A belated Happy New Year to all our readers! The post festive season winter period has not dampened our team’s enthusiasm, despite the inevitable cold and miserable days. The past few weeks have seen phenomenal progress on boiler No. 799 as well as on 499’s chassis and the new tender tank. In fact, last Saturday, we set a record (for recent years at least) in having ten volunteers on site, all progressing different jobs. New year, new metal indeed!
While our manpower has allowed us to make some great steps forward, we still need to keep an eye on fundraising. In 2026, it is crucial for 499’s progress to raise the remaining funds required for our £20,000 tubeplate appeal. As previously mentioned, phase one of the appeal has allowed us to purchase the new tubeplate itself. Raising the remaining £15,000 will enable us to have the angle ring manufactured, and to progress the fitting of both components to the barrel.
Any donations, large or small, at any point that you can manage it this year, will mean a great deal to our hard working engineering team. Those of you that follow the society’s activities will know that we will make every penny count!
Now for our recent activities…
Our team have assisted works foreman, Mark, in riveting up the rear two copper lap seams in the firebox. This is another key step in our progress on boiler No. 799 and we are pleased with how this turned out. We will now need to ream the rivet holes on the front two laps ready for the same job. The final step on the laps will be for the rivet heads to be tooled in on the water side. Once these rivets have been tooled in, the boiler shop staff can progress the fitting of the rear part of the new steel outer wrapper. Progress on the mounting for the fireman’s side injector under the cab. While most of the vacuum and steam heat pipework on 499 has been completed for a while, we left the final arrangement under the cab until the new buffer beam was in place. Jamie and Steve have made a start on tackling this section, which will include the piping into the cab for the vacuum ejector. Progress at the front end as well. Liam has fitted the first of the cylinder drain cocks and made a start on the control linkages that need to run back to the cab. Meanwhile, I have fitted the first piece of the lubrication puzzle in the form of these stud mountings. As designed, the centre and leading driving wheels on Urie S15s are lubricated from trays directly above them on the running board. However, the rear driving wheel axle boxes and horns are lubricated from oil trays in the cab. These castings providing the four feeds required into the top of the boxes to lubricate the journals and the horns. Barry cleaning up the rivet holes for the cab steps in the new drag box buffer beam. Tender coal rave on driver’s side progress,
Photos thanks to Liam Lambert, Jamie Karslake, and Sam Wyatt.
