The Project Class 22 Society has released a September update on the progress made on their Class 22 locomotive.
Work has been progressing at a steady pass on much of the background work tasks.
The group have decided to concentrate on the practical aspects of the project. This covers the design and development of the locomotive.
The main areas of the activity completed have focused on CAD Design, purchasing drawings, research into documents, compiling a components list and locating components.
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
In September 2017, the society gained a new committee member, Andrew Thomas. Andrew is a full-time CAD engineer who works in the industrial business, he has therefore taken on the role as Head of Design Engineering.
This work is intense and time-consuming, however, it provides Project 22 with the critical drawings that it needs.
Purchase of drawings
Doug Parfitt, the project manager, has been working for 3 years to list and locate drawings that are needed to provide Andrew with the data needed to produce the CAD drawings.
The project has a fully catalogued list of drawings needed and are now locating them and purchasing both hard and electronic copies. It will now take another 3 years to collect all the drawings that they need.
Getting the drawings are not as straightforward as it seems. They have listed those that they need, but it can take several weeks to locate batches of 20 at a time.
The group have purchased 350 of the 860 drawings required.
Research into documents and manuals
In addition to the blueprints that the group need, there are many other documents that they require, this includes component manuals, brake and wiring diagrams. Much of this information is available from the National Railway Museum. Regular visits have been taking place, with more planned in 2019.
Component List
An important area of development is completing a component list for a D6300 locomotive. The list will identify the components used in the original locomotive will cross-reference those parts available and compatible that can be recovered from existing locomotives.
Locating components
The group have already purchased an NBL MAN power unit. The next task is to find a transmission. The group have located several around the world, this is the holy grail of the project – the Voith LT306R.
The future?
There is many different projects going on within the group.
The group believes that their decision to reduce the level of marketing was the right move, as they were very much in danger of peaking too soon.
Project 22 still need to recruit working members who can help use reach their aim, of the first stage of assembly by 2022.
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