The General Steam Navigation Locomotive Restoration Society are delighted to report that on Wednesday 13th March the Society will be announcing the new base that the locomotive will be moving to. The new base will see the restoration and eventful running of the Society’s Merchant Navy class engine.

Issue 9 of the Packet which will be posted to members in the coming days will feature an indepth article on the new base and the exciting times that lay ahead for the project.

Feburary was a busy month for the projects engineering team with volunteers working on the locomotive at Sellindge to prepare her for the upcoming move.  We do have to inform our supporters that unfortunately we won’t be publicizing any dates for the physical move of the locomotive due to space requirements at both ends of the trip.

Ian Ferguson one of our expert machinists completed the work on the Klinger valves and have been collected by one of the Societys trustees. We’d like to thank Ian for all his hard work on the valves and the Society plan to fit them to the manifold during the AGM to display to our members,

Work on the bogie spring beams was progressing with the profiles being machined for us by Asbrook Engineering in Devon.  These beams are being made the same way as the beams for the trailing truck and should be delivered by the end of March.

As always thank you for your contuined support

At the start of a each year we tend to look back at the previous years achievements and 2018 was another stand out year. Amongst the highlights were the new nameplates for the locomotive which sponsored by 2 of our members and unveiled at the Societys in March. The biggest engineering success was gathering all the major components required to overhaul the trailing truck once the locomotive has been stripped down. Securing all the major parts for the trailing truck saw the project undertake many firsts including the first component made from our own patterns (axle box covers) and the first component made from Society generated CAD (trailing truck spring beams). All this work allowed us demonstrate the difference between our unique fabricated trailing truck and the far more common cast version. Work was also undertaken at Sellindge in the form of general maintenance and preparing the locomotive for a future move. Thanks to our amazing supporters we also secured many original parts for the locomotive including a whistle valve, lamps and a speedometer.

Work is on going with the machining of the Klinger Valves with Ian making steady progress. Inside the valve is what is known as a lantern. Its job is to apply pressure to the packing that seals the valve piston by allows steam to pass through it when the valve is open. It is not been possible to obtain stainless steel castings which meant Ian had to machine them out of a solid billet of stainless steel. The caps of the Klinger valves have been fully machined which was made easier through the use of special trapezoidal taps that sped up the process no end. At our AGM the Society plans to have the completed valves on display test fitted to the manifold. The machining of this particular component is very complex and the Society is extremely grateful to Ian for all his hard work over the past year.

The third annual General Meeting of the Society will held on Saturday 18th May 2019 however the location cannot be revealed at this time. The Society is in the final stages of a agreeing a new base for the locomotive with the contract being discussed at this time. Its planned that the locomotive will be moved to the new site in time for the AGM to allow our members attending to see her and as many of the various parts the Society has gathered attached to her. This has also seen Issue 9 of the Packet being delayed until the contract is signed. The issue is ready to go to the printers so once the deal has been agreed our members will get the news on there doorsteps soon after. The Packet features some major updates on various fronts including the crank axle,  more original components, more parts made from scratch and the galas we are attending in the coming months.

As always thank you for your contuined support

November has been another productive month for the project with lots of work being carried out behind the scenes which should take the GSN project to the next level. We are quickly approaching our 3rd birthday and the Society is hopeful of announcing a new restoration base that we are currently in negotiations with. Should this be agreed and the deal signed the Society will launch an appeal to raise the approximately £7,000 required for the transportation costs and crane hire fees to move the J94 chassis and its boiler that‘s currently in front of 35011 at Sellindge. This could also see our AGM being delayed by a couple of months this year in order to have the event at the new base with the locomotive present. As soon as anything is agreed be assured our members will be the first to know.

The General Steam Navigation is delighted to announce the long term loan of some original Bulleid components to be used on 35011. Kindly lent to us by Eddie Wearing the components include a Smiths Speedometer that was removed from a Bulleid Pacific and 4 electric lamps. The Smiths Speedometer‘s were installed on all of the LNER‘s top link engines, the Bulleid Pacific’s and the BR Standard Class Locomotives such as the Britannia’s. This makes them a very sort after component item within the heritage railway sector as the supply of originals dries up so securing one for the locomotive is a great achievement. Before use the Speedometer will need to be sent to a specialist company such as Wayne Jones and Partners for overhaul, calibration and certification.

