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16th June 2008  Piston and valve rod packings have been fitted by Ian Howitt swiftly followed by pistons being fitted, the pistons attached to the crossheads and the cylinder and valve chest covers replaced for the last time before steaming. Peter Neesam has completed fitting of the remaining cladding between the centrelines of the outside cylinders and the frames.
22nd April 2008 The piston and valve rings have been delivered. Following a discussion with John Graham (CME of NELPG/The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust) we are no longer going to fit ring stops on the pistons as current practice is not to fit them. Steve Andrews of The Thompson B1 Locomotive Trust has produced the packings and Ian Howitt is completing spherical machining of the details. Peter Neesam has de-burred and cleaned out the steam and exhaust passages in the cylinders in anticipation of final assembly.
24th March 2008
6th March 2007
16 February 2007 The valve crossheads have now been white metalled and machined, and a trial fitting has been done.
30th October 2006
Fitting of the slide bars is complete, and work is nearing completion in fitting the piston rod/crosshead cotters.
The oil box tops for the crosshead drop arm boxes and machining of the valve spindle crossheads are now completed. The cross heads will soon be white metalled.
10th August 2006
The inside top slide bar has been final fitted to the inside cylinder. The order for machining of the valve spindle crossheads has been placed with Multi-Tech at Featherstone.
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The piston and valve rings are on order and Steve Andrews is making the piston rod packings for the Trust. Packing springs have been ordered from, and some delivered by The Tested Spring Company in Birmingham. The oil injection port in the middle of each cylinder has been drilled through the liner to meet the existing feeds from the lubricators.
Work being done this afternoon at DLW to split the piston crosshead
Over recent weeks we have been making great progress with the valve gear and motion components. The valve heads and spindles are now completed and are in the works in Darlington. The special spanners that we need to assemble the units are on order and the next job is to make the keys that locate the valve pistons on the spindles.
The valve spindles and heads are at last nearing completion at North View, in the mean time Ian Howitt has made the bronze bushes for the front valve chest covers and temporary steel bushes for the rear covers. These are to support a parallel bar to enable final setting of the valve spindle crosshead guides which is being done by Steve Wood under Ian’s supervision.