"Restoring our Past, Enriching our Future"

News Update - 10th December 2024

End of Year Update

 

With Christmas and New Year looming another update is long overdue; those of you who follow us on Facebook will already be well aware that we are making steady progress towards the first

steaming of a J21 in nearly 40 years.

 

With the tender complete, the team at Locomotive Maintenance Services Ltd (LMS) have their attention firmly fixed on reassembly of the engine. For some time the LMS team has been steadily building up a kit of parts so that once the frames are together they have the various components in the workshop ready to go so that the project keeps going; a single component could halt the job for several weeks and we are all very keen that this doesn’t happen!

 

 

The big news to look forward to in 2025 will be the ordering of the new frames. Once the LMS team begins working on them the reassembly of the engine will have officially begun. Why haven’t they been ordered yet? Quite simply, it's because the hornguides needed manufacture and machining, and once complete we will have exact dimensions so that we can cut the frames accordingly to fit snugly.

 

The boiler is also largely ready, following work on a new backhead, tubeplate, inner firebox, outer wrapper and foundation ring. It will be ready to drop into the frames in Winter 2025 for the first time since 2025. What a special moment that will be!

 

Thank you for bearing with us on this long journey; the endless descriptions of refurbishing or manufacturing parts has perhaps not made the most interesting reading but from now you will really see the pace pick up.

 

Meanwhile at Kirkby Stephen East, our 1902 NER Stores Van is looking resplendent under the station roof on the Darlington platform. Very near completion, this unique vehicle has to be one of the most thorough restorations imaginable; come and take a look when next in Cumbria!