Main Line News
■ King No. 6024 passes boiler test
■ Proposal to reopen Ayrshire's Dalmellington line for steam tours
■ Southern jaunts this summer for Jubilee Bahamas
■ Duke of Gloucester support coach appeal passes one-third mark
TALKING exclusively to Heritage Railway, the 6024 Preservation Society's spokesman David Fuszard reported that GWR 4-6-0 King Edward I was given a successful boiler test at Minehead in early May.
No. 6024's boiler certificate is now ‘live' while the society's volunteers add the finishing touches to its lengthy overhaul at the West Somerset Railway (WSR), with working parties now being formed to finish the overhaul and have the locomotive back on the main line later this year.
Given 10 years' control of the engine from owner Jeremy Hosking's Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust, the society will concentrate on running the King on former Great Western routes, ideally from Bristol to the West Country, and possibly promoting tours in-house.
Extensive overhaul
No. 6024's last period of operation commenced on October 7, 2004, and June 10, 2008 saw it haul the Royal Train from Kidderminster Town to Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway with the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall on board. Prince Charles drove the locomotive between Bewdley and Arley.
Its third and most comprehensive heritage-era overhaul began after it was withdrawn from traffic on April 15, 2012, following several weeks of operation on the WSR.
However, it was only once the locomotive had been disassembled that the full and largely unexpected extent of the major work needed on both it and the tender became apparent.
The engine dragbox and tender inner chassis plates and dragbox needed to be largely renewed, and significant cracking was found in the driving wheels that had been previously hidden by the tyres.
The boiler was also in need of heavy repair, with a new copper tubeplate in the firebox being required.
It was decided to replace both outside cylinders, the existing ones having suffered repeated cracking. A subtlyaltered pair of cylinders was designed and produced for No. 6024 which, when it returns to main line service, will be both narrower and somewhat shorter than it was in GWR and BR days, allowing it to comply with the national network more easily and, in some cases, making it possible to run to locations it otherwise could not reach.
Reassembly
The boiler was overhauled by Riley & Son (E) Ltd, returned to Minehead in January 2020, and craned back onto the frames.
The air-braking system has been totally reworked and the electrical systems replaced by a system similar to that fitted to A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado.
The tender has been rebuilt by Andrew Bennett of Bennett Boilers, which discovered that it dates from 1929, the year before the locomotive was completed.