Dame Vera Lynn oil conversion to go ahead with US engineering partners
A DEAL to convert WD ‘Austerity’ 2-100 No. 3672 Dame Vera Lynn from coal burning to oil firing has been agreed by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway with US-based railroad engineering and mechanical contractor
FMW Solutions.
As reported in issue 311, both the railway’s former CEO, Chris Price, and director of mechanical engineering, Paul Middleton, visited Florida to witness a similar-sized liquid-fuelled locomotive in operation, and FMW has been identified as the professed contractor to convert Dame Vera Lynn.
The project will be the first full-sized steam locomotive oil conversion in the UK since the end of BR steam and is seen as a crucial step forward in ‘future-proofing’ the busiest heritage railway in the country.
Paul said: “This is a great opportunity to develop oil-burning systems on our locomotives. This will help ensure our steam locomotives remain in service for future generations.
“Oil has many benefits, including lowering the risks of lineside fires, reducing staff hours maintaining locomotives, and reducing business risk due to the unavailability of coal.”
FMW president Davidson Ward said: “We are thrilled to work alongside the NYMR engineering department at Grosmont to convert No. 3672 as part of its upcoming overhaul.
“This work will be a transatlantic effort, with key firing components being manufactured both at our workshop in Tennessee and by the NYMR forces at Grosmont. The final installation is anticipated to take place on the NYMR.”
Alongside the announcement, the two organisations recorded a video podcast, ‘Restoration Roundtable’ at www.youtube. com/watch?v=0RzAtS0XLLQ, to discuss whether oil-fired steam can future-proof the heritage sector. The conversation was steered by FMW's Kelly Lynch, alongside Davidson Ward and Wolf Fengler, with NYMR’s Paul Middleton and Nick Simpson tuning in from Pickering.
Dame Vera Lynn was built in 1944 by the North British Locomotive Works in Glasgow as one of 150 of these extremely powerful freight locomotives ordered for the war effort.
Once completed, Dame Vera Lynn was shipped to Egypt and worked there following D-Day.
Clifford Brown, who purchased
Dame Vera Lynn in the late 1980s, placed the locomotive in trust to the NYMR when he began to suffer from ill health.
In November 1998, having amassed well over 100,000 miles on the NYMR, No. 3672 was taken out of traffic for a much-needed overhaul. In 2013, an appeal was launched to raise the necessary funds for the overhaul.
➜ To donate to the appeal, visit www. nymr.co.uk/Appeal/3672-dame-veralynn