The engineering team involved with the design and construction of the replica Holden Class F5 locomotive, Great Eastern Railway No. 789 has provided an update on the project’s progress.

The team met at Tyseley Locomotive Works on 16 October to update Steve Cooper, Chairman of the Holden F5 Steam Locomotive Trust, on their achievements to date.

The Tyseley Locomotive Works team is headed by CME Al Meanly, assisted by Bob Meanly, Sam Perry, Nick Morant, and others.

Elliot Powick, 789’s CME, is responsible for CAD designing many of 789’s components. He is assisted by Graham Rowland, who undertakes research into missing drawings from various sources such as the National Railway Museum, The Essex Records Centre, and The Great Eastern Railway Society.

Elliot Powick’s expertise is mostly with GWR and LMS locomotive types, therefore Graham Rowland’s Great Eastern Railway expertise has proved invaluable in the ongoing design and build of 789.

Elliot Powick liaises regularly with Tyseley’s CME, Al Meanly, to ensure that quality control and value for money are maintained. These meetings are vital because of the questionable working practices of the Great Eastern Railway’s drawing office at Stratford. Sometimes, when locomotive drawings were delivered to the shop floor, the engineers would deem them to be inaccurate. The drawing would then be annotated in red ink and returned to the drawing office for amendment.

Unfortunately, for 789’s present engineering team, there is no guarantee that the process described above did happen. Hence, drawings that were made 120 years ago, now must be amended to avoid costly and unnecessary engineering errors. To this end, 789’s design and build engineers now liaise regularly.

Since the last update in September, the bunker has been trial fitted to the frames to check whether modifications are required ahead of final fitting, and all eight machined wheels have been painted and wax-oiled pending pressing onto their axles.

The next phase is to fabricate the footplate steps and fit them to the frames, material for which has been already been delivered to Tyseley. Material for the slide bars has also been ordered, whilst an order for the axles is imminent.

Details of how to help with the construction of GER 789 are online at https://www.holdenf5.co.uk/how-you-can-help/.

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