| Loco chassis and boiler – at Leaky Finders Down at Leaky Finders’ works in Devon, the driving wheels have returned from the South Devon Railway having had their journals and thrust faces machined. The horn blocks required some cast iron welding repairs which have been carried out at a specialist contractor. Now that the horn blocks have returned to Leaky Finders, work has commenced on cutting out worn sections of frames in the area of the horn guides and welding in some inserts. The Boiler As regards the boiler, Leaky Finders have completed fitting all the patch screws on the joints between the steel outer wrapper side plates and the backhead and where the side sheets join the throat plate. All the new copper stays are now machined, fitted and headed over on the sides and front on the inside of the copper firebox and half of them have been headed over on the outside. Work to caulk and nut the Monel stays has also been largely completed. It has also been necessary to undertake copper welding repairs to the inner copper doorplate. In addition a section of steel platework has been fabricated to insert into the backhead in the vicinity of the firehole door. Most of the foundation ring rivet holes have been reamed and countersunk and bolted up ready to rivet. New foundation ring rivets have been manufactured and sent away for heat treatment. Left: wheelsets back at Leaky Finders after turning of journals and thrust faces. Photo: Leaky Finders Below: Replacement section of steel backhead, trial fitted, prior to welding into place. Photo: Leaky Finders Once the replacement steel backhead plate is welded into place, the next step will be to complete the riveting of the foundation ring. It will then be possible to turn the boiler and position it upright so that the process of fitting the boiler tubes can begin. New steel flue tubes have been obtained and copper ‘bottle ends’ brazed on. The two front mudhole doors have been repaired and fitted to the corresponding openings in the throat plate. The middle door is currently being worked on. A countersunk hole and stud holes have been drilled in the throat plate for the blowdown valve. The overhaul of the tender at the Bluebell Railway Bluebell workshop and MLS volunteers have cleaned the outside of the ‘well’ under the tender tank and the rest of the underside of the tender and painted it in hard wearing primer and bitumastic. The two brake cylinders and brake beam shaft have also been painted in primer and bitumastic. The interior of the tender tank has been cleaned out and painted in two coats of a very durable paint by MLS volunteers. Workshop volunteers are progressing painting the exterior which is now in grey. The workshop staff have progressed re-bushing the brake rigging etc and the buffers have been re-fitted onto the tender chassis. In addition the regular working party have continued to progress cleaning and painting parts of the cladding and have progressed on to working on some of the larger sheets of boiler barrel cladding. A start has also been made on repairing sections of cladding that had corroded. New metal has been cut to shape and welded in. Tender tank in first coat of grey, November 2025. Photo: Steve Pilcher Andy Sparkes and some of his handiwork with cleaning and painting the boiler cladding, July 2025. Photo: Steve Pilcher Schools class No 928 Stowe The loco chassis has been located outside the workshop at Sheffield Park, allowing Bluebell Railway engineering staff access to the three cylinder block castings to inspect and measure the condition of the valve and cylinder bores, steam passages and steam pipe flange faces. This inspection process is now complete and we are able to proceed with the first stage of the plan to rectify the defect previously discovered when the left hand cylinder was being machined to take a cast iron liner. The left hand cylinder casting has a defect running the length of the main bore and a crack in one of the steam ports; the flawed casting will be scrapped once removed. The middle cylinder main bore is in good condition and does not need lining, however the valve liner does need to be replaced. The steam passages and flange faces have sufficient thickness. The right hand cylinder valve bore is in good condition, however the main cylinder bore will need a liner installed to match the diameter of the new left hand cylinder bore; the steam passages and flange faces have sufficient thickness. Our project manager, Chris Hunford, has been engaged in the process of agreeing terms with a preferred patternmaker/foundry and an order has been placed for a pattern and casting for a new left hand cylinder. Once the cylinder has been cast an order will be placed with another contractor for the machining of the new casting. This encouraging news comes with a considerable price tag: the cost of a pattern and blank casting is just over £35,000; machining will be another significant sum on top (expected to be in the order of £15,000). This will drain our existing funding pot held in the MLS reserves and Bluebell Railway Trust, leaving only a very modest sum in reserve to make a start on re-assembling the boiler. Please make a donation to the Stowe cylinder machining appeal, by making a donation to the Bluebell Railway Trust in order for Gift Aid also to be claimed, if you are eligible. Please go to:- https://www.bluebell-railway.com/trust/make-a-donation/?project=Stowe%20-%20Restoration%20of%20SR%20Schools%20Class%20No.%20928 Cheques made payable to ‘Bluebell Railway Trust’ with a note that they are for the Stowe appeal, can be sent to:- Bluebell Railway Trust, Sheffield Park Station, Sheffield Park, Uckfield TN22 3QL |
