Significant milestone reached in construction of Mikado steam locomotive No. 2007 Prince of Wales

Yesterday, 1st February, the construction of LNER P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales passed a significant milestone.

Both sets of coupling rods, which connect all 8 driving wheels together, were fitted to the locomotive for the first time.

The left hand side coupling rod had been mounted on the crank pins for the trust’s 2021 Convention, but a rather large amount of machining work was needed to complete the bearing bushes and gradient pins for the second set of coupling rods.

The process of fitting coupling rods is completed by using four small chain hoists suspended using sky hooks under the footplate on each side of the locomotive. These can be seen below.

David Elliott and Ed Laxton prepare to lift the first coupling rod to be fitted — Credit: A1SLT

The hoists avoids the need for manual handling of the rods, which can be a hazardous practice, especially on a locomotive like 2007.

For the first set of rods, the crank pins are set by eye to be at the same angle. The rod assembly is lifted and swung into place over the longest crank pins first. Small corrections in the positions of the other crank pins are made by oiling the contact point between each wheel and the rail. Once the rod bushes are fully home on the crank pins, the other side can be fitted with a reasonable expectation that the crank pins line up.

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The engine has now been moved about half a turn of the wheels to check nothing was binding anywhere – there wasnt any, meaning all the measurements were all correct.

P2 Director of Engineering, David Elliott remarked, “It was with satisfaction (and relief) that the second set of rods slid onto their crank pins with distinct “thunk” noise.”

A spokesperson for the P2 Steam Locomotive Company said “We look forward to the next part of this process whereby the locomotive is lifted onto the rotator for the wheels to turn for longer periods at higher rpm. Watch this space!”