Latest News

Current news items are listed below. If the Acrobat icon is shown, then click on the icon to read the attachment. If an image is shown, you can click it for a full size image. You can find old news items in the News Archive.

Leading and Trailing Coupled Wheel Pattern
05/09/2024
	Members of HENGIST's engineering team visited William Cook Cast products today. Construction of the pattern for the leading and trailing coupled wheels pattern is well underway. The ribs to support the balance plate weights can be seen nearest the camera. Photo by Will Richardson.
Dragbox Installation
04/09/2024
	The drill jig is now being used to open out the bolt holes to secure the dragbox in the frame extensions at the rear of the locomotive. Here Mike is reaming the second bolt hole using a drill bush in the jig. Note how all other bolt holes and filled with temporary bolts to ensure that everything is firmly located in place. You can see the steel plates at the back and bottom of the jig which locate the plate against the 2 datum faces.
3D CAD Model Development
04/09/2024
	Will has been developing the CAD model to ensure that the extension to the rear cylinder cover to support the front of the slidebars does not foul the Walschaerts valve gear. Will has created a motion model so we can see the positioning of the valve gear as the wheels rotate.
Pattern for Leading and Trailing Coupled Wheels
28/08/2024
	The pattern for the Leading and Trailing Coupled Wheels has started being machined at William Cook Cast Products Ltd. The pattern is being produced on a CNC pattern making machine.
Dragbox Installed
27/08/2024
	The dragbox is now installed in the frames - we now need to drill and ream the holes for the fitted bolts. In the photo, you can see that the drill jig has been installed on the left hand side. Note the 2 blocks on the right and bottom of the drill jig. These set the datums against the back and bottom faces of the frame extensions. The top right bolt hole is now ready for drilling/reaming next week. In case you missed previous instalments - due to the shape of the gussets, it's not possible to drill through the gussets, frame extensions and dragbox in one pass; we can't get the drill in close enough. So the drill jig is used to correct positioning. The gussets have already been drilled. Now we need to do the frames and dragbox.
Driving Wheels for HENGIST
22/08/2024
	The driving wheels have now been cast and fettled by William Cook Cast Products in Sheffield. We expect them to go through Non Destructive Testing shortly.
Visit by Brell Ewart
12/08/2024
	Today we had a visit by Brell Ewart, President of the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust. Brell is in the centre below the smokebox door with Geoff on his left. Brell has loaned us his original Master Cutler headboard. The Master Cutler express is the crack express from Sheffield to London. It was first named in 1947 and applied to the 0740 from Sheffield Victoria to London Marylebone. The then Master Cutler, A Balfour, later the 2nd Lord Riverdale, rode on the footplate of the inaugural train. It has since been a tradition that the Master Cutler ride with the driver of the train during their year of office. In 1958 the service was routed from Sheffield Victoria to London Kings Cross via the East Coast Main Line. In 1968, the service was switched to Sheffield Midland running down the Midland Main Line to London St Pancras.