Avon Valley based LMS 4F 4123 (BR 44123).

Thanks very much for posting the update. Good to see things are moving on.

 

Fourm members may be interested to know that the London Midland Society now has Twitter and Flikr feeds which can be used to keep up with the restoration of 4123 in advance of the new website, which is hopefully coming soon...

Twitter can be found here: https://twitter.com/@4123LMS and will be used to post updates and news on the restoration from time to time.

The Flikr page is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4123lms/ and has a selection of photos of the loco and its various components.

Cheers
James

 

Fantastic James,

You put other loco owners to shame..

 

Great pictures. I was down Avon Valley a few months ago and saw the loco being worked on. Looking forward to seeing the website.

Kind regards,

Mookie.

 

Great job on the new tender chassis

 

Well, thanks for the compliments folks, although I should perhaps say that it is not the intention to put other groups to shame, rather to perhaps give a little more info and raise awareness, as we continue our work...

 

In Reutlingen the group restoring 0-10-0 Nr. 97 501 took 26 years to restore the locomotive . She runs perfectly and did some runs on the Schwäbische Waldbahn doing perfectly what she was built for ,hauling trains up
steep gradients . keep up the good work with the 4F ,it will be worth the wait. Freunde der Zahnradbahn Honau-Lichtenstein (ZHL)

 

Ooh, an 0-10-0T with four outside cylinders, that looks like fun! I remember seeing a similar arrangement on a German loco in a museum a few years ago (can't remember where) and being thoroughly confused by which bit did what. Nice!

 

Two of the cylinders are for normal adhesion running, the other two drive the cog wheel for going up inclines ,a clever arrangement . A mechanism diverts the steam into the upper cylinders for working on rack and pinion inclines.All 4 cylinders work again , the other 2 locomotives are in museums in Berlin and Bochum.
I think the 4F will be a lot easier to restore .

 

That makes more sense. I think it was probably the one in Berlin that I had a good look at, although I have been to Bochum too so I would have seen that one too. Where did 97 501 live in the late 90s?

 

97 501 has been in Reutlingen the last 26 years.

 

Can't remember going there, which doesn't mean a lot as I did a lot of inter-railing in the late 90s and it's all a bit of a blur now!

Anyway, back to 44123...

 

People might like to know that the re-launched London Midland Society website has now gone live:

www.4123.co.uk

It's still work in progress, and more content will be added soon, but hopefully it's better than the previous one...

 

Looks a lot cleaner, chaps. Good work.

 

Hi all,

A small update has been posted to our website:

http://4123.co.uk/latest-news/

And some more photos to our Flickr pages.

Thanks
James

On behalf of the London Midland Society
Restoring 4F No. 4123 at the Avon Valley Railway, Bitton, Bristol, UK.
4123LMS@gmail.com
www.4123.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/4123LMS
See us on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4123lms/

 

Notice in the latest Steam Beano that a special meeting has been called in September, the London Midland society are calling on present and historical shareholders and members to attend.

 

How is work progressing on this loco? It would be great to see

 

think you will be waiting a long time cannot see this ever steaming at its current location

 

how long has it been at AVR? i think in hindsite the original owners made the wrong decision to move away , given how things changed later, and now there is i believe some question over who actually owns the engine, the people who purchased it from Woodhams, or those who claim ownership, based on work done to the engine.
this has to be settled and agreement come to, will it stand a better chance if it moved elsewhere? i know some of the original owners , those still alive would like to move it back to Hampshire , if agreement can be made that will see it worked on and returned to steam.

 

The flickr site shows progress on the tender, with the frames assembled (possibly temporarily) and the rear of the tender tank being constructed. The cab has also been restored (newly made?) but I don't believe any work has started on the loco itself yet.

If there are ownership issues then this will complicate things, but at the minute very slow progress is being made. When it comes to spending big money on the boiler or other big ticket items, I wonder will work come to a halt?

At current rates of progress I would estimate a steaming date of around 2030 if the money to maintain progress can be found.


Keith