03rd August 2026 – Update

Posted by The London Midland Society on August 3, 2026

It’s been a while sice we last updated our website, and although we regularly post pictures and updates on our Instagram, Flickr and Facebook pages, we are probably overdue for an update here.

PMV S1153S

The overhaul, partial re-plank and repaint of our PMV have pretty much been completed now apart from the odd ‘finishing off’ punch list items, which will be attended to as and when.

Finalising the repair of the floor on the Eastern side of the PMV.

Newly sign-written lettering on the North-Eastern corner following some further plank replacement

Our mid-week gang stalwart Dave has put in 1000s of hours on the PMV since 2020. As a vote of thanks for his tireless effort, he was presented with this O gauge model (Heljan) on a commemorative stand.

Dave’s commemomrative model prior to handover.

LMS 12Ton Box Van No. 524430

This is the ‘other’ vehicle in our small fleet, and serves as a heavy store van for loco parts and tooling, etc. Whilst it has had various attention over the years, and at first glance appears in reasonable condition, it is actually in dire need of some serious TLC. Leaving aside the ocassional visit to railway works and covered goods sheds and stations whilst it was in service, this van has essentially been ‘outside’ for the majority of its life (81 years old at time of writing). We have therefore bitten the bullet and commenced a rolling overhaul to fix the rot and replace the sides with new plywood, as well as in the fullness of time re-covering the roof and undertaking a cosmetic overhaul of the chassis.

A view of one corner of the van above the bufferstock showing how bad the deterioration is. Rotten floor board and disintegrating plywood sides… and it’s like this pretty much all over.

A view of the side of the van showing the remains of the plywood side boards and evidence of earlier ‘botch’ repairs carried out some time ago.

One of the mid-side vertical support channels which provide rigidity to the van and give the plywood side something to bolt to. As you can see, this has rotted away to nothing on the lower 8″ or so.

Bottom section of the side panel support ‘U’ piece showing what’s left – or rather what isn’t left – of the lower section.

Because trying to weld repair this U piece turned out to be almost impossible, we are going to make some new sections to allow a better and stronger repair to be made. This press tool has been knocked up from bits of old steel scrap and off-cuts to allow us to press out some new sections. Seen here in our 100T hydraulic press, which unfortunately decided to break down just as we were pressing the first piece…

This van dates from 1945, and was believed to have been made at the LMS’s Wolverton works. LMS vehicles were fitted with maker’s ‘Lot plates’, and although the originals were long gone, we did have in our posession an example from another wagon. From this a plastic pattern was made and new plates are being cast in readiness for fitting to the solebar when the overhaul is completed. (The lot number is a guess based on the likely number for vans built at Wolverton in 1945).

Pattern after completion and painting in pattern coat. Ready for the foundry.

First casting shortly after release from the mould at Bristol Foundry

After drilling of the mounting holes, the plate was test fitted to the solebar and found to fit perfectly.

In addition to the ‘Lot’ plates, all LMS vans were also fitted with numberplates. Although the originals were available, they were sadly lost in a house clearance many years ago, and thus we will have to make new ones. Here is the pattern for these prior to delivery to the foundry. The lettering style/font was copied from an original plate and with reference to various books to ensure the font style is correct as possible.

At the time of this update, the new numberplates have not yet been cast, however they are in work at Bristol Foundry in Winterbourne. Here we see one of the sand moulds almost ready to be closed prior to pouring in the molten cast iron.

There is a long way to go yet with the work on this van, however once it’s done we are confident that the vehicle will look much more presentable and almost ‘as new’, like this example of the same type, No. 524034.

Tender Chassis Progress

Since the chassis was turned the right way up in 2025, work has focused on various small tasks which couldn’t be done with it upside down. In addition, we have been working on the drawgear and front end of the chassis where the tender footplate is situated.

Rivets on the top of the rear dragbox have been ground flush

Two final rivets in the front bufferbeam have been installed. (For various reasons it was just too hard to do these with the chassis upside down!).

