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CAMPAIGN TO RAISE £210,000 TO MANUFACTURE THE MOTION FOR BRITAIN’S MOST POWERFUL STEAM LOCOMOTIVE STEAMS PAST £100,000 The Motion Club recruits 80 members and coupling & connecting rods are in production We are pleased to announce The Motion Club, which was launched in April 2018, has raised over £100,000 of its £210,000 objective and welcomed almost half of its 175-member target. The Motion Club aims to raise £210,000 through 175 supporters each donating £1,000 (plus Gift Aid), in up to eight payments of £125, to manufacture the motion for new Gresley class P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales. In order to complete No. 2007 Prince of Wales by 2021, the Trust needed to order the heavy motion this year. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters and the rapid uptake of The Motion Club, the Trust was confident enough to place the £181,000 order with Stephenson Engineering Ltd of Atherton, Manchester for the heavy motion in May. The order included the forging, machining and heat treatment of the nine heavy motion rods - intermediate coupling rod LH/RH, trailing coupling rod LH/RH, leading coupling rod LH/RH, outside connecting rod LH/RH and the inside connecting rod assembly (including strap, gluts and strap nuts and washers) – and the combined piston and rod. The motion is expected to be delivered in batches between December 2018 and December 2019, with the first items, the intermediate coupling rods, expected to be delivered towards the end of December 2018. Orders to follow for the detail motion parts include rod bushes, oil box covers and miscellaneous components.

Progress to date - Mandy Grant

Lentz/Franklin valve gear drawn in 3D CAD - David Elliott

Following the success of The Founders Club (to get the project to the point of cutting the frames), the Trust decided to establish The Motion Club to raise an estimated £210,000 required to manufacture No. 2007’s motion. In return for supporting this appeal, special benefits for members of The Motion Club include:

• Opportunity to buy ticket (seat already reserved) on one of the first trains hauled by No. 2007 Prince of Wales
• Reasonable access to No. 2007 at all times
• Opportunity to buy exclusive Motion Club badge
• Opportunity to join one of the teams building No. 2007
• First choice of other components to sponsor
• Special Motion Club day with Tornado
• Special limited-edition version (signed/numbered) of Stuart Black’s drawing of No. 2007 Prince of Wales.

The work involved in designing and manufacturing the motion includes:

• Redesign of coupling and connecting rods to use modern material (pre-war nickel chrome steel alloy proved prone to fracture)
• Incorporation of late-pattern BR-type continuous white metal lined crank pin bearing bushes
• Use of the late-A1 design of inside connecting rod which overcame the tendency for the original design of inside connecting rods on LNER ‘Pacifics’ to big-end failure
• Open die forging of six coupling rods, two outside connecting rods and the inside connecting rod and strap
• CNC machining of all rods
• Manufacture of oil box lids, coupling rod knuckle pins, nuts and washers and bearing bush keys
• Casting of leaded gunmetal and phosphor bronze castings of crank pin bearing bushes
• Machining and white metalling of bearing bushes
• Fitting oil box tops
• Assembly of bearing bushes to rods
• Polishing rods.

Mark Allatt, P2 Project Director and Trustee, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented: “We are delighted with the level of support that the project to build Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive has received since its launch. Thanks to our supporters’ continued generosity, over £3m has now been donated or pledged. Recently, we have focused on the wheeling of No. 2007 and completing the boiler cladding. We now want to turn our attention to the motion which is our next major design and manufacturing challenge. Given the level of support The Motion Club has received in just three months, we are confident we can raise the additional £110,000 needed to pay for the heavy motion, and remain on-track for completion of new Gresley class P2 locomotive, No. 2007Prince of Wales in 2021” For more information on how to join The Motion Club, please click here, email enquiries@p2steam.com or call 01325 460163