GCR Black 5 No 45491

This locomotive has been through several hands and never steamed in preservation. However it is has been undergoing an extensive restoration with its owner Phil Wainwright and a small team getting close to its completion. According to "Main Line", the boiler is nearly ready for testing and inspection. The chassis appears to be complete with all wheels, rods, and lubrication pipework in place.

 

Here is a picture of 45491's chassis at the back of Loughborough shed yesterday. It is in a very tight space at present!

 

thanks for Phil - I don't mind admitting that I get a schoolboy thrill seeing a 'new' ex-Barry loco restored for the first time

 

Saw this year's ago when it was at ICI Thornton Cleveleys

 

This one seems to have been "nearly done" for years.

Can't wait to see her steam.

Chris

 

Same here. OK, it will be the 15th Black Five to steam in preservation, but in my opinion, you can't have too many Black Fives!

 

Tender was loaned to the nymr a few years ago for 44806 so that is ready to go as well. Exciting to see the locomotive in steam. Will this be the second Barry Black 5 to return to steam?

Sent from my M2003J15SC using Tapatalk

 

It will be interesting to see what happens to it longer term. I suspect that the GCR is in danger of having more locos available than it needs, which could see it going out on hire a lot of the time.

 

was that not 45379?

 

It was 45491. It was loaned in 2016

Sent from my M2003J15SC using Tapatalk

 

The third, six out of the eighteen went into Barry.
First, 45337 in 1995.
Second 45379 2010ish.
Third 45491 in the near future.

45163 and 45293 still quite away off.
44901, highly unlikely, unless the frames are used to keep another five going.

 

Here is another view taken a few months ago.

 

I'm still hoping that by some means 44901 gets reunited with its boiler and rebuilt......

 

What happened with 44901? I heard once that there was a suggestion of using a boiler from a Turkish 8F

 

They don't fit. The 8F boiler is a foot shorter than a Black Five's.

 

Yes I thought that was suspect. Might be wrong, but the 8F boiler appeared to be slightly smaller in diameter than the black 5 one.

I suspect 44901 will go the same way as 48518, sadly, another one for the parts bin.

 

I suspect that if it was to become available, rather than being a parts donor, Mr Riley would be first in the queue to restore it as a loco. He already has the boiler and the engineering works to rebuild the loco.

 

Is the 8F firebox the same as the class 5? Replacement barrel sections are getting more and more routine so if the difference lies in the barrel length it shouldn't be difficult (or even more expensive, given that the 8F barrel might well need replacing) to convert and 8F boiler to a Black 5 one. Or am I too simplistic? Are there any more 8F boilers to be had in Turkey?

 

This didn't work the first time and Std Tank sneaked in with the right answer!

Anyway, below are the major dimensions of the two boilers.