National Lottery Heritage Fund

We are now over the halfway stage with the project (and have applied for the second tranche of the funds).  We had to submit a report on the activity to date and have a meeting to review progress.  We can confirm that the Fund are happy with what we have done so far and we have the next payment in the bank.  We will now have to complete the project and submit a final report – this will involve spending the second half of our £25,000 contribution and the final 20% of the total before we receive reimbursement.  We do have the funds for our contribution in the bank and are confident that we can cover the cash-flow to complete the project.  October saw us promoting ourselves on Boom Radio, we sponsored their Rail 200 show with exposure to their 700,000 listeners. In November we took our information stand and photographic exhibition to the National Festival of Railway Modelling at the NEC – thanks to the Warner Group for kindly providing the stand space – there were around 12,000 visitors to the show over the two days and we gave out a lot of leaflets about the Trust and have hopefully recruited at least two new volunteers.

We were able to display a pre-production model from Dapol of the 00 gauge 2874 – looks and feels really good – the model will only be available direct from Dapol or ourselves – we should have them in stock for the May Gala next year.

Also on sale was our latest 00 gauge wagon.  As many of you may know, earlier this year we lost Len Young, one of our major supporters and a long-time Director of Dinmore Manor Locomotive Ltd.  Len was a brilliant “fixer” and always seemed to know someone who could help with many of our tasks.  One of Len’s neighbours was a smallholder and every year in early summer Len would come along with bunches of freshly picked asparagus for those of us who liked the delicacy – so we felt an appropriate tribute to Len would be to dedicate one of our limited-edition wagons to him.

These can be obtained from our “Exclusives” shop through the website www.2874trust.org (home page - 2874 exclusive models)

We were also visited by Model Railway Quest and here she is with David Holmes. She is a blogger and modeller and promotes not only model railwaying in general but encourages women to become involved in model railwaying as well,. It was a pleasure to welcome her to our stand .Check her You Tube sessions if you are into modelling 

We have received support from model railway retailer Rails of Sheffield – in addition to their shops in Sheffield they have a large mail-order business and have agreed to put in every package a copy of our leaflet publicising The Trust and our project – the initial distribution of 15,000 leaflets was completed by the end of November and a further 20,000 are currently going out. Should you be in the market for any model railway materials perhaps you could try Rails (assuming you can’t get them from us or Dapo.

l Rails have recently opened a new shop in Sheffield Midland Railway Station and David Holmes was invited to the opening. The shop was opened by Pete Waterman and Jools Holland was also a guest you can just see him speaking to Pete .Here is Pete just after he had opened the shop . Jools also  treated us  to short rendition on the station piano.

Ongoing Restoration

Much of the work on the boiler has been the drilling out of the copper stays that need replacing – a time-consuming task that has to be completed while ensuring no damage to the copper firebox.  The steel stays are much easier as they can be burned out with the oxy-propane torch.  We have now removed almost all the old stays – there are a few copper stays that will not be accessible until the throat plate is removed.

Before we start positioning any of the new platework we will be replacing a number of the lap rivets in the inner copper firebox – rivets have been obtained and this work is the next task on the agenda.

The backhead fitting flanges (Regulator, brake valve, blower valve and gauge frame mounting) have all suffered very badly from corrosion during the many years in the open.  After a great deal of research, Ian Carpenter identified a machine we could hire to recover these faces – a “Flange Hog”.  This has proved very successful and now at least two other loco groups are interested in hiring the same machine so we have passed on the details.

One of the badly worn flanges above and the tool mounted below.

 Kenneth Operating the The Flange Hog 

The four finished flanges

We previously mentioned our need for a vacuum reservoir - you can see from the picture that the one that came off is a little worse for wear - and that we will have a number available for other groups to purchase.  Our production line is working well with 6 cylinders manufactured, de-rusted and painted in anti-corrosive primer, the mounting brackets all fabricated and the flange fittings made by a local machine shop.  All is now ready for final assembly, and the good news is we already have firm interest in two purchases by other loco groups.    

The cab continues to progress with much of the floor structure now fabricated and trial fitted – Paul has even got seats sorted out for the Driver and Fireman and these have been welded together by Ashley

Our Exclusive Products

As always, our on-line shop is available at: 

https://pixelshack.co.uk/collections/2874-trust?page=1 

Our limited-edition wagons continue to prove popular – buy yours while they are still available from

https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/shop/exclusive-2874-trust-products 

Of course, if you prefer not to shop on-line, please make contact as below and we will arrange an alternative way of meeting your requirements.

Some Diary Dates for 2026

Bristol Model Railway Show 1^st to 3^rd May

GWSR Gala 23^rd to 25^th May

GWSR Model Railway Show 26^th to 27^th September

Funding

Our current NLHF grant covers our work through to the end of 2026 – we must complete this project in the agreed timeframe.  But of course, our work does not stop there!  We need to keep the momentum of our restoration going until we have a working locomotive and looking even further ahead there is also a tender waiting for attention.  

 We mentioned in our previous Newsletter that we had been submitting grant applications to fund the materials and components needed to complete our restoration.  We can report two successes – the Swire Charitable Trust and the Veronica Awdry Charitable Trust have made awards and we now have £15,500 in the bank ready to place orders for the necessary materials – fingers crossed for more successful outcomes!

In all grant applications it is vital that we show commitment to helping ourselves as much as possible, and we indicted that we aim to raise £30,000 from our own resources.  Thanks to you, our supporters we have already raised over £12,000 and with Gift Aid on top that takes us to the half-way point.  Included in this total are two significant amounts to sponsor specific items, the new chimney and the vacuum cylinder.  Of course, we do not have any guarantees of further success from the grant applications so we will have to continue to raise as much as we possibly can from our own supporters. 

Pictured is a connecting rod

and an injector  – we need two of each!!

 Would you  be willing to sponsor, in whole or in part any of the following please:

All sponsorship can be via lump sum or by monthly standing order (min £5 per month) – normal Gift Aid rules apply

BACS payments to The 2874 Trust at Lloyds Bank, Sort Code 77 – 50  - 01,  Account Number 58297360

Please use as the  Reference  - Your Name and Part Name

Cheques to:  The Treasurer, The 2874 Trust, 28 Holyrood, Great Holm, Milton Keynes, MK8 9AF

Standing Order form can be supplied – please phone 01643 706943 or e-mail to enquiries@2874trust.org 

For any enquiries about this Newsletter or the Trust generally,

please contact enquiries@2874trust.org, 

or phone 01643 706943

 or write to 22 South Park, Minehead TA24 8AL