‘O4’ OVERHAUL GETS UNDER WAY AS 70013 IS RE-WHEELED

Work also continues on Thornbury Castle as Loughborough workshop picks up post-lockdown.

Major dismantling of National Collection ‘O4’ 2-8-0

No. 63601 is under way at the Great Central Railway.

The boiler of the Robinson 2-8-0 was lifted on July 21 at Loughborough, where workshop staff are now preparing its frames to be separated from the wheels. Some of the boiler overhaul will take place at the GCR, although it is expected that a new copper tubeplate will be fitted elsewhere by a contractor.

The former Steam Railway appeal engine last steamed in June 2012, although no date has been set for its return, having already been set back by several months because of coronavirus. Work on No. 63601 will begin in earnest once all of the motion has been returned to the newly wheeled chassis of fellow ex-readers’ engine No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell.

GCR chief mechanical engineer Craig Stinchcombe told Steam Railway that the bottom end has been a routine affair: “It was mainly a case of lift, clean, check the bearings, grease and reassemble”.

Progress on the ‘Britannia’s’ rebuild was also affected by lockdown, meaning that the boiler is now expected to be delivered to Tyseley Locomotive Works in early September for the fitting of its own new copper tubeplate. Even so, Craig Stinchcombe told Steam Railway that he’d “like to see it running in summer next year”.

That could, in theory, mean that the 1968 railtour celebrity No. 70013 is still operational for the 60th anniversary of the end of BR steam in 2028, before the expiry of its next boiler certificate. It last ran on New Year’s Eve in 2018.

Work is also progressing on the recently acquired ex-Barry ‘Castle’ hulk No. 7027 Thornbury Castle, with volunteers needle-gunning the frames and wheels, which were also separated in July – a month after the boiler was lifted.

Smaller items such as the tender buffers have been overhauled, new spring hangers and a safety valve have been cast, and a new whistle shroud has been made.

“I just want to get really stuck into it now,” added

Mr Stinchcombe.

ALL: CRAIG STINCHCOMBE Up and away! The boiler of the Gorton Works ‘O4’ is lifted for the first time in over 20 years on July 21. Behind are the boilers of No. 7027 Thornbury Castle and Phil Wainwright’s under-overhaul ‘Black Five’ No. 45491. A small step towards completion: Thornbury Castle’s newly overhauled buffers. The newly wheeled frames of No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell, with the motion still to be refitted.