J549 – Update 54 – Steaming Dates

Now that we have your attention, some advance warning especially for our wonderful and generous donors, who we will be in direct contact within the next week or so.

We desperately need to get 549 back at the front of our revenue earning trains and as soon as it is ready to go that will happen. We therefore expect we will only be able to a give a weeks’ notice at most as to when the engine will be ready for test steaming dates, including load tests.

If many of our donors miss out on the load test we will run a special train event for you as soon as we can.

At this stage we are looking to a return to service in early to mid April. So any load test will happen around that time.

ACHIEVEMENTS TO – 1 March 2024

Noticeable progress in the last week.

All the cladding on the boiler has now been installed with the fiddley pieces in the cab fitted.
The reverser and brake pedestal have been reinstalled in the cab.
The fire hole door surround (that holds the actual door) has been reinstalled,
The oil burner control manifold and oil control valve have been reinstalled.
The oil burner alignment has been completed.
The cylinder covers have been repaired and installation commenced, which mainly involves drilling out the snapped off ¼” bolts that hold it on – a tedious process.
The oil tank level graduations for the sight level gauge have been painted on the tank.
The blower ring has been installed in the smokebox.
Cleaning of lots of pipework has continued.
Wire brushing the old paint etc off the electrical conduits in preparation for fitting and painting has been done.
Painting of various fittings (such as blowdown levers etc) has continued.
The front of the engine (buffer beam/cowcatcher etc) has had the primer applied.
Inside the cab the top area and cladding has been painted (Cumberland stone colour areas).
Boiler bands have been painted on the back ready for fitting.
An order was placed for two new oil burner units as the price was very attractive.