The 45170 Appeal - Preserving Scotland's 8f

If the sun comes soonest in the south has Christmas come earlier for you guys north o'the border? Best of luck with this one, my few pennies are on the way.

 

Thank you to all who came to Bo’ness today to see 45170! Over £850 was raised, and in addition many of you completed standing order forms. It was great to hear everyone’s views on the project – and thanks especially to those of you who cleaned out our sales stand of mugs, prints and greetings cards the day after we got them! Back to the printer we go!

While the locomotive may now be home, the journey ahead has only just begun – and YOU can help by donating at https://mydonate.bt.com/events/stanier8f/190986

 

A Turkish 8F was the dream of the SRPS back in 1978. I am delighted to see the dream come true in 2014. Well done lads.

 

Eeeeh an 8F? We could only dream of an Ivatt...! With apologies to Monty Python! As stated above the hard work starts now. As Mr Churchill would say 'let us go forward together' Im hoping we see can see her on the 'Jacobite' very soon!

 

A HUGE thank you to everybody who has donated to the 45170 appeal so far! An incredible £20,500 has been raised since the appeal’s official launch last weekend, over 1/6th of the £120,000 needed to pay for her purchase, transport her home and undertake some preservative maintenance!

 

£120k wow.. if true thats a good ROI on what was published at the time as the price paid to buy them.
Still assuming the bits are only tired, not knackered it'd make a great working addition to the fleet once overhauled... at least most bits are there already, should be cheaper than a barry wreck and a great addition to the fleet.

 

Also a very good deal for the SRPS! The locomotive was given a major overhaul in 1984, and was withdrawn after 18-24 months running at the end of Turkish steam in 1986. While she has had a few heavy shunts, she was a shunting locomotive and underpowered for many Turkish loads, and thus was not used to the same extent as many other locos there at the time. As a result, the boiler is in very good condition (confirmed by an inspection from the SRPS's boiler inspector prior to purchase), there is another turn in the loco's tyres, and the motion is basically complete. Frames may need a little work, but one of only major components missing was one of the injectors however a BR pattern is held in store and this will be used for 45170. Tender is sound too! We will just have to hope that the eventual overhaul will not find any serious unexpected problems.

 

Bear in mind that its 1984 overhaul was a Turkish "major overhaul". Several locos supposedly 'overhauled' by TCDD in the early 80's - usually at some railtour organizer's expense were often still in a dire mechanical condition. I'd be very surprised if it didn't need a full mechanical overhaul but pleased to hear that the boiler is in such good order and wish the SRPS well. Ray.

 

Sorry for any confusion - it will of course need a full overhaul - I just stated that it was all there, not in a workable condition!

 

Would like to say a quick thank you to anyone who has donated to the appeal - the fund is standing at nearly £30k now which is a great achievement!

If anyone would like to give 45170 a Christmas present, feel free to donate at: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/stanier8f/190986 !

 

For those not in touch on social media here's an update on 45170:

The appeal has surpassed the 36k mark with the next major milestone being that we break through the £50,000 barrier! We are continuing to come up with new ways of raising the costs to complete the purchase and overhaul of this fine machine and these will become evident throughout the running season.

The loco has been shunted into the Museum of Scottish Railways at Bo'ness (see vid: http://tinyurl.com/np4w6n5) and can be seen every day the museum is open to the public.

She is also undergoing cosmetic restoration, which you can keep up to date with here: http://www.srpssteam.com/news.htm
The web developer is working on an online shopping facility to allow everyone to support the appeal by purchasing the merchandise we have (and will) produce.

If you haven't already you can donate online here: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/stanier8f/190986 or better yet you can set up a direct debit with the SRPS as a member of our covenant scheme. We urge you to do so if you can, £10 a month for the loco costs less than a pint of beer a week; in most places anyway. We are currently refining this scheme as we intend to offer attractive benefits for those who do support our cause in this way, I will hopefully be able to update you all within the next month - as you will all know - nothing happens quickly on a heritage railway when it comes to going through the channels!

Finally amongst these 8f ramblings, follow the appeal's facebook and twitter pages by clicking the links below:

https://twitter.com/45170appeal
https://www.facebook.com/45170Appeal

Cheers,

Ross

 

Thanks for the update Ross. Forgive me if you have already answered this, but is the plan to restore the loco as a turkish example?

 

The current plan is to restore her to the "As built" condition before she was shipped to turkey. This doesn't mean that at some point she cant be morphed into a turkish example though!

 

Ah I see - so would this be as a WD example?

 

Ross will no doubt confirm the exact spec. for the loco "as built" , but in the meantime there is a photo of WD358 ( TCDD 45154) ex-works in unpainted state, or at least in "photographic grey", in the Bradford Barton 8F book, and the loco looks pretty much like an 8F built for British service, with the exception of being right-hand drive. There is no evidence in the photo of Westinghouse or any other additions.

 

Sounds a grand idea to represent one of the wartime 8Fs.

 

There is an NBL works photo (courtesy of Mitchell Library) in Ted Talbot's "Steam in Turkey" of WD 354 fully painted with TCDD crest and it does have the air brake equipment fitted. This loco was one of the 7 (of the original batch of 25) lost at sea on the way to Turkey in 1941.
TCDD 45170 (WD 554) wasn't actually built for Turkey but was one of a batch of WD 8f's loaned to the LMS entering traffic on the Northern Division in May 1942. According to Rowledge's 'Heavy Goods Engines of the War Dept Vol 2' "After about a year of working on the LMS ,during which time some acquired full size LMS type cab numerals , most were taken out of traffic and stored at Derby". In Summer 1943 nos 552 & 554 were modified to right hand drive and shipped to Turkey to partly replace those lost at sea in 1941. They were easily distinguishable from the rest of the class in Turkey by retaining the vacuum brake ejector pipe on the left hand side of the boiler. 45170 still retains this feature and IIRC a yellow LMS warning notice in the cab.
I assume that if the loco is to be restored to 'as built' condition it will revert to left hand drive and will lose any Turkish embellishments. Congratulations to the SRPS for their efforts in securing this historic loco for their collection and best of luck with the fundraising for its restoration. Ray.

 

Correct! Although Probably not going going for the grey! Would make cleaning far too much work for us lazy types For the BR veg we already have a number picked out but we shall keep that under wraps until such times as we are in a position to let the froth commence! Same with the LMS no. for those who are interseted

Also correct! One thing we have found is that at least one wheelset on the loco is teeped "552" whereas we know the frames and boiler are actually the ones from 554.
Does anyone on here have any information with regards to the LMS days of these locos? Or pictures! We are trying to find a little more about what 554 did during her days on British metals before being converted and shipped out.

 

A nice wee article by the Scotsman on 45170: http://m.scotsman.com/lifestyle/her...-restore-scots-wartime-steam-engine-1-3853340

We're half way though! All in less than a year, very impressive but we are still pushing onward. If you havent donated already here is the link to the online donation facility: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/stanier8f/190986