The tender is coupled to the loco via a large diameter and heavy duty drawbar (more on that downpage), but in addition there are also two “safety links” provided such that the tender won’t separate from the loco if the drawbar fails for whatever reason. (This was not unknown and did happen from time to time, e.g. in the early days of the BR Britannia Pacifics). We have the original pair of safety links, but they are more than somewhat tired and worn out, so it was decided to make new ones. These were profile milled from a solid billet of steel plate. Here we see one of them after marking out.

After many hours of work on the vertical milling machine, here we have the two new safety links (in the middle), next to the battered, worn and rusted originals.

The safety links are affixed to the front dragbox of the tender by large pins which are inserted vertically. Again, the originals are too far gone to be reused, and new ones were made. Here we see them after painting, and including the two new locking pins which stop them from lifting out. The eyebolts in the head are a modification intended to assist in removing these pins whenever the tender is uncoupled from the loco.

The loco-tender drawbar was available but was corroded in places as well as being slightly bent and with worn slot and holes. This has been built-up with weld to restore the original dimensions, and subsquently machined back to size. Because of the thickness of the material (2.875″) and to ensure no cracking, a strict weld procedure was followed involving pre-heat and use of hydrogen-controlled electrodes, as well as staged welding to minimise distortion. This took a lot of time and a large number of welding rods (around 600!), but was worth the effort.

Following welding, the drawbar centre section was machined on the lathe.

And the ends were machined on the vertical milling machine to bring the slots back to minimum tolerance

Here we see the refurbished drawbar after machining completed.

Here is the repaired drawbar undergoing dye penetrant inspection to check for any cracking (none found!)

Here is the drawbar and its two baby brother safety links installed in the front dragbox. A new pin was made for the drawbar, and the top of that can just be seen here.

A view on the top of the front dragbox showing the new drawbar pin and two safety link pins

Also at the front of the tender is a complicated arrangement of platework which holds not only the front steps on to the chassis, but also the front section of tender lower footplating, the sub-frame for the upper footplate and the mounting plates for the handbrake and water scoop stansion pipes. After much head-scratching over the complex tender chassis drawing, the dimensions of the platework were worked out, and profile milled from 20mm thick plate. Here we see one of these plates prior to painting.

Here is the other plate on the LHS of the chassis – this is the lower section of footplate which will marry up with that of the tank when it is dropped into place. One may also see the joggled semi-triangular plate which holds – on the LHS – the handbrake stansion pipe in position. This is all just a trial setup prior to riveting all this together.

Here is perhaps a more explantory image showing the whole setup. We are on the LHS of the chassis looking forward and we see the lower footplate, the handbrake stansion support plate, one of the original handbrake stansions (in position temporarily pending delivery of new castings), as well as the footplate/sub-frame assembly in position. Eventually the enginemens’ boots will be standing on the surface where the steel set square is sitting. Hopefully you get the idea….

The tender has steps in each corner to allow the enginemen to climb up both into the loco’s cab, and also the back end of the tender. These are extremely heavy duty being made from 1/2″ thick steel plate with substantial treads, all riveted together. Four new steps for our tender were made many years ago, being riveted in our hydraulic press. Here we see the back side of the front left hand set of steps.

Here is the back side of the rear LHS steps after a first coat of black topcoat.

Painting thinigs in our workshop is never ideal due to the dusty floor. However, this first pair of steps is providing the opportunity for our painting team to practice obtaining a decent finish by use of wet and dry paper in between coats. Here we see the first coat of black being cut back to remove a few lumps and bumps (aka house bricks).

Loco Snifting Valves

The loco is fitted with ‘Snifting’ valves on the cylinder block. These are a one-way valve that allow air to enter the steam chest when the loco is coasting, with the idea being to prevent a vaccum being created in the cylinders by the reciprocating motion of the pistons, thus avoiding ash from the smokebox being drawn into the cylinders. Like many components on 4123 we had a partial set of bits for the two snifting valves we need, and because no drawing is available, had to back-engineer the internals and details. Finally, after many years of on/off work by our Crewe East machine shop in London, the snifting valves are completed and in store to join the growing list of items being moved from the “to do” list.

