very brittle and impossible to form by bending etc, wrought iron is a different animal all together and was a material widely used for fabrications before steel became the norm.

 

Wrought iron was universal up to the 1860s, before the brittle problems with steel were overcome. It was used for frames, boilers, wheels, rails, tyres, tanks and tenders. Everything, in fact.

 

Wrought iron I assume.

Tom

 

The main website news page still states that, but the SVR Live operations page also has it running on the following Thursday (described as Thursday 5th May but presumably meaning Thursday 2nd May as per the working timetable).
https://www.svrlive.com/operations

 

Narrowboats were being built of riveted iron up to at least 1935 - I'm sat in one now, and she's a very pretty shape too.

 

Wrought iron was much less susceptible to rusting than steel so an ideal material for items in contact with water.

 

I understand that 813's tank is being removed , possibly by now removed. A new saddle tank will be fabricated in North Wales. Costs between £15 to £20K . We hope with the removal of some tubes and inspection, the boiler can be given a new 10 year cert. Fingers crossed back in steam in early 2025.