‘B17’ SEEKS NEW HOME AFTER LLANGOLLEN ENGINEERING CLOSURE
Under-construction ‘B17’ No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham is on the lookout for both a new home and volunteers, after the Llangollen Railway announced it was shutting down its engineering department (see story above), leaving the newbuild Gresley 4-6-0 without its base and engineering team.
It comes as the B17 Steam Locomotive Trust was also told by the Mid-Norfolk Railway to remove its pair of tenders from the line by September 21, as the railway requires more siding space following the acquisition of further rolling stock (see separate story).
Trust chairman Brian Hall said the task now was to “identify a secure and covered building of adequate overall size”, ideally with provision for craneage and a small workshop.
Prior to the announcement, the project was preparing to place orders for numerous steel castings to create a ‘rolling chassis’, including the hornblocks (with horn stays), coupled wheels, cannon boxes and coupled axleboxes. Mr Hall said the situation was serious “in the context of the clear discontinuity of working with the same people at the sharp end, but given that we are at a stage of ordering items for the next phase, then lead times of about six months to delivery gives us a period of time to get things resolved in terms of relocation to another site, but it’s an unknown at present.
“Undoubtedly, we will need to identify new people with skills and competencies required. However, we wish to record our grateful thanks to Llangollen Engineering for their good work and results we have shared together on Spirit of Sandringham.”
The railway has not stipulated a deadline for the ‘B17’s’ removal, and the trust is already in contact with a heavy haulage firm to move both the main frame assembly and tenders in due course.
For more about the B17SLT, turn to the advert on page 29.