The LHS snifting valve can just be made out on the side of the cylinder block on this wonderful pic of 44123 at Standish Junction on 23rd June 1964. **Photo credit Mr Graham Peters**.

Here we see all the components of the snifting valves prior to assembly. Of the 51 components you see here, only five are original with the rest being newly made.

Here is one of the snifting valves during assembly. The ‘pepper pot’ with the holes in is actually a dirt strainer which prevents any large pieces of dirt from the oustide world from being drawn into the cylinders whilst air is being admitted. There are 1,560 2mm diameter holes in this, all of which were drilled manually using a dividing rotary table on a milling machine – so that’s 3,120 holes in total for the pair of valves – a task very firmly in the “never again” category.

One of the pepper pots on the vertical milling machine having its holes drilled. Machinists are requested not to look too closely at the setup for this… but… it worked! No CNC machines involved in this nightmare of a machining job!

The finished pair of snifting valves all assembled and fitted with wooden blanking plates to protect the mounting flange face.

The LHS snifting valve fully assembled with the body painted in heat resistant black paint. The elbow fitting on top is a steam take-off and is only fitted to the LH valve.

That’s about it for this update. For regular snippets of what we are up to and progress being made on this big restoration project, check out our Flickr account, Instagram, or Facebook Group. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

14th June 2025 – Tender Chassis Turnover

Posted by The London Midland Society on June 16, 2025

On Saturday 14th June we turned over our new-build tender chassis to get it the right way up so we can finish off the last remaining pieces of work before re-wheeling.

Tender chassis in our workshop – constructed upside down for ease of access – but we have done everything we can in this position, and it needs to be turned over.

At this point, the chassis weighs approximately 5 tons, so obviously turning it over with our 2 ton gantry crane in the workshop is a non-starter – even if there was room to do so. This meant that the chassis needed to be moved outside. The easiest way of doing this would be to roll it out via the AVR goods shed, and transport it by rail into the yard. However, because of other priorities, the AVR wasn’t able to support this move, so we had to go out the other way, via our roller door. Unfortunately, this meant moving our largest machine tool – a DeVlieg Jigmill out of the way a little – an operation which required jacking it up and moving it backward by about 10 inches so that the chassis would be able to squeeze by.

The following series of pictures show how we got the chassis out of the workshop and turned it over.

The chassis is inched out of our shed on its accomodation dillies. Traction provided by the AVR’s forklift.

Forklift getting ready to haul the first ‘train’ that the tender chassis was part of.

Once the chassis was outside, the opportunity was taken to complete some more of the painting on areas which would be inaccessible or harder to paint when it was the right way up.

Chassis parked outside so the painting team can progress with more paint.

The rear dragbox area after attention by the painters. White for the areas which will be hard to see into and inspect when the chassis is in service.

The day of the lift saw us hiring in a very large truck-mounted crane (or Hiab) to lift the chassis into the AVR yard which is nice a flat and has plenty of space for such an operation. To ensure a safe operation, we carried out a full risk assessment and method statement – writing it all down enabled a few things to be thought through and adjusted prior to commencing work.

A test lift to weigh the chassis on the crane’s load scale, and get it hanging level-enough to commence the main lift into the car park.

The chassis – still upside down – temporarily landed in the car park

Up she goes – the chassis being lifted on one side to commence turning it over.

Up on its side, and ready to lower back down the right way up.

Coming back down to a landing on wooden sleepers (which are there to provide a bit of ground clearance as well as something for the chassis to bite into and pivot around).

Now the right way up, the chassis is lifted ready to be swung back towards our workhop

Almost back over the rails and ready to land on the temporary wheels.

Landed safely, and ready to be dragged back inside.

With the chassis the right way up, it’s possible to see what the underneath of the front end looks like. Almost everything seen here is new build or completely refurbished back to new condition.

This is the tender steam brake cylinder and its associated steelwork. Again, apart from the cylinder casting, all of this is new material.

