HAWKSWORTH ‘COUNTY’ COULD RUN IN 2022; MOTION APPEAL LAUNCHED

A £30,000 appeal has been launched to complete the motion of No. 1014 County of Glamorgan – with the aim of finishing the Hawksworth 4-6-0 by 2022.

The GWS has launched the ‘Thirty Counties Club’ whereby supporters can adopt one of the names of the 30 original examples for £1,000, payable in eight £125 instalments. All supporters will receive a print of No. 1014 by artist Jonathan Clay, and will be entered into a prize draw for a replica smokebox numberplate and shedplate of ‘their’ engine.

Including the £30,000 for the motion, it is estimated that £200,000 is needed to complete No. 1014. Its boiler is under construction at Heritage Boiler Steam Services, which is in the process of riveting together a new barrel and the firebox from ‘8F’ No. 48518 (SR505). An order for the safety valves has also been placed with Barry Gambles, using a pattern supplied by the Severn Valley Railway.

David Bradshaw, the project’s press officer, said: “We’re aiming to complete the fundraising by the end of 2021 and have the locomotive moving under its own power by the end of 2022.”

So far, nine ‘Counties’ – Nos. 1000/1/3/4/11/13/17/21/28 – have been sponsored.

For details, contact appeal coordinator Richard Croucher, The County Project, Great Western Society, Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot OX11 7NJ or email Adrian Knowles at editor@ didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk

The coupling and connecting rods for the ‘County’ have already been forged, and are being machined by the Boro Foundry and Ufone Precision Engineering of Dudley respectively. Other motion parts obtained for the engine – the eccentric straps and expansion links – are at Tyseley Locomotive Works for refurbishment.

UFONE PRECISION ENGINEERING One of the connecting rods for No. 1014 County of Glamorgan in the process of being machined. The Hawksworth ‘Counties’ had thicker connecting rods, piston rods, crossheads and slidebars than their ‘Hall’ and ‘Modified Hall’ progenitors, to cope with their higher boiler pressure of 280lbs/sq in (later reduced to 250lbs, and to be 225lbs on the replica No. 1014 because of the re-use of the firebox from ‘8F’ No. 48518).