LMS Black 5 5025

March update: https://thewatkinsontrust.blogspot.com/

Recommended facebook pages for interested ones:
https://www.facebook.com/Aviemore-E...8St8WBx4-JqnoB-SgJB9estWA&fref=nf&__tn__=kC-R
https://www.facebook.com/black55025/?ref=py_c

Cheers and heads up!

 

5025 is close to the finishing mark. Its now in primer and some bits of fiddly pipework are still being bent like that kids toy found in every doctors waiting room. Taking it as an omen but the most recent photo posted by the Aviemore Engine Shed page shows the tender filled to the brim with coal.

 

Great news, looking forward to seeing an old 10J workhorse with a fire in her belly again

 

So am I the oldest preserved Black 5. Hopefully get to see it next year on one of my Scottish visits.

 

https://thewatkinsontrust.blogspot.com

Serious achievement, this has been a huge rebuild. Looking forwards to seeing the finished article turned out in the typically high Aviemore standard.

 

Great stuff! I will definitely be paying a visit next year! That front spectacle aperture looked interesting, until I saw it was the tender front making it look rectangular!

Richard.

 

Daft question time - Have engines with circular smokeboxes such as this always had a concrete floor laid in the smokebox?

Richard.

 

Regarding bending copper pipes: I've seen it done by filling the pipe with sand, with a bung in either end, and heating and bending.
Pat

 

I'm up there in April, hope to see it finished and running!

 

Not normally - with Stanier engines anyway; other makes are available

 

Looking good...
It's currently a maroon five...

 

Please don’t compare Mr Staniers finest with bloody awful band

 

"Makes Me Wonder" how much longer it will be "Cold " for and which " Sunday Morning' it will be saying " The Way I Was"

 

I want to congratulate the team on this very extensive overhaul. I know what they've achieved: its scope is very similar to that being done on 2968 by the SVR, with some assistance from the Stanier Mogul Fund, with which assistance I have been involved. The main difference between 5025's and 2968's overhauls is that we used grey primer (see, you can always get paint into the topic if you try hard enough!).

To be serious, though, they have done an extremely thorough job, among the most extensive overhauls in preservation. Well done, Lads!

 

Not Quite, obviously we're talking heavy guage (schedual 40?) copper, you need to 'Waste' a bit of length, but first job is to anneal the copper, heat to a good 'Cherry Red' and the quench Or leave to cool naturally, makes no real difference, then flatten one end for about 4" and double back and hammer flat, bit like an old toothpaste tube, then with the pipe absolutely dry inside fill tightly with dry fine sand, do it vertically and 'bomp' the pipe up and down to make sure that the sand is well packed in, then make a plug for the open end by wrapping towelling and cotton wool together, and hammer in tightly, obviously supporting the pipe as you do, you can then 'work' the tube into shape using patterns and formers, just cut from wood or bits of steel stock. We formed up the coil for a Sentinel feed water heater in the way from 1/2" copper Pipe around a steel tube about 3&1/2" diameter using a Colchester lathe in back gear as a 'Power Source'.

 

If you're using thick walled copper tube (10 gauge or even thicker) it is a simple matter to bend it without filling it with sand. Just heat it to a dull red where you want the bend and while keeping it hot, tease it round to where you want it, moving the flame along the tube as you progress the bend. It only needs a slight force and you'll feel it give as it is heated. It won't kink unless you are doing a ridiculously tight bend. I was bending 3/4" copper to 3" radius with no problem yesterday, doing it freehand. If you have a former, even better. I've done up to 1½" dia in this way but have never tried anything larger. Not for thin walled tube, though. That is much more of a challenge.
This is the sharpest bend I've done by this method. 3/4" 10 gauge tube.

 

I'm probably not brave enough to try working 'unloaded' copper (beyond 'dressing' into place) but I see that You are 'Involved' with Sentinels.

 

Inspite of the COVID lockdown and the Strathspey only allowing local volunteers to come in, 5025 has passed its final hydraulic test and is slowly getting to the point of running under its own power for the first time in near as makes no difference 30 years. It'll be an unusual season that 46512 isn't the main locomotive.: https://thewatkinsontrust.blogspot.com/2021/03/hydraulic-test-180321.html

 

The Strathspey Loco team have had one productive year! Incredible work!

 

Sadly, the top of the web page that announces the hydraulic test is in desperate need of an update. It still says "we now hope that the engine will be ready towards the end of the 2019 season".