Duke of Gloucester’s roller bearings get ready to roll
REASSEMBLY of the driving wheelsets for unique BR Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester continues at the South Devon Railway.
The Riddles 8P's cannon boxes (roller bearing axleboxes) have been assembled and fitted to the driving (centre) and trailing axles. Meanwhile, the leading crank axle is also ready to receive its cannon boxes following the machining of the keyways. The next stages to complete the wheelsets will be to press the wheels back onto the axles,‘quartered'to place the crankpins 120 degrees apart.
The £40,000 appeal to overhaul the Duke’s new BR Mk.1 support coach, detailed in the last issue of Heritage Railway, is now 53% of the way to its target, while the appeals for the superheater flue tubes and small tubes are standing at 75% and 47% of their respective totals. Trevor Tuckley, chairman of its custodians, the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust, described this as“an extremely pleasing result so far”.
The flue tubes can be sponsored at £500 each and the small tubes at £140 each. Visit www.theduke.uk.com for details, or write to: The Duke, BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust, Aurora House, Deltic Avenue, Rooksley, Milton Keynes MK13 8LW.