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Tender tank in first coat of grey, November 2025. Photo: Steve Pilcher | ||||||||||||||||
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Andy Sparkes and some of his handiwork with cleaning and painting the boiler cladding, July 2025. Photo: Steve Pilcher |
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May 2025 541
1 Sending the driving wheels away to the South Devon Railway for tyre turning 2 Fabrication and installation of a new dragbox under the cab 3 Various other repairs to the frames and running plate. As regards the boiler, all the tubes and flues have been removed and thorough non-destructive testing undertaken. The lower half of the steel outer wrapper of the firebox has been replaced, and most of the new stays are now in place. New tubes and flues have been purchased and hopefully a start can be made on re-tubing in the next few months. The tender was dismantled into its component parts. The tender tank was found to be beyond economic repair and, after a competitive tendering process, a contract was awarded to the 4253 Group based at the Kent and East Sussex Railway. They have fabricated a high-quality new tank for us, which was delivered to Sheffield Park in April 2025. The tender chassis remained at the Bluebell Railway. Members of the MLS working party helped free up the old tender tank and dismantle the chassis. Bluebell’s workshop staff are close to concluding a thorough overhaul of the this, including replacing corroded sections of the inner frames and fabricating new front and rear dragboxes. | ||||||||||||||||
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StoweMajor repairs to the the outer steel wrapper of the firebox and the inner copper firebox have been undertaken, which has included installing a new steel backhead and throatplate, and new platework on both the outer steel wrapper and inner copper box. The boiler is now down at Leaky Finders in Devon, where it is intended that further work will commence once work on 541’s boiler draws to a close. All three cylinders have been bored out, but unfortunately during this process a significant casting flaw came to light in the left-hand cylinder. After consultation and careful consideration it has been concluded that a new cylinder is required. CAD drawings have been prepared and quotes are being sought both for making a cylinder pattern and for casting/machining a new one. 847, 31618, 1638 and the PMVThe Society’s other three locos and van are currently stored undercover. Members of the MLS working party have been undertaking work to stabilise their condition and improve appearance. It remains the Society’s intention to engage with the overhaul of 31618 once the overhauls of 541 and Stowe are concluded. Do please consider supporting our work by joining the Society and receiving regular updates. | ||||||||||||||||
July 2023
Q class 541 to undergo a ‘Priority’ overhaul at Leaky FindersA leaflet pdf to give more appeal information is here.Q class 541 left the Bluebell Railway on Thursday 6th July to undergo a ‘Priority’ overhaul at Leaky Finders in Devon. The overhaul is being funded by the Bluebell Railway Trust and the Maunsell Locomotive Society who own the locomotive; the locomotive being the subject of a long-term operating agreement with the Bluebell Railway. A leaflet pdf to give more appeal information is here. | ||||||||||||||||
July 2022
Stowe – A new way to speed up progress on the chassisAs with many restoration projects, the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns halted all serious progress on Stowe. Then the deaths of Frank Glue in 2020, followed by our previous Chairman, Ray Bellingham in 2021, deprived of us of our two most experienced engineers and fitters. One bright spot in the last two years was the decision by Bluebell Railway to send Stowe’s boiler away to HBSS, up on Merseyside to progress the boiler overhaul, in late 2019, albeit progress has been delayed somewhat by Covid as well. We were very pleased when it was recently agreed that Bluebell will pay for Stowe’s chassis to go away to Quainton Road for boring of the cylinders and valve chests to take place followed by fitting of liners to the outer cylinders and installation of new piston heads and valve heads. Unfortunately there are just too many projects trying to use the limited workshop space at Sheffield Park so a new way had to be found.Stowe’s chassis was made ready to move to Quainton Road and it departed on THursday 23rd July. Most of |Stowe’s motion parts have also gone away with the chassis, as the plan now is for the motion to be re-assembled as well, whilst the chassis is away.  Furthermore, Rodney Packham and Barry Smith have reconstructed the base for the timber floor
At the beginning of the year the working party commenced cleaning up some of the smaller motion parts, which had not been touched since the loco was dismantled. This included cleaning up the return cranks. Whilst doing this Barry Smith and Jon Elphick noticed that the return cranks had the number 903 stamped into them. It appears that the return cranks must have been swapped during a visit to the works. On the boiler front , HBSS have welded the new lower half of the tubeplate to the remaining re-usable top half of the tubeplate. They have also completed creating the shape for the new lower half of the doorplate and the specialist copper welder had re-turned and welded the two parts together. Following on from this, the welds have passed their inspection testing and both tubeplate and doorplate have been offered up into the crown and sides of the firebox, to enable the flanges to marked out to enable holes for rivets to be drilled in the flanges of the tubeplate and doorplate. Images below are the LH rear cylinder cover released after much careful effort by Mel, and Barry and Jon cleaning up the motion | ||||||||||||||||
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847847 has been stored under cover since being withdrawn from traffic in December 2021. Our regular working party has spent time on cleaning the motion and then applying ankor wax fluid (which is a form of protective wax oil) to prevent corrosion.30541The Q was back in service in April 2022, after several months in the works for planned repairs. For the record, the work included :-
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3161831618 remains stored in the pump house siding at Sheffield Park. It remains the Society’s intention to engage with overhauling 31618, once the overhaul of Stowe is completed.16381638 remains stored up at Horsted Keynes.The PMVTony Clements and colleagues in Carriage and Wagon have progressed the construction of a new door for the PMV, which at the time of writing, is nearing completion. |
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| November 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
928 Stowe
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541541 is currently in the works having its valve bores ‘re-bored’ – new valve heads and valve rings will be required. 847847 has required some attention during the summer – otherwise it has been working regularly during the year. It has now covered more than 50,000 miles since returning to traffic in 2013 and is difficult to predict how much longer it will remain in traffic before being stopped for its next overhaul. So...do go and see it running when you can. 1618During June/July 1618 was in an accessible position next to the running shed so some of our volunteers took the opportunity to undertake a limited amount of re-painting of worn areas – such as on the running plates etc. |
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30925 Cheltenham
It was a pleasure to have 30925 Cheltenham visit the Bluebell Railway for the October Giants of Steam event. The loco proved popular with the crews and it gave the working party a chance to look over a working Schools class loco. |
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| Earlier update - July 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
Stowe After a very long pause, because of Covid 19 restrictions, MLS working parties re-started at Sheffield Park on Thursday 18th March, a year on from when the first ‘lockdown’ started. The first priority was to construct a more robust and waterproof cover over the cylinders. We are indebted to Ben Coughlan for donating a good quality tarpaulin which is keeping the weather at bay. Barry Smith and Andy Sparkes have done some good work on needle gunning above the middle cylinder. Barry also checked over the oil trays under the axleboxes for any water ingress.
Since the boiler was sent to HBSS’s works on Merseyside last October, HBSS have:-
 The image here shows a repaired corner of the foundation ring. This required much and carefull welding and the next image of the damaged corner shows, with cracks plain to see. 
What you can see here also is some of the smaller work that goes on. The label plates have been refurbished by our Chairman Ray Bellingham. Small but essential indicators of our engines identity.30541 and 847
Both the 30541 and 847 were available for traffic last Autumn, until the Bluebell Railway had to close again in late December. 30541 was used on the steamlights trains and 847 starred in a photo charter organised by Jon Bowers on the 7th and 8th December. It was requested that it run without smoke deflectors for this event. Although 847 always ran with smoke deflectors from when first constructed – this unusual form of appearance certainly attracted coverage – with images appearing in several magazines etc.
The PMVWhen the working party returned to Sheffield Park in March we noted that the inside face of one of the van’s doors had suffered from wet rot in our absence and we are investigating whether friends in Carriage and Wagon might be able to assist with making a new door. |
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| LATEST - April 2020 | ||||||||||||||||
Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates since 2015 – hopefully Maunsell enthusiasts have been following the work on our Stowe Facebook page. Since the last up-date in 2015 – big strides had been made with the project:- The chassis had been dismantled, driving wheel tyres re-profiled, axle boxes re-metalled and As regards the boiler:- As with all other Heritage Railways and tourist attractions, our host railway, the Bluebell Railway is closed for the duration of the Covid 19 Pandemic. Thus our workforce are not able to proceed with the major overhaul of Stowe at present. |
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| Work was also done on 'Stowe'. The area surrounding her frames were tidied, allowing them be more easily accessed. The new boiler backhead also recently arrived at Sheffield Park, from the South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh (see photo). | ||||||||||||||||
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The loco chassis has been located outside the workshop at Sheffield Park, allowing Bluebell Railway engineering staff access to the three cylinder block castings to inspect and measure the condition of the valve and cylinder bores, steam passages and steam pipe flange faces. This inspection process is now complete and we are able to proceed with the first stage of the plan to rectify the defect previously discovered when the left hand cylinder was being machined to take a cast iron liner.
The left hand cylinder casting has a defect running the length of the main bore and a crack in one of the steam ports; the flawed casting will be scrapped once removed. The middle cylinder main bore is in good condition and does not need lining, however the valve liner does need to be replaced. The steam passages and flange faces have sufficient thickness. The right hand cylinder valve bore is in good condition, however the main cylinder bore will need a liner installed to match the diameter of the new left hand cylinder bore; the steam passages and flange faces have sufficient thickness.
Our project manager, Chris Hunford, has been engaged in the process of agreeing terms with a preferred patternmaker/foundry and an order has been placed for a pattern and casting for a new left hand cylinder.
Once the cylinder has been cast an order will be placed with another contractor for the machining of the new casting.
This encouraging news comes with a considerable price tag: the cost of a pattern and blank casting is just over £35,000; machining will be another significant sum on top (expected to be in the order of £15,000).
This will drain our existing funding pot held in the MLS reserves and Bluebell Railway Trust, leaving only a very modest sum in reserve to make a start on re-assembling the boiler. 
The overhaul of 541 at Leaky Finders’ premises in Devon is proceeding well.
To date the locomotive has been completely dismantled, various components inspected and repairs undertaken where required. Some of the issues have included:
Since the July 2021 update there has been further significant progress with the boiler repair at Heritage Boiler Steam Services. They have:-
Obtained some appropriate specification new copper sheet to enable them to form a new bottom half for the firebox throatplate, using a ‘former’ that they had previously fabricated. The new section of copper plate has been ‘tack welded’ to the original top half of the tubeplate. The whole assembly has been refitted into the inner firebox ready for the two parts of the tubeplate to be welded together. HBSS will now proceed to fabricate the new bottom half for the inner firebox doorplate.
The steel backhead is ready to be rivetted to the outer wrapper – however HBSS are awaiting some suitable specification steel rivets. The old, worn, safety valve and manifold pads have been removed and replacements are underway.
Melvyn Frohnsdorff has got the overhauled exhaust steam injector up into place beneath the cab and is now working on reinstating various pipe runs under the running plate and under the cab floor. Melvyn has also completed work required to secure two new sections of running plate above the cylinders.
Our working party have in recent months focussed on the boiler cladding sheets which were starting to go rusty in places. All four firebox sections have been cleaned up and painted on both sides – and at the time of writing the working party are progressing towards finishing cleaning up and painting the four larger boiler barrel sheets.
Two of our volunteers have made a good start on re-constructing the wooden cab floor. At the time of writing they have close to concluding construction of the two wooden beams that support the metal fall plate between the cab and tender.
