Build Diary entries for November 2017

Here are the diary entries for this month. You can use the forward and backward links to see the next or previous months. Most photos taken before 2018 are small size. From 2018 onwards, most photos you see below will have a link to a full size image by clicking on the photo.

Previous Month

Return to 2017

Next Month

Full Steam Ahead!
10/11/2017
	THE ‘CLAN’ PROJECT are proud to announce that the order for the assembly of the chassis of 72010 HENGIST has been placed, and that work has already commenced on the first phase of construction. The contract to assemble the chassis has been awarded, after much deliberation and negotiation, to Sheffield based Engineering Group, CTL Seal. Many of the frame components were manufactured there, and CTL Seal were thrilled to be offered the opportunity to assemble the whole structure, seeing this as a prestige and historic project. CTL Seal have previous experience working in the rail industry, and our choice of them has been approved by our Vehicle Acceptance Body, Wayne Jones and Partners, who visited the works some weeks ago for a guided tour. Please keep coming back to our website for the latest information, and photographs of construction progressing. STANDARD STEAM LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY LIMITED and CTL Seal Ltd – two companies with one vision – A locomotive for the 21st century.
Frame Plates arrive at CTL Seal
17/11/2017
	This photo was photo taken at CTL Seal on 17 November showing Geoff Turner SSLC Eng Dir (Blue Top) and Luke England CTL Manager (Yellow High Viz Top) and the 72010 Hengist Main Frames and Extension situated in CTL's Erection Shop. Sorry about the image quality but we reckon this picture is an important key point in the project.
Bogie wheel centers ordered
21/11/2017
	Thanks to generous donations from supporters we have placed the order for the four wheel centres (shown as part of the bogie of 'Britanna' Oliver Cromwell above) required for the front bogie. These will be delivered unmachined and without tyres but will be fully tested in line with requirements for a mainline steam locomotive. Many thanks for the donations! We do have the bogie frame plates in stock and the bogie and pony truck will be the next task after the frame erection along with the main driving wheels.
Frame Assembly Commences
24/11/2017
	On 24 November, members of the Council of Management and the Engineering Committee were able to see the start of frame assembly. Here the main frame plates have been bolted to the smokebox saddle and bolted to a base plate. Geoff M E Turner I Eng MIED Engineering Director reports As you can now see from the front cover of ‘Clan News’, and in the appeal, the purchase order for the frame assembly has now been placed and assembly work has commenced, following many months of meetings, planning and discussions. CTL Seal Ltd was, in the end, chosen to assemble the chassis for 72010 ‘HENGIST’; they have the space in a small bay with 15 tonneoverhead crane, big enough for the 40ft long chassis, within their huge assembly shop, to build the chassis without interfering with their day to day assembly of other large fabricated structures for the other industries to which they supply. As previously mentioned in other engineering reports, after part 1 of the assembly, (the small bolting or what CTL refer to as the black assembly), the chassis will be moved to the factory machine shop, in the adjacent building. This is for machining the hornguide faces and keep pads, by their latest computer numerical controlled machine (CNC), a Juarista 8M floor borer. When finish machined, the chassis will be returned to the assembly shop for final fitting out with fitted bolts and other components like Slide Bar Brackets and Motion Brackets; the assembly will also be painted here. Although CTL Seal are approved suppliers to the rail industry, supplying components to Wabtec, Lucchini Unipart Rail Limited and Brush Traction, we sought the advice of John Graham (VAB), who was given a guided tour of the engineering works. During this tour we saw, by coincidence, a HST power bogie, which had been weld repaired at CTL, was being machined on the CNC Butler Elga Mill and John said that, in his professional railway experience of many years, he was more than satisfied with CTL’s capability, together with their excellent approach to QA and Documentation, for assembling and machining the chassis for 72010 ‘HENGIST’. In previous editions of ‘Clan News’, the engineering reports have reported on the discussions held with Colin Green of Riley & Son (E) Ltd.; in our last meeting with Colin and his team there was talk that, if we were to place an order with them, they had only about a 3 month window of opportunity, later on in the year, to build the chassis (providing we had all parts and funding in place). Unfortunately we are not in that position - there are still some parts which need finish machining and we still need to raise much needed funds. Many thanks must go to Colin, and his team, for their time in meetings and discussions to work through the assembly process with us and we are indebted to them for the knowledge that has been passed on. No doubt we shall be placing orders with them in the future, probably for specialist work such as the mounting of wheels on axles, wheel turning etc; as they are a RISAS (Rail Industry Supplier Accreditation Scheme) accredited company. Although 10 ‘Clan’ class locomotives have been built previously by British Railways Crewe Works, who were very experienced locomotive builders with years and years of experience; for any engineering company to build 72010 ’HENGIST’ today, it is effectively building a prototype. With that, go all the inherent snags of a first build, despite the fact that in planning and, thinking you have covered all the eventualities, Sod (from Sod’s law) will throw a spanner in the works, causing problems and delays. Anyone experienced in building machines, in batches, will know that it is not until about the third one that is built, when the snags have been resolved, that the rest of the batch can run smoothly. Not only can CTL Seal cope with snags and delays, we are especially grateful to them in that, they are prepared to take on, and start, the work while we are still fundraising for the final stage payment. With the build process organised in stages – payment terms have been agreed so that payments will be made in stages too - work can flow or resume as and when stages are paid for and completed. While all the planning for the chassis has been going on, Tony Dance has been beavering away making the pattern for the cylinders, nearly completing the main cylinder chest. At the AGM in July, a member, Roger, asked what would be the next section of ’HENGIST’ to be built. We replied that this would be the front Bogie - as we have a number of bogie parts in stock. As Roger wanted to see progress made, he very kindly made a donation for the Bogie Wheels so, with his donation, and that of another member, Ashley, we have now placed an order for the four Bogie Wheel Centre castings, which should be ready for delivery in early 2018. Many thanks to our members and donors, for their generosity in raising funds for the components, but now, as we move onto the assembly, we need to keep the funds flowing into the project, to complete this phase of the chassis. Full steam ahead!!
Bogie Wheel Patterns being loaded
30/11/2017
	On 30 November, Bob Stowell loaded the bogie wheel pattern for its journey to Boro Foundry in Lye, Stourbridge for the casting of the 4 bogie wheels.