LSWR T3 563

All

After much research the T3 project now wish to acquire a single sight, Wakefield hydrostatic lubricator.
If you know of anything suitable the project manager would be delighted to hear from you.

email matt.mcmanus@swanagerailway.co.uk

 

On Facebook:-

CANCELLED - Flour Mill Open Day.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the open day planned for this Saturday 16th November has unfortunately had to be cancelled.

We apologise for the late notice and we will be working to have an open day during Spring 2020.

 

Latest News Release from the project to restore No.563:-

Swanage Railway Trust 563 Locomotive Group raises over a third of its £350,000 appeal in the first six months!

The 563 Locomotive Group, a subgroup of the Swanage Railway Trust, is delighted to announce it has raised £162,000 to date. The restoration of the only surviving London & South Western Railway T3 class No.563 has now covered over a third of its overhaul costs thanks to exceptionally generous donations and standing orders from the public.

Built 126 years ago in March 1893, 563 remained in service until 1945 and was the last survivor of its class despite the others being withdrawn in the 1930s. Remarkably, it was saved from the scrap line at Kimbridge Junction in 1948 to become one of the starring attractions at the Waterloo Station centenary celebrations later that year but has never been in steam since.

Nathan Au, Deputy Chairman of the 563LG said “The prospect of seeing 563 in working order for the time in over 70 years has clearly captured the public’s imagination and their support has been extremely encouraging.”

Nick Lloyd, Secretary of the 563LG added “The T3 is significantly important part of Victorian history that will allow us to showcase an express passenger locomotive of the day, on the railway which it was built for at Swanage.”

563 moved to the Flour Mill locomotive workshop in 2017 for an initial strip down and assessment to investigate the feasibility of returning the engine to steam. Astonishingly it was discovered the chassis and running gear had essentially already been overhauled by Eastleigh Works before the Waterloo Centenary.

The boiler however was in a comparatively poorer condition and is currently being fully overhauled. The inner firebox was painstakingly removed as a complete assembly to preserve a historical example of the original plate work and is a testament to the craftsmanship of the early railways. £30,000 of bespoke copper has been ordered in the meantime to create a brand new replacement along with steel sides for the outer firebox as well. Undertaking this substantial amount of work will give 563 a robust boiler which is hoped to provide at least 25 years’ service.

With the boiler extracted, removing and measuring all of the other components and taking out the wheels for inspection also allowed the frames to be shot blasted, repaired and protected with primer and undercoat. This approach has enabled us to de-risk the overhaul by leaving no stone unturned and there is effectively now a kit of parts awaiting refitting to complete the chassis.

Further fundraising is vital if this momentum is to be maintained and 563 is to receive its overhauled boiler and steam again soon. More contributions, no matter how small, will help provide all new: side, girder, longitudinal and crown stays, a front tube plate and associated tubes, a re-bushed throatplate, repaired back head, foundation ring and smokebox.

Matt McManus, Chairman of the 563LG said “We are delighted by the recent fundraising progress made by the whole 563 team. With our recent donations and standing orders we are now well over a third funded and can now accelerate into manufacturing new firebox parts and the begin the reassembly process.

However we are not home and dry yet! If you were thinking about contributing but haven’t yet, now is the time to get on board! Please consider a monthly standing order or one off donation and join us for the journey back to steam with regular updates and supporter’s events. We are entering an exciting stage of the overhaul and with your help we can get 563 back into steam a lot sooner than originally thought! Join the 563 Locomotive Group.”

Other ongoing work includes planning the stripdown of the locomotive’s tender, which has remained in storage at the Swanage Railway. If anyone would like to consider joining the 563 Locomotive Group as a volunteer, please make an enquiry at 563locomotivegroup@swanagerailway.co.uk

For more information please visit www.563locomotivegroup.co.uk or our Facebook page, @SRT563LG to find out more about the project and how you can help make 563’s return to steam possible and enable a working T3 class to once again grace the South on the Swanage Railway.

