Chassis focus for ‘heavy freight’ restoration
Restoration progresses on Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway-based GWR ‘28XX’ 2-8-0 No. 2874, which is yet to run in preservation.
THE 2874 Trust, which is restoring Churchward 2-8-0
No. 2874 from Barry scrapyard condition for service on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) is concentrating its resources on the loco’s ‘bottom end’ at the group’s Toddington base.
In recent weeks, a new dragbox – which allows the loco to connect to the tender – has been cast by Micron Alloys.
After machining, it will be ready for riveting into place on the frames. The latter will provide a training project on hot metal riveting as well as the techniques involved in safely positioning heavy structures. “We were awarded a £58,000 National Lottery Heritage
Fund (NLHF) grant to run some projects on volunteer training and development in heritage and mechanical skills,” David Foster, chairman of trustees told the RM. “One of those sub-projects involves hot metal riveting – fitting the dragbox is part of that.
Training
“Riveting is an essential skill for loco restoration – so the more people we can give that experience to, the better. It will be open to GWSR volunteers. We will be conducting at least two workshops for volunteers to illustrate the techniques of hot riveting.
“It has cost over £4000 to buy and machine the casting completion of which, when installed, will allow us to move on more quickly repairing the rest of the frames.”
The frames have recently shotblasted by a third party; the same contractor also applied anti-corrosive paint. Volunteers have subsequently applied two undercoats to boost the protection. No further paint will be applied to the frames until the riveting is complete.
“There was quite a lot of corrosion from under the cab
– a lot of the metal work was beyond repair,” added David. “We have created some new angle iron pieces but using as much original material as we can. It all forms part of the structure around the dragbox on the rear buffer plate.
“The buffer plate also needs replacing – it’s all riveted together. It’s a major jigsaw. We get everything fabricated first, then ready to be put back together. The original cab was beyond repair – the replacement is part-complete, requiring riveting.”
Turning to the front end, the valve chambers have been rebored – the cylinders will be rebored in due course.
The wheelsets have been refurbished – including retyred, crank pins reground and journals polished. They are ready for fitting.
Initial work has now started to prepare for the medium term objective of fitting the axle boxes. The faces of the horns have been cleaned up ready for the horn grinding.
The overhaul of the axle boxes is progressing – all have been cleaned and the parts required identified. Six underkeeps are to hand – some having gone missing during the loco’s many years in storage. Two pony truck underkeeps have been sourced from another loco group and four driving axle ones are on order from Bridport Foundry.
The castings will cost over £1500 and then they will need some machining before being ready to fit.
The trust took the opportunity to have some valve bodies cast at the same time. Although it will be a while before these are required, the patterns were available and it made sense to get these cast with a bigger order.
Components
New top plates for all the axle boxes have also been ordered. A further project closely connected to the axle boxes and the horns is work on the lubrication system for the axle boxes. Each box has a bracket fixed to the frames at the top of the horn where oiling pipework is fixed. None of the brackets has survived in a useable condition – some are missing completely, some badly corroded and some part gas axed. New angle iron has been purchased, cut to size and is now being shaped into new brackets.
Once the hornguides and axlebox work is complete, rewheeling will be within sight.
“Last year we took part in a fundraising exercise with The
Big Give, an organisation that was established by the founder of the Reed employment agency,” said David.
“In excess of 700 charities took part last year. They find champions who will come in with some external funding, which they will matchfund a lot of what you raise yourself. It has the effect that an external donor puts in £100 but it can be worth £200 to the organisation – double the value of donations.
“We did that last year to raise funds for the horns. We’ve been accepted onto the scheme for this December. Our focus this time will be to fund the smokebox. This will be our next major fundraising exercise.”
David concluded: “We will then have the smokebox in place, the cab at the other end and wheels under it – all signs of visible progress.”
For more details, visit www.2874trust.org or write to: Churchward House, Winchcombe Railway Station, Cheltenham GL54 5LD.