With the crane on site, the opportunity was taken to weigh one of the tender wheelsets on its load cell. It came in a 1.5Tons exactly.

Going back a month or two before the move outside, and will all the brake hangars and linkages refurbished, we took the opportunity to do a trial fit of the tender brake gear. It all fitted nicely and even operated perfect on air (instead of steam). Although it would have been nice to leave it in place, it had to be removed for the turn over operation – and will also need to be absent when the tender is re-wheeled. Only then can we install it for the final time.

The front-end of the chassis showing the brake gear trial fit.

Tender brake links being refurbished, including provision of grease nipples

A view looking towards the rear of the tender showing the brake gear in the process of being fitted up.

Although the tender chassis is relatively simple, there are lots of little detail bits that need attending to before it can be considered ‘done’. Here’s an example of one such item – a brake pin retaining clip which is held in place by two 5/8″ bolts which have their nuts split-pinned to prevent them from coming undone. The keen student of Whitworth bolting will note that these nuts are the slightly larger pre-war type.

Another detailed point was the drilling and tapping of drain holes in the bottom of the new tender axlebox. These will allow the oil to be drained out rather than needing to be syphoned out.

A cluster of newly made drain plugs for the axleboxes. The hole down the middle and radially thru’ the threads allows oil to drain out once the radial hole is exposed, but doesn’t require the plug to be fully removed. In this way the amount of oil release can be managed so that it’s not “all or nothing”.

Drain plug trial fitted into its hole. Nice snug fit.

Preliminary machining of the new tender axleboxes and their covers is now complete. The finish machining of the axleboxes will be done once the hornguides are setup on the chassis and we know the precise back to back and other dimensions that we need to work to.

Reminder that there are lots more pictures from the construction of our new tender chassis on our Flickr page. https://www.flickr.com/photos/4123lms/

News update

Posted by The London Midland Society on May 28, 2024

Since our last update in March, we have been progressing almost exclusively on the tender chassis construction.

This takes the form of repairing the brake gear – by weld build up to remove worn areas, followed by re-machining to “as new” condition. This includes re-boring holes – most of which have some ovality – and making new bushes, which are then pressed into the now round holes. This is time consuming yet important work, as we want to ensure that the brake system is in tolerance and thus will work correctly when the time comes.

Refurbished brake hanger no.6 ready for painting. — Refurbished tender brake hanger No.6 awaiting paiting.

Repaired, re-machined and re-bushed clevis end on one of the tender brake pull rods.

New bush installed in the middle hole of one of the tender brake pull rods.

As well as working on the brake system components, the other area of major activity is the installation of the hornguides on the chassis. Again, this takes time to get right, as we need to ensure that the alignment across the frames is as good as possible, and that the back to back dimensions of the horns are on ‘minimum tolerance’ so that we future-proof the chassis against wear, and prolong the time taken before major overhaul work is needed in the future.

The first pair of hornguides setup and held on to the chassis with temporary bolts.

Following completion of the machining of the axlebox front faces, we have also finished machining the axlebox covers, which will be one of the more visible components on the new tender chassis. These are now ready to fit, and manufacture of the final mounting bolts is ongoing. Given that the loco was built in 1925, we generally like to use pre-war bolt head sizes, which were larger than the wartime and post-war versions (the head size was reduced to save metal), and which look a little bit more appropriate and substantial.

New tender axlebox cover casting being skimmed flat on the lathe

A stack of newly machined tender axlebox covers awaiting fitting.

Test fit of new axlebox cover on new axlebox. Note the pre-war size nut on the left, and the post-war bolt head on the right showing the difference in size.

Regular followers of our website and social media pages will have noted the ongoing production of a new tender brake shaft, and finally this has now been finished. Following completion of the final welds, they were subjected to 100% non destructive examination by dye penetrant testing, with no defects found. The shaft has been trial fitted to the front end of the chassis and fits perfectly. After installation of the steam brake piston, the whole arrangement was connected up and tested on air – it works perfectly and is ready for final adjustment and set-up once the rest of the brake gear is completed, which hopefully won’t be too long now.

New tedner brake shaft after welding and during Non Destructive Examination with Dye Penetrant

The new brake shaft installed in position at the front end of the chassis, with the steam brake cylinder in the centre (red) connected up ready for a test.

Away from the restoration work, our midweek team recently ran our sales stand as part of the Avon Valley Railway’s 50^th anniversary gala, which brought in some much-needed income from sales of books, models, memorabilia and other 4123 items.

Our sales stand with a couple of the mid-week group in attendance.

If you’d like to make a donation and help to get 4123 running again, then you can do so here.

And finally, another reminder that the best place to check up on the latest news on the restoration is on our social media feeds which are updated regularly and have lots of information and pictures of the restoration:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4123lms/?next=%2F

Flikr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/4123lms/

Facebook / Meta: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418496428955719/

Twitter / X : https://twitter.com/4123lms?lang=en

These are updated much more regularly than this website, so why not check them out.

News update – 25th March 2024

Posted by The London Midland Society on March 25, 2024

Work is ongoing on the tender chassis with some good progress being made with the machining of the axleboxes and their covers, as well as the fabrication of a new brake shaft. We are also refurbishing the tender brake hangers to take them from ‘very worn’ to ‘as new’ condition.

The best place to check up on the latest news on the restoration is on our social media feeds which are updated regularly and have lots of information and pictures of the restoration:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4123lms/?next=%2F

Flikr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/4123lms/

Facebook / Meta: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418496428955719/

Twitter / X : https://twitter.com/4123lms?lang=en

These are updated much more regularly than this website, so why not check them out.

Here are a few pictures of recent work:

Test setup of the newly refurbished intermediate brake shaft bearings.

New tender brake shaft setup, with arms tack welded on prior to full welding.

First root runs for attaching the brake shaft arms to the shaft being welded.

One of the tender brake hangers during weld buildup to restore the badly worn surfaces.

A ‘before’ and ‘after’ showing a refurbished brake hanger on the left, and a partially weld repaired version on the right. Each one of these consumes around 100 welding rods to bring it back up to the correct size, giving an indication of just how badly worn they are.

A newly made 1 5/8″ British Standard Whitworth nut to replace a missing one on the original brake gear.

One of the new tender axleboxes during maching of the front face where the cover sits. The hole on the left is for a 3/4″ stud, the one on the right suits a 3/4″ bolt which tightens the cover onto the axlebox.

A new tender axlebox cover casting mounted on a rotary table on a vertical milling machine – to allow the protruding hexagon to be machined to remove the draft angle (which is a necessary part of the casting process).

A new tender axlebox cover set up in the lathe (being held by the hexagon on the front face in the three jaw chuck) having the mating face skimmed flat.

Trial fit up of the overhauled steam brake cylinder on the chassis.

A brief update for the new year

Posted by The London Midland Society on January 10, 2022

Work continues on the tender chassis and making it ready for re-wheeling. A lot of attention has been focussed on the steam brake system and in particular the manufacture of a new brake shaft to replace the unserviceable original.

The original tender brake shaft on the bench. The degree of pitting and general corrosion resulted in the decision to make a new one.

The orignal shaft was used to fabricate a special purpose jig to allow us to set the relative posiiton of the various arms in the correct locations when the refurbished arms are installed on the new shaft.

Jig for setting steam brake arms, with the original shaft in position.

The various arms which are attached to the shaft were cut-off, and each of them has now undergone an extensive amount of repair. This consists of building up the corroded areas with weld, restoring holes to the correct sizes, and re-bushing. This will ensure that everything is “in tolerance” and in as near to as new condition as we can get.

The original main steam brake arm after being cut off the shaft. Worn bushes and pitting from corrosion to be attended to.

The arm during the process of weld-buildup to restore thickness to the metal

Arm during machining to correct dimensions

The shaft end of the arm after machining

One of the brake pull rod arms after machining and re-bushing

Bushes are made either from steel or gunmetal bronze as per the originals. Each bush has its own drawing showing the required dimensions and tolerances for the pin clearance and interference fit into the hole

Here we see the tender steam brake piston rod before refurbishment with the original bushes removed

And here it is after cleanup and with new bushes installed.

The original steam brake cylinder and piston have been retreived from storage, cleaned-up and dimensionally inspected. The restuls indicate that there is hardly any wear in eithe the cylinder or on the piston, which is is good news as it means that both can be re-used with only minor remedial work being required.

Steam brake cylinder after cleanup. The original machining marks from Crewe works may still be seen if one looks closely in the bore

The original brake shaft intermediate bearing blocks have also been skim-machined to bring them back to true roundness, as they had worn a bit oval.

One of the brake shaft intermediate bearing blocks being machined

The other block with the bore turned back into roundness

Other work on the tender chassis includes re-busing the spring hangar links and ongoing production of the numerous pins for the spring and brake gear. We have decided to make all pins and bushes from new so that all dimensions and tolerances are ‘as new’. None of this is particularly glamourous work, but it will result in the tender chassis being as high quality as we can make it, and we believe result in longevity and minimal maintenance in the long run.

Getting ready to press in a new bush to one of the tender spring hangar links. This is being done in our 100T hand-operated hydraulic press

That’s about it for this update. Hopefully there will be some more new soon on the manufacture of the new tender brake shaft and setting up of the hornguides on the tender.

AVR gala and a distinguished visitor

Posted by The London Midland Society on October 25, 2015

In preparation for the Avon Valley Railway‘s ‘London Transport’ gala, we decided to re-assemble 4123’s cab to act as a focal point for our small sales stand.

The cab is actually ‘new’, having been built many years ago when the loco was based at Ropley on the Mid Hants Railway, but had until very recently been sat on the loco out exposed to the elements, and was in need of some TLC. At some point, the main cab structure will need to be riveted together in its final configuration, ready to put back on the loco when the time comes.

The cab in the process of being reassembled.

Assembling the cab outside our workshop.

A fully assembled cab sits on a baseplate outside our workshop.

The cab as a focal point of our small sales stand.

One side of the cab has been painted in black, with 44123 applied to give an impression of what the loco will look like when finished.

There was a distinguished visitor during the gala – Sir Peter Hendy – Chairman of Network Rail, and former commissioner of Transport for London. We took the opportunity to show him around 4123 and what we are up to in the restoration project.

Sir Peter Hendy views 4123’s driving wheel. Photo credit – Robin Mitchell.

Carl shows the new tender frames to Sir Peter Hendy. Photo credit – Robin Mitchell.

Michael Lance Vout

Posted by The London Midland Society on March 27, 2015

Michael Vout

It is with the deepest regret that we have to announce the death of one of our stalwart members, Mr Michael Vout, known to many as “MLV”, who passed away in the early hours of this morning, Friday 27th March 2015, at Bath’s Royal United Hospital, following a severe stroke which he suffered in mid-February this year.

Michael made an amazing contribution to preservation in general, and in particular to the restoration of 4123 and his own ‘Battle of Britain’ class locomotive no. 34058 ‘Sir Frederick Pile’. He had led the restoration efforts on both these projects for many years since the mid-80s, and during this time he personally constructed many new components to the highest of standards, and all employing traditional engineering methods and practices.

Michael was a unique character and touched the lives of many people with his sense of humour, willingness to assist on noble causes, and his passionate desire to see his beloved ‘Heavy Engineering’ live on through the development of youngsters and the progression of the preservation scene in general.

Those of us who knew him well were deeply saddened by the seriousness of his condition in recent weeks which had cruelly robbed a highly intelligent and articulate man of the majority of his physical abilities and capacity to communicate. However, it is safe to say that he will live on in both the work he did on the locomotives, and in our minds which are full of his amusing stories & anecdotes, a lamentably small fraction of his engineering knowledge, and his unique outlook on life.

RIP Michael.

1939 – 2015.

