Driving wheels ordered for new-build Gresley B17

AN ORDER has been placed with William Cook Cast Products for the six driving wheels for new-build B17 No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham.

It is the single most expensive order so far placed by the B17 Steam Locomotive Trust in its project to construct the Gresley 4-6-0, at a cost of £21,000 per wheel – £15,000 each for the castings and £6000 each for machining.

The 6ft 8in wheels, being identical to those of Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado, will be produced using a pattern loaned by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.

Casting imminent

The pattern is now being prepared at WCCP, with the castings expected to be produced in the first quarter of 2022, after which they will receive nondestructive radiographic (x-ray) and ultrasound tests.

Sheffield-based WCCP, the principal sponsor of Tornado, also recently cast the roller-bearing axleboxes for the B17’s driving wheels. Another order has been placed with CTL Seal, also of Sheffield, to machine the B17’s axlebox horn block castings (which hold the axleboxes themselves) and the horn stays (which connect the bottoms of the horns, the cut-outs in the locomotive’s frames for the axleboxes).

What’s next?

CTL Seal, the B17’s construction base – and also home to new-build BR Clan Pacific No. 72010 Hengist, has approved space for the B17 Trust to place a 40ft container to store patterns and

components, and for use by the group’s volunteers.

Orders are expected to be placed shortly for the B17’s tyres and plain axle forgings, both from South Africa, with the crank axle forgings to come from Italy. As part of the plan to assemble the locomotive’s rolling chassis, the trust’s Put A Spring In Our Step appeal to fund all six driving wheel springs currently stands at £14,500, just under halfway to its target of £31,440.

Design work on the cylinders and motion continues in preparation for submission to Ricardo Rail, the project’s independent assessor, for approval. The design for the outside cylinders is complete, while work on the middle cylinder is underway.

J39 tender identified

Principles of design have been agreed for a part-welded, part-riveted steel boiler and firebox to LNER Diagram 100A.

An appeal for the boiler deposit, launched in August, currently stands at £20,700 – the target figure being £70,000, a 10% deposit for the estimated total cost of £700,000.

Stampings found on the axleboxes of the trust’s LNER Group Standard 4200-gallon tender have revealed it to be No. 7163, formerly coupled to Gresley J39 0-6-0 No. 64961. Withdrawn at Lincoln in 1959, the tender became an oil and sludge carrier at Cambridge before entering preservation at the North Norfolk Railway. As reported last issue, it has been joined by a second LNER 4200-gallon example – Vulcan Foundry-built No. 4166, formerly paired with Thompson B1 4-6-0 No. 61176 – from the Mizens Railway, with the trust’s aim being to make one good tender out of the two.

➜ For more details of the project and to donate, visit the website www.b17steamloco.co.uk

B17 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TRUST A fine view of LNER B17 4-6-0 No. 2839 Rendelsham Hall, showing its 6ft 8in driving wheels – the next components to be made for new-build example No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham.

DAVID ELLIOTT A CAD diagram of the frames and driving wheels of B17 No. 61673, showing the frames in grey, wheels and axlebox horn blocks in yellow, and the axles, crank axle and roller-bearing axleboxes in green. At the front, also in green, is the frame stretcher and bogie pivot.

B17 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TRUST Left: The pattern borrowed from the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust to cast the 6ft 8in driving wheels for new-build B17 No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham.