2021 VISION: TANTALISING GLIMPSE OF NEW-LOOK ‘P2’
‘J72’ and ‘N2’ help to create complete ‘P2’ front end – enthusiasts urged to help finish the job.
THE builders of the seventh Gresley ‘Mikado’ are urging enthusiasts to help complete Prince of Wales in 2021, coinciding with the temporary completion of the engine’s distinctive face.
The front end of the Darlington ‘P2’ was transformed in December – exclusively for Steam Railway’s front cover – to showcase how the uniquely styled LNER engine will look once it is complete in three years’ time.
P2 Steam Locomotive Company director Mark Allatt said that the mock-up was “the closest that we’re going to get to a completed, semi-streamlined ‘P2’ until the end of 2021”.
However, he is keen to stress that completion of No. 2007 in that timeframe is not a fait accompli.
“It’s very exciting to think of what the next year brings,” Mr Allatt said, “but it has to bring in more money. If people want the dream to become a reality, they will have to put their hands in their pockets.”
The P2SLC has so far raised more than half of the £5 million needed to complete the engine (debt free) in the projected timescale, spent 40% of the overall budget and has donations and pledges worth 60%.
By the time this issue hits the newsstands, the skeletal partbuilt engine will already have been dismantled into its major component parts in order for air brake equipment and wiring runs to be installed between the frames.
The first finished motion components – the two sets of middle coupling rods – are due to be delivered to Darlington in the first quarter of 2019, followed by the remaining four coupling rods.
The ‘P2’s’ fresh appearance was largely the work of painter Ian Matthews, who applied gloss black to the business end, and finished it off with a red bufferbeam with full lining and lettering. The coupling draw hook and shackle were borrowed from the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’s Worsdell ‘J72’ 0-6-0T No. 69023, which is under overhaul in the adjacent building at Hopetown.
Lamps were loaned by the Gresley Society. They are usually on display on its ‘N2’ 0-6-2T No. 1744.
The vacuum and air hoses will be functional, but are not yet connected to the locomotive’s future braking system. The pony truck assembly is also temporary (made from wood), but an order for the actual item will be placed by the end of January, following design approval from rail consultancy firm Ricardo Rail.
The vision was also temporarily completed by a replica 1930s ‘Aberdonian’ headboard, which is destined to be worn by both the ‘P2’, and its Darlington new-build compatriot ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado when it launches the new series of Edinburgh-Aberdeen railtours this summer (SR484).
●● To find out more about covenantor and donation schemes, visit www.p2steam.com, email enquiries@p2steam.com or call 01325 460163.