Photo news

Posted by The London Midland Society on March 20, 2015

Here are a few photos of recent progress on the construction of the new tender chassis and tender tank – the pieces of the jigsaw that is the restoration of 4123 are starting to get bigger…

Hopefully the photos and the captions do the talking. If you’d like to see more photos of how this is coming along, have a look at our Flikr page.

General view of the new tender chassis which has been constructed, and is now substantially complete and waiting to be rivetted.

Another view of the new chassis at the front looking towards the rear.

The rear of the new chassis showing the dragbox, coupling hook, buffers and guard irons.

One of the new castings for the tender water feed elbows is machined on the lathe. Here it is having the 11 TPI screw thread cut.

This is the ‘dome’ for the water scoop filler pipe, which sits at the back of the tender, and is a distinctive feature of those tenders that were fitted with water scoops (i.e. all the 4Fs). This is a combination of new metal (the lower barrel and angle) with a re-used original top section which was repairable, and which would have been very difficult/expensive to replace with a new item.

Here is the new tender tank water filler pipe and lid. Later LMS tenders had a hinged lid, but 4123 always had a ‘loose’ lid which was attached to the pipe with a chain (to stop it getting lost), so this is what we’ve replicated. We didn’t have an original to copy, so the profile for this had to be scaled from a drawing to get the correct radius and height, etc. This was ‘metal- spun’ for us by Purdies of Bradford.

This pile of bits are components of the tender tank which are fitted inside and outside of the ‘well’ on the bottom of the tank. These have now been welded into position into the well. The two new gunmetal castings for the water feed elbows can also been seen – having been fully machined – and these are now ready to fit to the tank when the time comes.

Here are some more tender tank internal components waiting to be installed. The red plates are vertical stiffeners which form part of the main structure of the tank, and to which the main internal cross-baffles are attached.

Here is a view on the newly fabricated tender tank ‘well’. This fits underneath the main body of the tank, between the inner frames of the chassis, and provides a useful additional ~500 gallons of water capacity. We have made this from one piece of plate folded to the correct shape, and with end plates welded in. Doing it this way has removed around 300 rivets from the tank.

A close-up of the end plate of the well after welding was completed and ground flush. Originally this would have been a riveted plate, but welding is easier and more cost effective, and will never be seen once the tank is installed on the frames.

Here’s a view on the underside of the tender well showing the various attachments which have now been welded on. Don’t let the rusty finish worry you – this will be grit blasted once the tank fabrication is completed, and then coated with a decent paint system, so it will hopefully last for many years.

An update

Posted by The London Midland Society on March 20, 2015

The following is from the text of a brief update article which ran in the Avon Valley Railway’s in-house news magazine, ‘Ground Signal’ in Feb 2015.

Since the last report, the work on LMS 4123 (BR 44123) and tender No 3257 has continued apace. However before giving an update on this, we would first like to welcome two new members of the mid-week group. They are Alan Church and Peter Crossfield, both of whom are bringing a wealth of knowledge to the team. We also have two new volunteers to the weekend team – Nick Ealey and Justin Edwards who are both getting stuck in to helping with the making of new parts for the tender.

Work is progressing on the tender chassis and tank, this being primarily a weekend gang project, and numerous additional items have been manufactured, such as:

Water scoop mechanism actuating shaft and water scoop dome.
Tender water feed elbows, pipe nuts, flanges and flexible hose elbows.
Tender tank filler ring and lid – spun for us by Purdie Metal Spinners of Bradford
Tender well plates and clips.

We are also producing wooden patterns for the numerous small castings and fittings which will allow the tender to eventually be made operational. Many of our castings are made at Bristol Foundry just down the road in Brislington, this being an arrangement that works well for us as it gives us the opportunity to discuss the castings with the foundry manager, and there are no delivery charges!

To allow things to progress more quickly, we have recently been working with another Bristol company with a view to having them help us with the fabrication and assembly of the new tender tank. This is almost at the point where they are ready to start work on the water well at the bottom of the tank which forms the foundation on which the rest of the tank is assembled. As you can imagine, this work will be expensive, very quickly running into thousands of pounds, so if anyone has some spare cash they would like to donate, this would be gratefully received, and would make an amazing difference to our speed of progress.

