Bluebell Railway Atlantic Group
Latest progress
Although it has been some time since we updated this page, work hasn't stopped, but it is more difficult to show the progress! This will continue to be the case now we are into the detail of the build rather than the spectacular, such as last year's frame assembly. However, the fabrication of the cylinder and valve assemblies is set to be a fairly impressive achievement in its own right.Fred Bailey's photos show:
Above Left: The main horns are now fully machined and are seen being attached to the frames with fitted bolts.Above Right: The new buffer stocks (to right), the spring hanger bolts for the bogie coil springs (the long hexagon headed bolts) and at the rear are the spring end caps.
Right: The tender springs have just arrived - they were ordered in February 2007!!
Below Left: Parts for the valve chests, cut for us from 30mm plate by waterjet (with a little garnet as abrasive).
Below Right: A dry run assembly of the valve chest parts. These are based on a central tube for each valve; we have the tubes but they need some complicated machining, which will probably be sub-contracted to a CNC equipped shop.
Below Left: Trial assembly of the cylinder parts. Not shown is the tube around which these parts are assembled. Again, we have this in stock, but it needs some machining prior to incorporating it into this fabrication.Below Right: Both cylinder and valve chest together. Due to the machining required on various parts it may be some time before the fabricating starts in earnest. We have purchased the raw materials now just in case prices rise further than they have already.
Fred Bailey's photos below show:
Left: The delivery on 11 February of the project's newly purchased (second hand) milling machine. It is a Dufour, with 50Int Horizontal spindle and a 50Int Universal Vertical head. The table is about 63" x 12" with a longitudinal travel of 43".
Right The mill being used for machining a 7.5 degree chamfer on the bottom of the trailing axle horns, the first job on the new machine. Its position in the building is temporary, as some remodelling of the layout is being undertaken.
The new machine is a great bonus for the project, which has an enormous amount of machining to do, since the mills in the main loco works are in very heavy use as well, so is also a useful overall increase in machining capacity.
Right: The auxiliary reservoir for the air brake on the tender, fitted in place
Below: Progress on the loco main frames, with some more of the steelwork bolted in place and awaiting riveting:
Below: The inside of the front buffer beam.
The outside of the frames, with the centre footstep support in place.
A fund raising appeal for the estimated £300,000 required to complete the project was launched in 2000, and a combination of gifts made via the Bluebell Railway Trust, and standing orders set up to provide a steady income to the project have now made over a third of the total available. Whilst this has provided funding for the present work, more is going to be needed to complete the project, and the best way in which you can help is by setting up a small, regular, standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust under Gift Aid, since this enables the Trust to reclaim the basic rate tax you have paid, and (if you are a higher rate tax-payer) enables you to reclaim some tax as well.
A combined Donation, GiftAid and Standing Order form is available as a pdf document.
For further details contact David Jones.
A donation is made to this project when you buy Historical Transport Film videos from Beulah.
Last updated 5 August 2008 by Richard Salmon with photos from Fred Bailey and Derek Hayward.