First cylinder components for P2 steam locomotive delivered

The P2 Steam Locomotive Company has announced that they have had the first components for the cylinder block to be used on 2007 Prince of Wales delivered.

The three-cylinder cover castings have been made from Spheroidal Graphite Iron and were produced by H. Downs & Sons foundry in Huddersfield from a pattern produced by John Hazlehurst of Swineshead near Boston.

Work has continued, in the meantime, on the redesign of P2 No. 2001 Cock o' the North's monobloc cylinder casting to a welded fabrication incorporating the improved version of the Lentz rotary cam poppet valve gear developed by the Franklin Company in the USA in the mid-1940s.

The work involved in designing and manufacturing No. 2007's new cylinder block includes (from the P2 website):

• Converting the original class P2 one-piece casting into a welded fabrication including Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to check for structural integrity
• Improving the layout of the valves to reduce the clearance volume (which affects cylinder efficiency)
• Re-routing the steam and exhaust passages to physically separate them to prevent incoming steam from heating the outgoing exhaust
• Increasing the size and improving internal streamlining of steam passages along Chapelon lines to increase maximum power and improve economy
• Reducing the overall width of the cylinder block to provide Prince of Wales with the widest possible route availability on the main line.

Mark Allatt, P2 Project Director and Trustee, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, commented,

“We are delighted to announce that the first cylinder components for No. 2007 Prince of Wales, in the shape of the three cylinder cover castings, have been delivered to Darlington Locomotive Works having been cast by H. Downs & Sons Ltd of Huddesfield. This follows on from our announcement in March 2018 that The Cylinder Club, founded to pay for the cylinder block, had reached its 100 members target two months early. This meant that this critical part of No. 2007 Prince of Wales is now fully funded through the £100,000 plus Gift Aid donated by our supporters. Our engineering team continues to work on the technical design of the cylinder block with the intention for placing an order for the fabrication in the first quarter of 2019 for delivery towards the end of 2019.

 “Now is the time to get on board this ground-breaking project and help the Trust to raise the £5m needed to ensure its completion in 2021.”

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