Last month we mentioned with with Christmas fast approaching it was the perfect time to join easyfundraising.org.uk. We were delighted to see several new supporters sign up which has led to an immediate increase in donations.  Easy Fundraising is a great way to raise money for charities, schools, sports clubs, community groups, Merchant Navy class steam locomotives, and other good causes just by shopping online and selecting your chosen charity, in our case General Steam Navigation.

As always thank you for your contuined support

October was a busy month for us with the Society stand visiting both the Mid Hants Railway Autumn steam gala and the Exeter Garden Model Railway show. These events were very successful for the project with the Society signing up several new members. The Society would like to take our stand out and visit more railways in 2019 but for that we need your help. Events on our wish list include the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railways May gala, the Severn Valley Railway and the Great Central Railway. The more railways we visit the more people will see our society and hopefully join which will be a major boost to our efforts to restore 35011. If you are interested in supporting GSNs restoration through manning a sales stand please do get in touch via the website.

Issue 8 of the Packet landed on our members doorsteps this weekend and was another bumper issue.  The Packet has updates from the engineering team. new original Bulleid components, another magazine scan from Southern Railway magazine and reports from all the various departments within the Society.

General Steam Navgation made a surprise TV appearance this week albeit in 00 gauge form. She appeared for a couple of seconds on Channel 5s Great Model Railway Challenge show when Team Tonbridge were testing the layout. Sadly Team Tonbridge didnt win there heat but seeing a model GSN was a nice surprise for us.

With Christmas fast approaching today is the perfect time to join easyfundraising.org.uk. Easy Fundraising is a great way to raise money for charities, schools, sports clubs, community groups, Merchant Navy class steam locomotives, and other good causes just by shopping online and selecting your chosen charity, in our case General Steam Navigation.

How it works

1. First go to the easyfundraising website (www.easyfundraising.org.uk)
2. Choose a link to any of the 2,700+ retailers (e.g. Amazon, Asda, M&S, Waterstones, etc) to be taken to the retailers own website
3. Shop as normal

By registering General Steam Navigation as your good cause on the easyfundraising website, purchases that you make, after clicking through to any retailer from the easyfundraising website, will automatically provide a donation to us. It really is as simple as that! And if you install the easyfundraising Donation Reminder you don’t even have to remember to do steps 1 and 2! There is also an App for mobile devices. Refer to the easyfundraising website for any further details.

Click here to sign up.

As always thank you for your continued support

Work continues on the locomotive with progress being made on the machine shop front. With temperatures a little over 80 degF in Ians workshop at school it’s time to make some more progress on the Klinger valves. All 4 bodies have had all the internal machining completed and are ready to be drilled for the cap mounting stud holes. Just waiting for a drilling jig to be made. The 2 large caps are machined inside and out and are awaiting jig drilling plus the interesting part- Machining the metric trapezoidal thread. Another one of our members has volunteered to create all the spring hangers and fittings for the trailing truck and bogie. The Society has provided all the material for the work and if anyone would like to contribute towards the cost please do get in touch.

The project was featured in this month’s Heritage Railway magazine which was a roundup of the Society’s efforts over the last year. Its great being able to get some coverage in his particular title which will hopefully gain us some supporters.

The Society is delighted to announce we have acquired a brass lamp fitted with the bullseye lens, toggle switch to side and bulb holder inside. The lamp is reported to have come off Merchant Navy’ Class No. 35024 “East Asiatic Company” and was purchased at a recent Railwayana auction. Gaining the lamp is fantastic news for the project as the use of original components helps add character to the locomotive. The lamp is part of a number of items that have been loaned to the Society on a loan term lease by one of our members to be used on 35011. Members will be able to read about the other components in the next issue of the Packet out in late September.

Lastly the Society was saddened by the death this month of project supporter and Bulleid 4DD Double Deck EMU Supporters Group Committee Member Ian Ross. Ian was a great friend of the project and helped publicize the project in the early days.  His loss at such a young age came as a complete shock and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this terrible time.

As always thank you for your support.