Where has the year gone? I can’t believe the end of the year is upon us again; I think next year to save time, I will leave my Christmas tree up as I’m sure I only just took it down! It may have gone quickly, but as usual it’s been another busy year with our […]
Category: News
Our summer engineering report starts with the acquisition of the tender wheels. We were very pleased, and to be honest a little surprised after we received a positive response to our renewed offer to purchase these wheels via the Bluebell Railway’s board of directors. Chris Irving and I made a site visit to examine their […]
Wheelsets bought from the Bluebell railway suit a BR2A tender Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd to build new tender after 76077 returns to service ‘Sponsor a Spoke’ shareholder appeal raises cost of purchase and profiling 28 June 2023: Toddington Standard Locomotive Limited (TSLL), owner of standard class 4 2-6-0 no. 76077, has confirmed that the engine […]
At LMS Loughborough, the cylinder cladding has been trial fitted to the Left Hand Side cylinder. Although we already had the cladding sheets that Chris Hinton had made many years ago, we have had to spend a considerable amount of time getting everything to fit together correctly. The drawings for these items are sketchy to […]
News from the Workshop by Andy Meredith, TSLL Engineering Director At Loughborough, work has started on the brake gear for the locomotive. The brake cross beams that connect to the bottom of the hangers and transfer the force from the brake pull rods to the brake blocks have had the old sleeves removed on two […]
After the flurry of activity in July and September the last few months have been comparatively quiet, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress in many areas. At Loughborough the new brackets for the sand ejectors have been completed and fitted to the frames. This has allowed our previously machined sand ejectors to be […]
One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is “what will you do about building a tender for 76077?”. In this article I will try and explain the history that resulted in the loss of our tender and what options there are to provide our locomotive with a new one. First of all, it’s worth […]
August was a very busy month at LMS with lots of work on 76077 in preparation for our shareholder and supporters day in September. The coupling rod bushes have all been re-metalled, machined and pressed back into the coupling rods. The leading and driving bushes were a good tight press fit in the rods, the […]
The GWSR steam gala gave us the opportunity to show off progress on our Locomotive’s restoration. As costs prevented us transporting the loco to Toddington, we displayed a number of significant completed parts, together with a video slideshow of the locomotive being reassembled at LMS in Loughborough. It was great to meet up with some […]
Apologies for the late arrival of this workshop update, with the GWSR Steam Gala fast approaching I found myself busier than ever trying to prepare things for our sale stand (more about this next month). Back to our loco and the painting of the inside of the frames is now almost complete, only the rear […]
Work continues at Loughborough with the painting of the inside of the locomotive frames. The reversing shaft has been refurbished and is ready for fitting when the inside frame paintwork is completed. All the pins that secure the horn guide frame stays have been hardened to reduce wear together with the latest batch of brake […]
Work at Loughborough has seen the replacement steam operated drain cock castings and the internal parts for these completed. We are now just awaiting the seals and then the drain cocks will be completely assembled ready to be fitted to the cylinders after they are bored next year. The machining of the castings for these […]
Work during the month of September has consisted of building the main smokebox structure and the door assembly. The smokebox has been a challenging build as the drawings differed to the old smokebox quite considerably. The original smokebox we had was permanently attached to the boiler previously fitted to 76077 and 76012, before being finally […]
Restoration work on the cab has commenced at Unity Engineering under the management of Chris Baldwin who has also done work on GWSR shed mate 35006 P&O. Where possible, we are repairing and retaining original material (in red oxide) and replacing metal where its impractical to repair (Grey primer). The whole cab is being built […]
Following on from the successful re-wheeling of the locomotive’s frames, our attention has been split between the manufacture of a brand new smokebox and the completion of the spring gear to enable the locomotives weight to be transferred on to the springs. Locomotive Spring Gear The original driving axle springs which were overhauled at Swindon […]
On Thursday 17 June 2021, your locomotive passed a major milestone in its restoration. The driving wheels and pony truck were installed under the frames of 76077, for the first time in more than 30 years. They were originally removed when the first restoration attempt started in 1989. The re-wheeling was carried out in just […]
As I write this at the beginning of April the world does seem to be on the way to returning to normal again. The GWSR is to reopen on 13th April and most importantly for TSLL a return to volunteering on the 76077 project is now a reality. While the railway settles back into operation […]
Due to the current nationwide lockdown work to re-wheel the locomotive has been delayed. As well as paid engineering work, there is still some voluntary work required to paint the wheel sets and parts of the loco’s frames before we are in a position to fit the driving wheels. I am hoping that the frames […]
Since my last report, much progress has been made and particularly reassembling the rear drag box. The riveting of the frames has now been completed and our volunteer working parties (when not on lockdown) have been doing a sterling job filling, sanding and topcoating the frames. The axle boxes have also been white metalled ready […]
Since the pony truck was completed work has concentrated of three main areas. Front drag box repairs, rear drag box replacement and axle box refurbishment. What follows is an update on progress so far. 1 – Front Drag box The decision was taken earlier in the year to replace additional corroded steelwork in the front […]
Our component sponsorship program gives our supporters and shareholders the opportunity to purchase specific components and in return, receive an equivalent value in shares and be added to our supporters roll of honour. This is a most visible way to support our project as many of the components are prominent features that will be visible […]
STANDARD 76077 RESTORATION TROTS PAST PONY TRUCK MILESTONE ‘Real progress’ being made despite lockdown measures Complete pony truck a ‘huge boost’ for supporters Over £25,000 share investments made over recent weeks Winchcombe, 2nd June 2020: Restoration of British Railways Standard Class 4 2-6-0 no. 76077 owned by Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd (TSLL), has passed […]
While all of our volunteers have been locked down under Covid-19 restrictions, our contractors at LMS have been able to continue to work on the loco safely and in line with Government safe working guidelines. We are pleased to announce that the Pony Truck has now been fully refurbished and reassembled for the first […]
With the current Coronavirus lockdown, our scheduled working party had to be cancelled. However, LMS are continuing to operate with key workers during the lockdown and observing strict isolation working practices, our technical Director Andy has been able to complete some limited work on the loco. So far, Andy has constructed the new pony truck […]
We were thrilled to be alerted to the existence of some fabulous paintings of our loco at Barry Scrapyard. The paintings were made by the railway artist Brian Sefton. His son Matt is in the process of producing a coffee table book of his father’s artwork and has kindly granted us permission to use these […]
A very good day at LMS in Loughborough on Saturday 22nd February when good progress was made on the frames, pony truck wheels and small components.