This week Dave has been posting various things about his trip to the Swanage Railway and by sheer coincidence I have come across a brilliant video of 257 Squadron’s overhaul at Swanage. 34072 257 Squadron is owned by the Southern Locomotives LTD based in Swanage who have been restoring her for the last couple of years. Rather amazingly this will be there ninth major restoration/overhaul project featuring a Bulleid pacific.

The video features John and Duncan of Bryn Engineering Ltd fitting new cast iron liners to the inside cylinder valve of 257 Squadron. The cast iron liners are cooled to -190 degC in liquid nitrogen, which shrinks them by around 16 thou, so the can be slid into place. In this case both the front and rear liners didn’t go in first time; the casting needed some dressing to remove high spots.

The overhaul looks to be going extremely well and the plan is the work should take around two years, so 257 Squadron could be back in service in 2015.

Thanks for reading.