We are coming to the end of making and supplying parts to take to Chatham Steam, but for some months this has been our priority.

At Chatham the bulk of the work has concerned the manufacture of the Superheater Elements, which are now completed.  Each element (there are forty of them) consists of four tubes and three 'U' bends, which have been welded together by a qualified Coded welder, as the Superheater has to be tested to the same standards as the pressure vessel. Metal straps hold each set of four tubes together, and these have been formed to shape and welded in place. Then the forward end of each element was formed to shape, a job requiring two men and a lot of space as the elements are about sixteen feet long. Sections of the original elements were used as patterns to arrive at the correct curvature, which was achieved with a combination of skill and heat.

Before the elements could be finished, the Superheater Header had to be prepared.  The Header is a massive casting which required heavy lifting gear just to get it on the milling machine table. The eighty seats for the elements were machined, along with the three seats for the main steam pipe outlets. The elements have a special spherical-faced fitting welded on the end, which allows for a good joint even if there is a slight misalignment between the angle of the tube and the Superheater Header.  Chatham Steam produced the 80 spherical end pieces easily on their CNC lathe.

Having been machined, the Header was placed upside down on the ground so that the Elements could be offered up to it.  The element pipes were then cut to length and a clamp and two collars were threaded over the pipe ends.  Finally, the spherical end pieces were inserted into the pipes and welded in place. The whole bank of Elements was then presented to the Header which was used as a jig so any misalignment problems could be sorted out before the Superheater assembly is installed in the Boiler.

The elements are clamped to the Header using special bolts and we had intended to use the originals recovered from the locomotive. However, when we mentioned our intention to other Bulleid owners the shaking of heads and sharp intakes of breath convinced us otherwise, and new bolts are on order!  It pays to talk to others who've been there before!

Back at Toddington, more blanking plates have been made, three for the steam outlets on the Header, four for the steam manifold, and one for the Blow Down valve at the bottom of the throat plate.   Also various studs and nuts have been made for the steam manifold and Klinger valves (four prominent valves at the top of the boiler back head), among others.  A lot of work has been done on the pins that hold the rods of the Valve Gear together. The pins have been machined, hardened and ground to size, though one has distorted and will have to be replaced. Otherwise they are complete, and we have started the process of carefully measuring the holes in the rods so we can machine the bushes to suit the pins and holes.  The bushes will then be pressed into the rods, and the pins can be finally fitted.

The last major part of the loco, the Brake Ejector, is now in our possession. We still need one or two chunky bits for the Tender brake gear, but there is nothing of the complexity or cost of this item outstanding. We have followed the progress of this item for about a year, so perhaps it is enough to say that the internals were finished off and the whole piece assembled - what a relief! Ours is a replica of the correct pattern of Brake Ejector for Merchant Navy locomotives. We could have got away with using an alternative design as other Bulleid owners have done, but we felt that wasn't quite 'right'.

To go with the Brake Ejector we were very lucky to be offered an original ejector exhaust pipe from a Merchant Navy loco.  The pipe fits between the Petticoat Pipe and the inside of the smoke box. It had been acquired by a Group restoring a Light Pacific, but fortunately (for us!) it won't fit that class of loco. It will no doubt need some 'tweaking' to get it to fit, but we're still very pleased to have another original piece.

Finally, an amusing tale that illustrates the superb quality of workmanship regularly achieved by our machinist at Toddington. Some new studs were made for the fire hole door casting. They were made to our usual standard and part painted to prevent rusting. We thought nothing of it.  When the studs were delivered to the boss at Chatham, he looked at them aghast and said he wouldn't fit them to our rusty old boiler, he was going to have them framed and displayed on the office wall!