‘PATRIOT’ BOILER WORK RESTARTS AT SWANWICK JUNCTION

Construction of the boiler for ‘Patriot’ No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior has recommenced at its new contractors. The parts for the G9½S boiler – the inner firebox, outer wrapper, barrel and all the smaller components – were moved on November 30 from LNWR Heritage of Crewe, the previous contractor, to Heritage Boiler Steam Services at the Midland Railway – Butterley. As revealed last issue, HBSS has been set up by Robert Adamson and Andrew Wilcock, two former LNWRH boilersmiths who are renting part of the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust’s West Shed at Swanwick Junction. They restarted work on the ‘Patriot’ boiler in early December. The overhauled firebox from ‘8F’ No. 48518, for the Great Western Society’s replica ‘County’ No. 1014 County of Glamorgan, has now been completed and will move from Crewe to Swanwick early in the New Year, although formal agreement is not yet in place for HBSS to assemble this boiler. At the ‘Patriot’s’ Llangollen base, all three expansion links are in place ready for the assembly of the motion, and the return cranks have arrived – leaving only the inside radius rod, for which quotes are being sought, to complete the motion. The Fowler ‘5XP’s’ brake gear is complete except for the brake blocks, and the vacuum pipework is being assembled. Castings delivered include the blastpipe, the lower parts of the main steam pipes and the regulator J-pipe, along with the steam brake cylinder.