THE ROSTER
LOCOMOTIVES IN FOCUS
GWR & CONSTITUENTS
4150: Since entering the Severn Valley Railway’s workshops at Bridgnorth in October last year (SR487), the boiler of the ex-Barry ‘5101’ 2-6-2T has had all its old firebox stays removed, and new stays are being fitted. The inside of the boiler barrel has also been needle-gunned for inspection, and nondestructive testing undertaken on the firebox foundation ring, both of which resulted in positive reports of its condition. Having received its last overhaul at Swindon Works in November 1963, No. 4150 was withdrawn in June 1965, and also left Barry relatively early, in 1974.
Said SVR engineering services manager Neil Taylor: “It’s proving to be as good as we’d hoped – there wasn’t any grooving on the foundation ring, so we only replaced its rivets and didn’t take it out, because that would have broken the seal and caused more damage.
“There’s a bit of wastage on the barrel that needs repairing, but it lost its lagging early so the corrosion isn’t too bad.”
At the locomotive’s Bewdley restoration base, volunteers of its owning group, the 4150 Fund, are undertaking final detail jobs on the bottom half of the ‘Large Prairie’, which is the last ex-Barry locomotive yet to return to steam on the SVR. In the absence of the boiler, the backhead cladding has been temporarily assembled in the cab as a template for the fitting of the cab floor, vacuum and steam heat pipework, and the bunker is virtually complete. 5239: The boiler of the Dartmouth Steam Railway’s ‘5205’ 2-8-0T ‘Goliath’ passed its out-of-frames steam test on June 27 (the hydraulic exam having taken place on June 14) and it is now being prepared for lagging and cladding, as the contract overhaul of the engine nears completion at the East Somerset Railway.
7822: Two ‘Manors’ are available for the West Somerset Railway’s summer season with the re-entry into traffic of Foxcote Manor on July 2, six months to the day after it left the line for a heavy intermediate repair at Tyseley Locomotive Works. Jobs undertaken by Tyseley staff and Foxcote Manor Society volunteers included a full overhaul of the wheelsets, axleboxes, motion and rod bearings, two new pistons and one new cylinder liner.
FMS engineer Martin Fuller said: “‘Foxcote’ was successfully run in at the West Somerset in just two days, including a double-headed run with No. 7828 Odney Manor, the first time this pair have worked together in 30 years.
In a subsequent positioning move, ‘Foxcote’ double-headed instead with classmate No. 7802 Bradley Manor.”
However, the latter is now out of service after sustaining cylinder damage (see News).
9351: The day before Foxcote Manor re-entered service at the West Somerset Railway (see above), the line’s resident ‘Mogul’ made initial test runs around Williton station – its first moves under its own steam since it was withdrawn for overhaul in 2013. As this issue went to press, it had undertaken loaded trial runs and was ready to enter traffic for the WSR’s peak season.
Rebuilt from ex-Barry ‘5101’ 2-6-2T No. 5193 and first steamed in preservation in 2004, No. 9351 is based on a 1930s proposal by Collett for a lightweight 2-6-0 that was never built.
Painted Great Western green during its last stint of service, it now carries unlined BR green livery. sR & CONsTITueNTs
30075: Project 62 has appointed James Frigot, an employee at the Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Company, as its locomotive liaison officer to coordinate the overhaul of its Yugoslavian ‘USA’ 0-6-0T and classmate No. 30076. Tasks that he faces with No. 30075 include a