WORK BEGINS ON ‘P2’S’ BOILER - AND THE TENDER
Work will start this year on the boiler of ‘P2’ No. 2007 Prince of Wales - albeit only its cladding. In a contrast to the method used for ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado, the Darlington-based P2 Steam Locomotive Company is to build a ‘skeleton’ to enable it to construct the ‘Mikado’s’ cladding before the boiler is delivered. This postpones the need for the boiler to be at Darlington Locomotive Works by at least six months. Once the boiler cladding is finished and primed, it will be dismantled and stored pending fitting to the boiler in 2020. It is also hoped that the locomotive’s recently erected frames will be joined by those of the tender next year. A £142,500 order has been placed with I.D. Howitt Ltd of Crofton, West Yorkshire for the assembly of the tender frames, while the steel castings have already been ordered from William Cook Group, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s principal sponsor (SR466). Ian Howitt was a major contractor during the construction of Tornado, and was responsible for the assembly of similar tender frames for the ‘A1’. Once Mr Howitt has made progress with manufacturing the fabricated dragboxes and has machined the castings, the fully machined tender frame plates (presently in store at Darlington Locomotive Works) will be moved to Crofton for assembly. It is expected that the frames will be returned to Darlington in late 2018. Elsewhere, progress continues apace on the new ‘P2’. As Prince of Wales is expected to visit a number of preserved railways once it is completed, and will therefore do a significant amount of tender-first running, it is to have back sanders, something not fitted to the original ‘P2s’. As per Tornado, the back sanders will be air-operated and Ian Matthews already has the kits for these.