Second cylinder cast for County of Montgomery
THE second cylinder for newbuild GWR ‘County’ 4-4-0 No. 3840 County of Montgomery has been successfully cast by Hargreaves Foundry in Halifax. The first cylinder was cast in the autumn of 2021.
Pouring for the second cylinder took place for the 18inx30in cylinder in mid-April, using a sacrificial polystyrene pattern produced by specialist patternmaker, Premier Patterns, to designs by Churchward
County Trust (CCT) design engineer, Elliot Powick. After cooling and cleaning the cylinder was inspected for the CCT in late May; the casting ultimately getting the thumbs-up. Polystyrene patterns have been successfully employed to cast a number of replacement GWR cylinders in the last few years.
However, No. 3840’s are the first GWR cylinders with inside steam pipes to be cast using the polystyrene method. Both cylinders will now be taken to Roach Precision Engineering in Brierley Hill and allowed to naturally de-stress over a period of six-to-nine months. They will then be machined in tandem with No. 3840’s extension frames, which are already on site in the Brierley Hill works.
The patterns and casting have been financed by the CCT’s Cylinders Club, which was set up to raise the necessary £40,000 to cast and machine County of Montgomery’s cylinders, and which is now half-way towards its target figure. The CCT is seeking further supporters to join the club in order to complete the machining stage.
CCT chairman, Gary BoydHope, said: “We are now tantalisingly close to having the cylinders fitted to No. 3840’s frames at Tyseley, but cannot do so until they have been machined. We still need to raise a further £20,000 to complete this stage.
“With the locomotive’s boiler soon to move to Tyseley, the coupled wheels currently being machined and all steel work for the running plates, splashers and cab now on order, the prospect of seeing a ‘County’ 4-4-0 is just around the corner.”
Visit www.churchwardcounty.org.uk for details of how you can help.