‘Austerity’ rods measure up for Great Central new-build
Rather like the ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST that laid down its life to build the replica broad gauge Iron Duke, parts from workaday industrial locomotives are to be used at the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) to re-create a lost locomotive for a complete Victorian train. The remarkable discovery that the coupling rods from an ‘Austerity’ will also fit a Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Class 2 4-4-0 (LNER Class ‘D7’) will save the GCR 567 Locomotive Group tens of thousands of pounds in its quest to build a replica of that locomotive. With the class having originally been designed and built by Kitson & Co. of Leeds, this is not the only industrial component suitable for transplanting into the new No. 567: a new, unused spare cylinder block for an RSH ‘56’ 0-6-0ST is in stock and requires only minor attention to corrosion on the valve seats. The frames, cut in July last year (SR444), and displayed at Ruddington in October, are being machined by Ian Howitt Engineering of Wakefield, which also undertook work on Tornado. No. 567’s first frame stretcher has been ordered. Meanwhile, design work on the crank axle is complete and drawings are being gathered for the bogie. The first components are available for sponsorship - including the horn guide castings at £1,000 each, two of which have already been paid for by supporters. For more information, visit gcr567 loco.co.uk A plaque is to be placed in the replica No. 567’s cab in memory of a fatal accident in which the original was involved, at Wrawby Junction near Barnetby on October 17 1898. Hauling a Cleethorpes-Manchester express, it struck a wagon carrying poles that had derailed in an adjacent siding. The impact caused the poles to hit the coaches of the express, killing eight passengers and injuring 26.