5025 The oldest surviving LMS Black 5: August 2016 update

About the Trust

Work on the overhaul of 5025 began at the beginning of 2012. This was thanks to grants or promises of support from the Strathspey Railway Company, the Strathspey Railway Trust, the Heritage Lottery Fund the Strathspey Railway Association and the significant amount which had already been raised from our supporters though appeals.

Major progress has been made on the locomotive and tender frames, axleboxes, motion, dragboxes and valve gear at Aviemore and on the major rebuild of the boiler, reprofiling of the tyres of the locomotive and tender wheels and construction of a new tender tank at Riley Engineering of Bury. Work has also included the casting and machining of a pair of new cylinders

The WEC Watkinson Trust originally hoped to return 5025 to service in 2015, however owing to the amount of work needed, we now hope that the engine will be ready towards the end of the 2019 season. ( see edit below)

We are still on track for 2019 to be the year in which the oldest and best example of a L.M.S. Black Five steams again. Due to a very tight budget the original intention was to return 5025 to traffic by carrying out the minimum necessary work. However, she is an iconic locomotive and quite early on the sensible decision was taken to restore her to “as new” condition. This has resulted in considerable extra work and expense and has left the Watkinson Trust desperate for funds.

Edit, we were heavily delayed waiting for the boiler, this has put the completion date back to around summer 2020.

Further edit, owing to covid lockdown, this has been further delayed, completion date is now summer 2021.

The original budget of £354,050 has been spent wisely and with care. However, additional boiler work has cost a further £39,345, new cylinders and frame repairs £33,350, and other work such as a new cab, injectors and super heaters upwards of £22,500.

Although most of the work now being carried out is labour intensive, certain costly goods and services are essential to finishing the job and it is only with your help that we can make it happen.

We still need to complete the tender tank and the under frame, produce boiler cladding, purchase copper pipe and various fixings and fastenings and pay for transport, crane hire and specialist machining.

The Watkinson Trust would like to thank you for any generous donation you are able to make towards a successful conclusion.

Please use the “Donate” facility below to support this worthwhile project through Paypal.

Monday, 8 August 2016

August 2016 update

Once again the work on 5025 has been steady without being spectacular. A lot of refurbishment of small parts and the manufacture of things like pins and bushes.

One major problem has been the fitting of the smoke box saddle fabrication. The picture below was taken some time ago when the saddle had been repaired by cutting and welding a patch into the centre, roughly where the cutouts for the exhaust ports are.

When fitting the saddle it was found to be too wide by one quarter of an inch. This defied all attempts to rectify, so in the end both sides had to be cut out to allow them to be replaced with new steel plate in one piece. Even then there were problems; the sides extend below the base plate around two inches, here the heat of the weld connecting them caused the flange to pull away from the vertical. After much use of heat and the hydralic rams, this was eventually corrected.
The picture below shows the saddle in place between the frames after correct fitting had been achieved. The exhaust port holes still have to be cut out.

The view from the front, between the frames.

This is the right hand cylinder, having been lowered to the floor following a trial fitting. This is another area that has caused problems with a lot of head scratching. Nathan reporting that the marking out was one eighth of an inch out. He said that all the marking was traced back on itself, resulting in finding that the motion bracket on that side was itself one eighth of an inch out. Very time consuming.