A project by the Great Central Railway to build a replica of Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway 4-4-0 No. 567 has taken a major step forward with a start on the manufacture of patterns for the driving wheels.
A pattern for the 6 ft. 9 in. driving wheels is being made by General Patterns of Castleford in West Yorkshire.
Drawings were completed in mid-May, the pattern ordered on 8th June, manufacture commenced two days later, and sponsor funding confirmed on 11th June.
Completion of the wheel’s 22 spokes is expected sometime next month.
Enterprise Locomotives of South Yorkshire recently completed the rear drag-box, and the overhaul of the cylinder block and manufacture of the front bogie are next in line at the project’s site at Crofton in South Yorkshire.
Among the components already secured for the project are the locomotive frames, bogie wheelsets, bogie and main frame horn guides, bogie sideplates, bogie tie bars, tender, a spare cylinder block, connector rods and a significant amount of motion components.
The project has also recently acquired the first boiler component – an original Kitson firebox door.
So far, the project has raised £220,000 and needs to raise another £400,000; it currently has £80,000 in available funds. The planned timescale to complete the project is four to seven years, and to this end, it is soon launching two more appeals:
- The Drivers Fund for the casting and machining of the wheels, tyres, straight axle, crank axle and wheelset assembly.
- The Boiler Fund for the design and design approval of the boiler and boiler components.
Funds to construct No. 567 have, in part, been made possible by regular donations of £5.67 per month from supporters and the sponsorship of individual components, with donations being made via the Great Central Railway’s main charitable organisation, the David Clarke Railway Trust.
The project welcomes further donations, which can be made at www.gcr567loco.co.uk
Once it has been built, No. 567 will be based at the preserved Great Central Railways at Nottingham and Loughborough. Further information about the project can be found by clicking here.
This is a major milestone in our recent re-boot of the project. We can’t wait to see the patterns completed, especially as we are already going out to casting suppliers for quotations.
At 6′ 9” the Driving Wheels mark out 567 as one of the legendary sleek Victorian greyhounds, travelling at speed in the 1890s with light wooden-bodied trains on the Manchester to London route over Woodhead’s difficult road.
Chairman Andrew Horrocks-Taylor
Responses
Don’t be so negative of these products where there is a will there is a way of completing these products the skills will be aquired building it who has skills when they built these things but they did it stem locos can and will burn a multitude of fuels from dung to old tyres god help us on both of those things but oil or gas can be used successfully may be at a cost to fire boxes but time will tell good luck to those who are dedicated enough to try and build these locos they may be old men when they complete them as Rome wasn’t built in a day have seen in preservation young men in their teens grow into pensioners without them we would not have steam running today
Nice to see another replica project !! Completely pointless !! If this is finished no coal no skill set to maintain it and so backward beggers belief !!! Yes build a Pollitt GCR 4-4-0 on the outside historical but underneath where it maters up to date and state of the art :- roller bearings modern lubrication front end technology etc !! Oh and here is the big one what is it going to burn ? Oh forget mainline not on todays railway !!! Sorry chaps if you want historical build a model !!!
This is another quite exciting new build. The Great Central didn’t get the best hand in terms of loco preservation, so it wound be nice to have a new one running about.
Plus it’d be nice to see a working GCR 4-4-0, considering Butler Henderson hasn’t worked since the 1990s of which I highly doubt it’ll ever run again. (Unless the NRM transfers ownership like they did with Swanage and the T3 a handful of years ago!)