The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has announced that they have ordered the first new components for new build Gresley V4 No.3403.

The trust, which already operates 60163 Tornado on the mainline and heritage railways and is building P2 2007 Prince of Wales (due to be completed 2021) has placed an order of £4,320 with Unilathe, based in Stoke-on-Trent, for 12 Tender Spring Hooks to the original LNER drawing No. 159010.

This order is part of a much larger order placed by the trust. This is for replacement components for its LNER 4,200 gallon tender-based snowploughs which has been piggybacked on by A1SLT for its new Gresley class V4 and the project building a new Gresley class B17, therefore considerably reducing the unit costs.

It was revealed in January 2018 that the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust had acquired and taken delivery of a set of fully-certified tyres for the new Gresley class V4’s pony, Cartazzi and 5ft 8in driving wheels. These were purchased from David Buck, who is the owner of Thompson class B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower, along with a chimney, two BR class 08 shunter speedometer drive generators. They also received two two-stage single spindle air pumps of Finnish origin, including lubricator pumps and check valves for use on No. 2007.

Back in September 2018, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust announced that they had formed a new subsidiary, the V4 Steam Locomotive Company Limited and set up charitable bank accounts for the yet-to-be-named V4.

What did the officials say?

 Mark Allatt, Trustee, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented:

“We are now in the pre-launch phase of the project to build our third new main line steam locomotive, the yet-to-be-named Gresley class V4 No. 3403. The opportunity to order the Tender Spring Hooks at such an advantageous price was too good to refuse even if it is at least a year sooner than planned.

 “We want to be ready to start assembling our new Gresley class V4 as soon as our new class P2 is completed. If we’re in our new and much larger base at Whessoe Road by then – and there’s a good chance we will be – we could even start work on No. 3403 before No. 2007 Prince of Wales steams in 2021. We anticipate the project costing around £3m and taking around five years subject to the pace of fundraising. Our new Gresley class V4 is an ideal locomotive for regional main line tours, repeat main line itineraries and the longer, main line connected heritage railways.

 “Unlike the class P2, where we have had to do a considerable amount of development work to complete the job that Sir Nigel Gresley started in 1934, there will be very little redesign work needed as there were no known problems with the Gresley class V4s.

 “Although there is no specific appeal open for No. 3403 yet, any donations made towards it will be ring-fenced for the project. The next steps will be to launch a website for the project and The Founders Club to fund the early stages of the project. More announcements will be made during 2018 as the project builds up steam.”

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