Order placed with DV Meiningen for design work on boiler for Prince of Wales loco
Published Tue, 2018-10-09 10:40
The project to build new Gresley class P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales is delighted to announced that it has placed a £50,000 with DB Meiningen for the design work on the new steam locomotive’s boiler.
Photography:
Gresley class P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales. ©
The changes and improvements to the boiler, to be designated diagram 118B, are as a result of operating new Peppercorn class A1 No. 60163 Tornado over the past 10 years on the Network Rail main line and heritage railways. The Trust issued an invitation to tender to manufacture Prince of Wales’ boiler to over ten organisations in the UK and overseas and has received several proposals and expressions of interests. Over the next few months the Trust will review the proposals received with the intention of selecting a preferred supplier by December 2018 and placing the order in June 2019 for delivery in January 2021.
The class P2 2-8-2 ‘Mikado’ locomotives were the most powerful passenger steam locomotives to operate in the UK, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to haul 600 ton trains on the arduous Edinburgh to Aberdeen route. Sadly, the design was never fully developed and they were rebuilt in 1943/44 and scrapped by 1961. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust (registered charity and builders of famous new steam locomotive No. 60163 Tornado) is building the seventh member of this class, over seven to ten years at an estimated cost of £5m. The project will demonstrate how the design can be fully realised through use of modern computer design techniques, enabling the new locomotive to deliver its full potential hauling passenger trains at high speed across today’s national network.
The redesign work to Tornado’s diagram 118A boiler commissioned from DB Meiningen includes:
- Two additional washout doors in the front upper area of the boiler barrel
- Additional blow down valve flange to suit Everlasting Valve Company blow down valve
- Deleted boss on the dome (originally fitted to secure the dome cover)
- Increased thickness of the bottom of the foundation ring from 35mm to 40mm and use of forged foundation ring corners
- Stay holes will to be a cone of 15 degrees included angle on water side to prevent contact with stay shanks as firebox heats up
- Reduced height of dome by 1in (25.4 mm) and re-profiling of dome to clear boiler cladding on P2
- P (pressure vessel) grade steel used throughout
- Diameter of roof stays 25mm
- Washout doors with metric threads
- Stay welded with fillet weld
- Number of flexible stays increased
- Two additional steam take-offs on RH side of front of boiler barrel (for lubrication atomisers and whistle)
- Modified boss layout boiler cladding to suit both A1 and P2 locomotives
- Design according to PED, TRD and AD2000 with maximum allowable working pressure 17.25 bar (250 psi)
- Finite Element Analysis Stress and boiler calculations for modified dome
- Review and approval of design by TÜV (Notified Body)
The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust owns the existing diagram 118A design and will also retain the intellectual property from this exercise in order that the manufacturing contract can be competitive.
No. 2007’s boiler in detail:
- Use of diagram 118A Tornado boiler with detailed modifications to improve overhaul life
- Interchangeable with Tornado boiler
- Tornado boiler is 16.5in shorter than P2 boiler – No. 2007’s smoke box will be extended within the cladding
Mark Allatt, Trustee and P2 Project Director, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented:
“Placing the order for the improvements to No. 2007 Prince of Wales’ boiler marks a significant milestone in the project to build Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive. The boiler is the beating heart of a steam locomotive and to keep the construction of No. 2007 Prince of Wales on schedule for completion before the end of 2021 we need to place the order for the boiler in June 2019 for delivery in January 2021.
It is our desire if possible to complete No. 2007 debt-free and so we launched The Boiler Club in October 2014 to raise £600,000 to fund Prince of Wales’ boiler and we are already two-thirds of the way there. With this latest announcement, no-one can now doubt that we really mean business. The next few months will see further major announcements as the construction of the locomotive gathers pace. We are now appealing to those who want to be a part of this exciting project to become Covenantors, members of The Boiler Club and The Motion Club, sponsors and volunteers to help us maintain this momentum.”
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