4079 “Pendennis Castle ”

Does anyone know how 4079 is progressing at Didcot? The last update on the GWS / Didcot website was back in February.

 

There are undoubtedly people better informed than me on this forum, but from what I can remember from the last GWS newletter I had, she is coming along nicely, but no-one is yet talking about steaming dates. As far as I know they aren't even starting on her boiler until after the King's is done, so we definitely aren't talking an iminent return to steam. It would of course be nice to have her steaming for the 175 next year, but the golden rule of preservation is it will steam when its ready!

 

The boiler is practically finished, and has been for quite some time. The final big outstanding job on it is acquiring/fitting the small tubes.

Over the last year or so the engine has had all connecting rods fitted, as well as the eccentrics, work to install new cylinder cocks, and fettling of injector pipework. The tender is essentially complete, and is currently having the finish improved ready for final painting.

Can't say when it'll be out, won't be next year though. After 9 years it's probably best to just take it as it comes, but they could do with some more money... (*Hint! Hint!*).

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/guide/projectitems/4079project.html

 

When I saw it in May, it still looked a long way off from being completed (the boiler wasn't in the area, so I can't comment on that), but I think the GWS has been working on re-assembling the frames. The cylinders were definitely on, as were a fair amount of the other fittings, but I can't remember seeing the wheels on it. Is it a rolling chassis yet?

 

Is it still being air braked and equiped for mainline running?

 

I'll have a word with the 4079 crew tomorrow and see if I can get one of them to give an update on here. The last one seems to have disappeared in the board's transition to it's current format, and I couldn't find it in the archive.

 

Hi All,

Questions, Questions, Questions – where to start?

No, we are not talking about an imminent return to steam but then again would we really want to have the King and 4079s boiler & mainline certificates ticking away simultaneously? Far better to space it out and as the King group are going to get there first well, so be it. We have all waited since 1977 for Pendennis Castle to steam again in the UK so what problem is another couple of years? Enjoy the King first and then Didcot will save this most poignant return to the main line for last. True, it is a shame that she will effectively ‘miss’ the GWR 175 celebrations but that can’t be helped.

That should give you a hint at what we are hoping about in terms of timeframe but as our good friend Kerosene Castle says, it’s done when it’s done and not a moment before! Do remember that we have fortnightly working parties to work on 4079 and that we are also totally dedicated to putting out the best loco we possibly can so forgive us if it seems a bit drawn out. We want to be sympathetic to such a historic and important machine. The boiler is in excellent shape due to the attentions of Peter Gransden and his excellent team at Didcot and is merely awaiting the small tubes to finish. That’s the usually difficult bit nearly done.

The next big spend apart from the tubes are the valve and cylinder liners – pretty much all of them before you ask! We have them on order and one of our machinists at Didcot has said that he can machine them to fit the bores. We also need new steam pipes as the ones we have are best described as a little past their best if you get my drift.

As Kerosene Castle mentions the thing that will definitely start to hold us up in the near future will without doubt be funding. You may have seen the articles that I wrote for Railway Magazine at the start of the year but the Society has launched an appeal for the last £100,000 we need to go main line (which neatly answers another question!) The appeal has been split into 2 phases. We estimate a cost of about £60,000 to return her to steam and then another £40,000 to get all the main line equipment fitted and running. This isn’t actually a great deal of money compared with what some other restorations are asking for or have spent so we are hoping that even in these troubled times that it isn’t an unreasonable target. The reason that costs are as low as they are is because it has been as far as possible a volunteer led project. If you would like to make a donation, a downloadable form is available on the special projects page of the Didcot Railway Centre Website. Thanks to you if you can. The current totals last I heard was in the mid £30,000s but I will let people know with updates here as I get them from our society chairman.

And finally, Yes, Pendennis Castle will be air braked and the pump will be mounted in an as aesthetically sympathetic way possible. She was of course air braked in Oz although they carried a Diesel air pump on the extra tender vehicle she towed known as ‘The Gin’. Not an approach looked upon kindly by Network Rail. None of her air brake equipment made it to the UK so it will have to be ‘new’ components.

It is hoped that in the not too distant future that we will get a project website up and running so stay tuned! We would like some input as to what people would like to see on it (sensible answers only please!) so let us know.

Best Regards,

The 4079 Restoration Team

 

Thanks for the update Team 4079. I look forward to the new project website and regular updates about the loco. Hopefully the website will also result in more people realising what is going on and parting with some money to help get this sorely missed loco back where she belongs on the mainline.

 

Thanks Drew, that was quick, we only spoke yesterday!!
Just to add from my observations, 4079 is currently an 0-6-0, as leaving the completed bogie out, gives much better access around the cylinder area for work on the liners etc.
There's a lot of the motion going up in between the frames, but obviously stopping short of attaching to the valves and pistons.

 

Team 4079

Many thanks for an excellent and informative update. Pendennis Castle is rightly many peoples "old favourite" and I recall that the locomotive once travelled over the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (when it was still part of the BR network) before its departure to Oz. It would be great to see 4079 do that again someday! In the meantime, thanks for the update and thank you for the fantastic work that you and your team are doing down there at Didcot.

 

1977! is it realy so long? Well I recall her hidden away in the lifting shop at Didcot when I was no more than a sprog...I'm gonna have to come see her when she steams again.Good work men, keep it up!