The loco has been having attention as well, primarily by the mid-week gang. The nuts on the Piston covers have been loosened and many more loco parts have been rubbed down and painted. The rear buffer beam was removed after a lot of hard work then rubbed down and painted. The loco requires a brand new rear dragbox, and the large and heavy steel plates for this are approximately 50% manufactured.

One item that has yet to submit to our attempts to remove it is the smoke box door hinge pin. It is about 2’6” long and after soaking it in diesel, applying lots of heat, using a hydraulic jack, an Acrow prop and lots of persuasion with a sledge hammer it is yet to move a gnat’s whatsit. Hopefully by the time you read this we hope to have got the better of the !?!?!?!?!. We need to take the door off to check its condition and measure it up prior to having a new one made.

If any member is on site Mondays or Fridays do come and see us at the top of the yard by the loco and we will give you a guided tour and a pair of overalls!

A minor update…

Posted by The London Midland Society on January 27, 2014

January 27th 2014.

We have just completed a very sucessful working weekend which saw progress on quite a few fronts. A brief summary is below.

Early on Saturday, we took delivery of the newly cast tender tank water vent pipes.

This is the wooden pattern which we made to allow us to cast the new tender tank vent pipes

And here are the finished castings.
Only two of these are needed for 4123 – one of them will be going to our friends at the Glouscester & Warwickshire Rly for sister 4F No. 4027

New(ish) volunteer George undertook the installation of the second inner frame for the tender, almost entirely on his own, and this is now ready for final setting up.

The second inner frame is shown installed (on the RHS of this picture).

The first of the tender brake gear bushes have been made and fitted into the frames, which allows us to accurately line up the inner and outer frame plates before we start marking and drilling all the matching rivet holes.

The new gunmetal bushes which will hold the brake pins are shown after being press fitted into the frames.
The inner frame is nearest the camera with the outer frame behind.

Over in the fabrication shop, fettling work contiuned on the new boiler support plate. This is a substantial lump of steel (it is 7/8″ thick) and requires a team effort to manipulate it into the various positions required for welding and grinding work.

The new boiler support plate is seen here having the various welds dressed prior to being released for final machining

In addition, we made some further progress on the stripping of the loco – the first three sandboxes have been removed for repainting, along with various other minor items of platework and superstructure. We were pleased to welcome another new volunteer to our team – Rudy – who made a valuable contribution to many things, including coutersinking numerous rivet holes in the tender frames.

New Vounteer Rudy gets to grips with removing the middle sandbox

The dismanlting and cleaning of the cab steelwork is next. We had a ‘medium’ tidy up in our main stores van to give us a bit more room to store all the items which are being taken off the loco…. The van is almost full up, but not quite…!

And finally…. we made some improvements to the temporary shelter which 4123 is currently sitting in, including providing decent crawling boards in the ‘four-foot’ under the loco, and strip lighting in the ceiling. At least we can now (almost) see what we’re doing in these long and cold winter evenings…

4123 sits patiently inside the temporary shelter was have built to keep the worst of the elements out

With a few more lights, we may actually be able to see what we’re working on…

The refurb of our tender wheelsets was compelted last year, and they spent a little bit of time on one of the AVR’s flat wagons, and indeed did quite a few miles and provided a nice sight being towed up and down during the AVR’s Autumn gala in 2013. However, they have now come back to earth and are back on the rails awaiting the day when we roll them under the new chassis. Hopefully that won’t be too far in the future now…

Tender wheels ready to go

That’s all for now. More soon we hope.

	The London Midland S… on New Website
	Simon - Brookes Cast… on Michael Lance Vout
	Colin Bazeley on New Website
	The London Midland S… on A minor update…
	Ralph Ingham on A minor update…

The London Midland Society Webpage

The London Midland Society is restoring 4F steam locomotive No. 4123 at the Avon Valley Railway in Bristol, UK.

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