 

Amused by this comment in Engineering Update 4: "Additionally on the locomotive chassis, a horn stay, which is basically a bar that holds the axle box in place at the bottom of the horn is also cracked and will need replacement, we are likely to replace all horn stays as a result." And there's me thinking that the main function (and input into the design thereof) of the horn stay was to provide strength to a very weak section of the frames.

 

Indeed that is the function however it does also along with the Horn guides, hold the axle box in place so I’m just wondering what your point is?

 

It would hold the axlebox in place if you lifted the loco so it is partly right.

 

Well I suppose the stay also is designed to restrict the horn guides from moving apart and if I that is not a 'force' acting on the axle boxes I don't know what is.

I was curious to the comment that all these are to be replaced as one is cracked - is there not a NDT option on the rest or are they a simple design and therefore easier & cheaper to just make new?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

They are a simple design, and if we’re going to make one its not a great deal more work to make all of them.

 

NDT is a wonderful tool but it needs to be used subjectively. I prefer to use the term flaw rather than crack. When I used to run an NDT department for the NCB, magnetic particle testing (MPI) and ultrasonic testing would bring up all sorts of indications, especially with wrought steels and castings, and if we scrapped everything on this basis most things would fail. For many items we had a guide as to what was acceptable and this depended on the position, orientation and length of the flaws. Anything falling into this category was simply noted as having imperfections. For non-routing items outside the guide we had to take a view on the flaws and decide whether it was fit for further service. Fortunately we had a good metallurgy department to give advice when required. Any fatigue flaw was a definite failure, as was anything transverse to the applied forces. Flaws in line with applied forces were of less concern, depending on exactly where they were and how big they were. Forging laps and shrinkage cracks again depended on their position and size but were not an automatic failure. Much of the equipment we tested was very safety critical. In today's safety conscious world people are very much less inclined to take a subjective view but, I cannot recall any case of a wrong judgement in my time doing the job.

 

Love the line:

Nick Lloyd, Secretary of the 563LG added “The T3 is significantly important part of Victorian history that will allow us to showcase an express passenger locomotive of the day, on the railway which it was built for at Swanage.”

Ergo, Merchant Navy's where designed specifically for the Swanage branch as well.

Or are we being clever with words as in 'railway' being LSWR?

PS I support this project both physically and
financially

 

Where does the Merchant Navy reference come from? Seems Nick is simply implying that with the T3 they can show case an express locomotive of the Victorian period, I seem no implication that the Merchant Navy's are also being reference in that.

Equally T3s were used to haul trains between London and Swanage so you can justify the last chunk of the sentence too.

 

Sorry, but it read to me that the T3 was designed Quote: "on the railway it was built for." It was the top link loco of the day, therefore any top link loco (Merchant Navy) was built with the Swanage branch in mind

 

I think you are taking 2 and 2 and making about 500.

Tom

 

Just being pedantic, Paul approves

 

I think the simple answer to that is that there was a comma left out of the sentence: the last bit should read “The T3 is significantly important part of Victorian history that will allow us to showcase an express passenger locomotive of the day, on the railway which it was built for, at Swanage.”

 

Whilst, i'm sure that T3's may have powered some through trains from Swanage to London they most likily would have only been an a few services, with tank engines working the local services, As regards Merchant Navies, whilst they may have been intended for and worked the expresses between Weymouth and Waterloo, wouldn't their axle loading have been to high to have permitted their use on the Swanage branch? especially when there were other engines later that were cascaded from other lines else where , that were more suitable .

 

I don't think that comma is necessary - I mean if you're confused by the sentence as it originally was and extrapolate it to mean any express locomotive that ever operated on the Swanage in preservation was built for the Swanage, then the comma isn't going to make a difference.

For what it's worth the bigger issue with the quote is whether you could reasonably argue that the T3s were built for the Swanage, rather then simply operated on it, but that is definitely being pedantic.

 

Hello All

A large update is now available on http://563locomotivegroup.co.uk/latest-news/

Please go and have a look and if you are feeling flush, a couple of quid would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

Great update .... many thanks for posting it.

Query: the image of the old firebox shows what looks like a riveted patch straddling the side and top plates. Just out of interest, is this a type of repair which would still be considered acceptable to modern boiler insurers?