The first time I met her was at an open day at Taplow...what year would that have been? 1969? It was where I fell in love with westerns and Warships....Was it the year Cookham manor appeared on a railtour?

 

It was 1966 (September?), the same year 7808 appeared on the railtour from Birmingham. 6106 was also there. I still have the colour photos I took on my "Coronet" camera.

 

wow....and i got interested in diesels as a result and missed the end of steam! Oh well...i visitied taplow twice...must have been 66 and 67 then...I think 3205 and 6106 were there one year as well..

 

On behalf of the 4079 team, thanks for the kind words of support that have been expressed here. Yes, I am afraid that the ‘Great Western Envoy’ rail tour in 1977 and her subsequent light engine move to the docks to catch the ship to Australia was the last time she steamed in the UK – 32 years ago although, she was in operation in Oz until 1994. Another thought provoking statistic is that she was 85 years old in February! I am at Didcot over the weekend for a meeting so I will take some pictures to post that will show you all what we are up to at the moment.

All the best!

 

Pendennis Castle

Thank you for your very detailed update Team 4079. I am really looking forward to seeing her back in steam and on the main line. Pendennis Castle is my favourite Castle and I have really missed the latest news on the Didcot website. I will certainly make a contributionto her restoration as it's so close.

Keep up the good work

All the best
Brian Gillman

 

Hi All,

Firstly, thanks to BGSteam for his offer of support, If you (or indeed anyone else out there) is interested in seeing 4079 and what we are up to, just turn up on one of the Pendennis Crew’s fortnightly work days (the next is on the 10th October so you should be able to work it out from there) and make yourself known to one of us and we will give you the grand tour.

As promised, here are one or two snaps I took of 4079 yesterday whilst I was ‘on shed’. Please excuse the photos as I am far more a fitter and historian than I am a photographer but they will illustrate what we are up to! I will post some more next weekend. They are as follows:

1. The tender is fast approaching the finish line and our painting crew is now undertaking the hard work of producing a flawless finish on its flanks. These are some big canvases when you are presented with some paint, filler and wet & dry paper. Before you ask, no, we have not been inspired by the wartime liveries of 5322 and 3822 and gone for a sort of ‘Arctic tundra’ camouflage look (!) it is just a fine surface filler. Can you imagine the pages of discussion that would generate? We actually thought that red with a name change from ‘Pendennis’ to ‘Hogwarts’ might be a plan (also kidding!).
2. This is the new injector set up. As has been written in various magazines, the Australians just didn’t get on with the GWR injectors and so changed them, understandably, to units they were more familiar with. The originals were sent back to the UK and the exhaust injector we think is the one now under ‘Earl of Mount Edgcumbe’ – perhaps one of the Tyseley crew will confirm this? As a result we are equipping 4079 with 2 new GWR pattern live steam injectors (against the expense of having a new exhaust one made). This is the current state of play here.
3. An overview of the frames. The wider grey saddle section is the one we had to take out in order to have the exhaust pipe flange repaired. 2 days to remove (not including the construction of the jig to remove the fitted bolts) and a further 2 days to refit with between 2 to 5 people working on it depending on what was going on. When it is said like this, it is understandable why it is taking us so long!
4. The outside right cross head. All of her bearing surfaces almost without exception have been renewed. There are 6 white metal bearings on the rods and crossheads and a couple of bronze bushes just the rods on this side. All of the white metal here on this side is new as is one of the bronzes. The slide bars were also misaligned and required a new brass packing piece to be machined and re-shimming in order to correct it.
5. 4079 came back from Australia with steam operated cylinder cocks. The Oz crew tells me that these were fitted before her holiday in the sun began and so must have been fitted in the UK some time in the 1970’s. The new valves are being machined and this is part of the new linkage set up. There are a good number of these valves that have to operate simultaneously so the set up is quite complex!
6. The view underneath the frames and looking aft towards the crank axle of the leading driving wheel set. This space is only going to get more and more cramped as the various components and systems go back in!

All the best!

The 4079 Restoration Crew

 

Excellent work... all looking very good. Is this a new large tender to replace the small one she ran with last time?

 

She has always had a large tender in preservation. She had a small one when new.

 

Hi All,

As Buseng says, Pendennis Castle has only run in preservation with the larger 4,000 gallon tender. She was originally fitted with the 3,500 gallon version when constructed in 1924 and was fitted with her first 4,000 gallon version (surprisingly for some, to the Dean and not Collett pattern initially according to our records) in November 1926. Her tender as is today is in some ways the least ‘authentic’ major bit of 4079 as it was only fitted to her for one day in BR service. As part of the preparations for the high speed run that ended her service career in 1964, a full boiler and tender wash out was performed and when they refilled the tender it leaked like a sieve! The sludge was making it watertight! As a result tender No. 2913 (built originally for No. 6954 Lotherton Hall) was fitted and the rest is history.

By way of an update, the reverser mechanism was fitted this weekend after the renewal of the threaded section that secures the handle was finished in order to prevent the handle coming of at speed! More updates as they happen…

All the best!

The 4079 Restoration Crew

 

This is all very interesting, however I wasn't aware that Dean had designed a 4000 gallon tender, just out of interest what was it designed for, as far as I can recall even the Churchward (Dean) loco has a 3500 tender?