Wheels in motion: neW club launched to fund ‘P2’ rods and valve gear
In its fifth major fundraising initiative for ‘P2’ No. 2007 Prince of Wales, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has launched a £210,000 appeal for the Gresley 2‑8‑2’s motion. The ‘Motion Club’ aims to raise this sum by recruiting 175 supporters, each donating £1,000 plus Gift Aid, in up to eight payments of £125 by standing order. Incentives for supporters include a reserved seat on one of the ‘P2’s’ first trains, a special day with ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado, and a limited edition drawing of No. 2007, signed and numbered by artist Stuart Black. It follows the ‘Cylinder Club’, which reached its £100,000 target to fund the three‑cylinder ‘monobloc’ in February, two months earlier than scheduled (SR477), and the £250,000 ‘Mikado Club’ to fund the wheeling of the engine and tender, which is in its final stages with more than 190 of 200 places having been taken up. The other two fund‑raising clubs so far have been the ‘Founders Club’, which raised £450,000 from 360 supporters to cut the locomotive’s frames in April 2014, and is now closed, and the £600,000 ‘Boiler Club’, which has passed the halfway mark with 150 of the required 300 members donating or pledging £2,000 each, totalling £380,000 with Gift Aid. Of the project’s total £5m cost, £1.9m has been raised, £2.9m pledged and over £1.6m spent, while projected monthly income from the ‘P2’ for the price of a pint’ covenantor scheme is now running at 105% of that of Tornado, with only 36% of ‘P2’ covenantors also being donors to the ‘A1’. For details of the clubs, covenantor scheme and components to sponsor, email enquiries@p2steam.com, visit www.p2steam.com or call 01325 460163. The ‘P2’s’ pony wheels and 6ft 2in driving wheels are at South Devon Railway Engineering to be pressed onto their axles, and the aim is to have the frames fully wheeled by late spring. Work has already commenced on the Computer Aided Design of the motion, incorporating the later ‘A1’ design of inside connecting rod, to overcome the propensity of the original design for big end failure. The castings for the crossheads have been delivered, and the trust aims to order the motion during 2018, keeping the locomotive on schedule for completion in 2021. A speedometer acquired for the engine is thought to be from a Bulleid ‘Pacific’ – an appropriate fitting, given the involvement of Oliver Bulleid in the design of the ‘P2s’ as Gresley’s assistant.