NEW-BUILD NEWS
First parts acquired for Gresley ‘V4’
Parts and plans are already being gathered for the Gresley ‘V4’ 2-6-2 that will be the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s next new-build project. A complete set of fully certified tyres for the locomotive’s pony, Cartazzi and 5ft 8in driving wheels, along with a chimney, have been purchased from David Buck, owner of ‘B1’ 4-6-0 No. 61306 ‘Mayflower’. The tyres were manufactured in South Africa in the late 1990s for Malcolm Barlow, a Doncaster scrap dealer who formed the Gresley V4 Society in 1994 to build a new example of the class (SR218, May 1998, and SR278, December 2002-January 2003). Mr Barlow also owned a complete but unrestored LNER 4,200-gallon Group Standard tender (now at the Mizens Railway with ‘B17’ No. 61662 Manchester United) and the chassis of another from a ‘V2’, currently stored at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway. Mr Buck acquired the latter chassis and other parts six months ago as part of a job lot of items that Mr Barlow had salvaged from Doncaster Works upon its closure – including a number of ‘B1’ components. He explained: “Once I’d sorted out the spares for ‘Mayflower’, I looked at what might be of interest to other parties, so I offered the ‘V4’ parts to the A1 Trust. “I’m very supportive of their ‘V4’ project and everything they do, so I’m pleased that they’ve gone to the right home.” The A1 Trust announced last year (SR460) that once ‘P2’ 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales is completed in 2021, the ‘V4’ will be its next project, to be followed by two more extinct Gresley designs – a ‘V3’ 2-6-2T and ‘K3’ 2-6-0. Since then, it has been researching drawings for the ‘V4’ in the National Railway Museum archives, ready to begin 3D Computer Aided Design work. “We want to be ready to start building the ‘V4’ as soon as the ‘P2’ is finished,” said trustee Mark Allatt, adding: “If we’re in our new base at Whessoe Road by then (SR472) – and there’s a good chance we will be – we could even start before the ‘P2’ steams. “We suspect there will be very little redesign work needed as, unlike the ‘P2’, there were no known problems with the ‘V4s’. “There are also a lot of common parts between the ‘V4’, ‘V3’ and ‘K3’, so they can share patterns.” Although there is no specific appeal running for the ‘V4’ yet, any donations made towards it will be ring-fenced for the project; see story, right, for contact details. The ‘V4s’ – a scaled-down version of the ‘V2s’, designed to provide a mixed-traffic engine with a wider route availability – were Sir Nigel Gresley’s last design, with just two constructed before his death in 1941. Both were withdrawn from Aberdeen in 1957 – No. 61700 Bantam Cock on March 14, and No. 61701 (never named but known as ‘Bantam Hen’) on November 26 – and cut up at Kilmarnock Works.