This is your opportunity to sponsor a component throughout the twelve days of Christmas and help to build Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive

This Christmas members of the public will once again be able to sponsor a component on Britain’s newest and most powerful express passenger steam locomotive. For a limited time only, parts for giant new Gresley class P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales will be available for sponsorship to people who are not members of The Founders Club, which funded the project’s dramatic racing-start, or its ‘P2 for the price of a pint’ monthly covenantors. Components sponsored through the Dedicated Donations Scheme range in price from one of over 1,000 driven bolts & nuts for £25 to the complete exhaust steam injector for £15,000 – an ideal Christmas present for the railway enthusiast in your family.

People who subscribe to the Dedicated Donations Scheme will have their names (or that of the gift’s recipient) inscribed on the official roll of honour at Darlington Locomotive Works listing the components sponsored, receive a certificate recording the sponsorship and a copy of the drawing of the component. New components for sponsorship will become available as construction progresses.

Mark Allatt, P2 Project Director and Trustee, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented, “This Christmas you can buy a part of giant new steam locomotive No. 2007 Prince of Wales for the railway enthusiast in your family before it is completed; what could be a more appropriate present than helping to recreate the lost days of the steam age? One of the key ways in which we are raising funds for the new locomotive is through supporters sponsoring particular components either on their own behalf, or as a gift for others.”

The lucky recipient of this gift will receive an A4 copy drawing of the component sponsored and a certificate recognising the sponsorship with the dedication worded however the giver wishes. The recipient will have the satisfaction of pointing to the component they have sponsored when the locomotive enters service on Britain’s main line railway in 2021. We have many parts on offer, from individual nuts and bolts to the wheels and chimney, ranging in price from £25 to £15,000.”

Components available for sponsorship for the twelve days of Christmas include:

• 1^st day of Christmas – one Pony truck axle at £4,440
• 2^nd day of Christmas – two buffer spring casings cowls at £1,200 each
• 3^rd day of Christmas – three cylinder crossheads complete at £3,700 each
• 4^th day of Christmas – four Cartazzi wheelset roller bearings at £1,590 each
• 5^th day of Christmas – five kilometres of electrical cable at £2,750
• 6^th day of Christmas – six lubricator atomisers at £350 each
• 7^th day of Christmas – seven upper superheater elements at £900 each
• 8^th day of Christmas – eight 6ft 2in driving wheels cast and proof machined for £12,000 each
• 9^th day of Christmas – nine cylinder slide bars from £900 to £1,700 each
• 10^th day of Christmas – ten hornblock oil boxes from £600 to £800 each
• 11^th day of Christmas – eleven firebox cladding sheets from £400 - £900
• 12^th day of Christmas – twelve engine wheel tyres from £1,200 to £1,900 each

…with other parts at prices to suit all pockets, however deep.

Mark Allatt added, “On the First day of Christmas my true love gave to me a pony truck axle for a P2. On the Second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two buffer spring casings. On the Third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three piston crossheads. On the Fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four Cartazzi wheelset roller bearings. On the Fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five kilometres of electrical cable. On the Sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six lubricator atomisers spraying. On the Seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven upper superheater elements drying. On the Eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight 6ft 2in driving wheels a rolling. On the Ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine cylinder slide bars guiding. On the Tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten hornblock oil boxes oiling. On the Eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven cladding sheets warming. On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve tyres a turning… and a pony truck axle for a P2.”