THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR ARRIVES AT SWANWICK JUNCTION FOR COMPLETION
‘Patriot’ No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior has arrived at the Midland Railway – Butterley for completion by the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust.
The Fowler 4-6-0 was moved by road on August 12 from Crewe Heritage Centre to the PRCLT’s West Shed base at Swanwick Junction, one month after the announcement that the PRCLT had won the contract to finish the engine’s construction (SR495). A full timescale for the work is still to be drawn up.
The first step, said LMS-Patriot Project Chairman David Bradshaw, will be to lift the engine off its leading and trailing driving wheels to inspect the axleboxes. It is expected to be re-wheeled in mid-September, once the centre driving wheelset has returned from Multi-Tech Engineering, where it is receiving replacement crankpins. By this time, it is also expected that the Statfold Barn Railway will have completed remedial work on the motion.
Mr Bradshaw added that “the lubrication system is pretty much complete (though not all of it has been fitted) and there’s work going on in the background regarding the design of the ashpan, grate and spark arrester.”
One of the largest outstanding components – the superheater header – was expected to be cast at the Boro Foundry in late August, following another for Franco-Belge 0-8-0T ‘Sir Drefaldwyn’ at the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway.
The ‘Patriot’s’ boiler is under construction at Heritage Boiler Steam Services, where fitting of the copper firebox stays is approximately two thirds complete.
An order will shortly be placed for new motion parts – two drop links and two outside combination levers. The latter replace original ‘Jubilee’ components, one of which was bent; although both had passed ultrasonic tests, said Mr Bradshaw, “rather than straighten the bent one, we decided we might as well have new ones made.”