B17 boiler build appeal launched as Manchester United is dismantled
A £70,000 appeal has been launched to help build the boiler for one new B17 4-6-0 – while another ‘replica' of the class has ceased to exist.
The B17 Steam Locomotive Trust, which is constructing No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham at CTL Seal in Sheffield, has launched a GoFundMe appeal to raise £70,000 for the deposit towards the boiler, which is expected to cost more than £750,000 in total, including the deposit.
The boiler will be built in the
UK, with the group having held discussions with two potential builders. Trust director John Pearson explained: “Both boiler makers have the same conditions regarding a deposit before we can even join the waiting list, hence the decision to make the appeal now.”
The locomotive's frames have already been erected and are at CTL Seal's workshops, with the trust's next major target being to complete the rolling chassis. To this end, William Cook Cast Products, also of Sheffield, has cast its cannon boxes (roller-bearing axleboxes – a modification from the original Gresley design) and the axlebox horn blocks, with the driving wheels being next in line to be cast.
The cannon boxes and wheels have used or will use patterns loaned by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, builders of A1 No. 60163 Tornado
(which shares the same 6ft 8in driving wheel diameter as the B17) and P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales.
However, while building one B17, the trust has dismantled another – the mock-up of No. 61662 Manchester United that was formerly on display at the Mizens Railway.
The North British Locomotive Preservation Group, which had partially constructed the static replica of No. 61662 at the Woking miniature railway, decided last year to halt the project and donate its usable parts to the B17SLT – the largest such component being a genuine LNER 4200 gallon Group Standard tender, which formerly ran with Thompson B1 4-6-0 No. 61176 and which the NBLPG rescued from a Doncaster scrapyard.
Along with the track on which it stands, the tender is to be moved to CTL Seal to join the trust's other two tenders – another LNER example, and the chassis of a Great Eastern-design tender believed to have been paired with B17 No. 2802 Walsingham.
No date has been set for the move, but to allow a low-loader to gain access to the tender at Mizens, the trust had to dismantle the mock-up of No. 61662.
Other parts recovered include a pair of buffers and an original B1 smokebox door formerly fitted to No. 61264. David Buck, owner of main line-certified B1 No. 61306 Mayflower, acquired the latter and, having originally paid for No. 61662's aluminium-built cab, has loaned this to the B17SLT for use as a publicity prop.
➜ Donations to the boiler appeal can be made at www.gofundme. com/f/61673-spirit-of-sandringhamboiler-deposit-appeal