Lamport WG Bagnall Works No.2670 No3 Restoration
To help support this project via PayPal please use the donate button on the right to make a donation. Thank you.
Lamport Number 3 is a great example of just one of the many projects that your admissions and donations go towards.
This locomotive arrived at the museum back in 2013, having been purchased from a preservation group who could not afford the overhaul costs when the boiler certificate expired in 2002. Lamport No.3 is a medium size industrial steam locomotive that operated at the Lamport Quarries in Northamptonshire until 1969.
The locomotive is now going over a major overhaul and restoration by our team of volunteers, with current focus on the boiler and firebox. All works are aimed to be completed in 2025 where Lamport will join our working fleet of industrial steam locomotives and haul both passenger and freight trains. Its large cab will also mean it will form part of our driver experience courses, so members of the public will in time have the opportunity to actually drive the locomotive!
Background and its restoration timeline follows, along with donation opportunities.
To help support this project via PayPal please use the donate button on the right to make a donation. Thank you.
This locomotive was one of a batch of 6 similar locomotives built by W G Bagnall in 1942 for the Staveley Coal and Iron Company to help expand the home produced iron ore industry in Northants. as part of the war effort. Because it was designed to work at slow speed over poorly laid temporary track it was fitted with compensated springs, which distribute the shocks from track irregularities over two axles. This was a feature of many early contractors locomotives, but became less usual later except for quarry lines.
It worked at Lamport Quarries which were connected to the BR Northampton – Market Harborough In 1969 it was purchased by the Leicester Industrial Loco. Group who initially kept it at the C.E.G.B. Leicester power station after which it was moved to the Main Line Steam Trust’s premises at Loughborough.
It was moved to to Shackerstone on the Battlefield Railway in October 1979 and was put to work in 1981. Lamport’s last days in steam were the Queens Golden Jubilee weekend in 2002
The Restoration project is run by Volunteers at the East Anglian Railway Museum and funded by donations, if you can help in any way either by Volunteering or making a donation this would be appreciated. Please see the Lamport donation details below or the volunteering page here
Lamport Restoration Timeline (Under Construction)
In March 2013 Lamport No.3 was moved to the East Anglia Railway Museum at Chappel where it is currently being overhauled by the Volunteers.
Repairs to bunker and cab are completed along with the tyres and new brake shoes, the rolling chassis is now completed and efforts are moving onto the boiler which has already received exstensive welding and lower steel plate replacemnet with a new foundation ring, as of Jan 2023 the delivery of the new inner Firebox has meant that the volunteering efforts now turn to its installation.
A timeline to show the restoration of Lamport No.3, which is planned to be the fourth locomotive at the railway museum a, project that is estimated to be about two to three years away from completion.
The second photograph in September 2018, shows Lamport #3 outside the restoration shed with some of its boiler tubes extending outside its smokebox . This indicates the locomotive is not in service, and repeats a common 1960s scene, when steam locomotives were being withdrawn from the railways.
Sparks are shown flying, as one of our members is working with a gas cutting torch ,he is cutting away tubes from inside the boiler. Our restorers have to go inside small enclosed spaces to do many jobs. Tubes are in the course of events a consumable item, so every seven years or sothey need replacing. The following picture is of an empty boiler barrel – like a long dark tube , you could say was the barebones of the locomotive’s boiler .
One of the younger volunteers is shown here pointing out some intricate work on the outer firebox in August 2019. A new section was welded in the outer firebox, reducing the overall cost of the restoration significantly. By autumn 2016 a better appreciation was made on the amount of work required. It is a fact of restoration you never know exactly what you’re dealing with until it has been dismantled. This is something that other restorers, for example those who work vintage cars, aircraft and boats know about too.
A decision was taken back in 2020 to have a new inner firebox our most significant investment so far,, it was fabricated in Norfolk. The old life expired box was used as a template and a new inner firebox and foundation ring were delivered back to Chappel in January 2023
To recap, the locomotive has been fully disassembled and then reassembled to a running chassis.
Work will soon be started on introducing the new firebox to the barrel which may involve some interesting lifting arrangements this operation will require careful planning, precise execution and plenty of patience. Next to consider is the manufacture and fitting of hundreds of stays, rivets and hundred or so fire tubes. Hydraulic testing then follows. Other re-assembly work includes boiler fittings and safety valves.
It is, of course, a team effort; principally involved are Dick Allman, John Bicknell, Adrian Farress, James Jaeger, Pete Martin, Peter Merrick, Allan Robinson, Phil Robinson, Alan Seymour and Tony Wright.
Fund raising is now essential to continue this work, much hard work has taken place in-house and funds are now required . A budgetary estimate of £25K has been made to complete these work, much of this work is fortunately within the capabilities of our technical team.
Funding is required to provide 140 smoke tubes, 500 stays, a brick arch and new ashpan, an appeal is being launched by our web site to start this fundraising ….
WE NEED YOUR HELP
The Restoration project is run by Volunteers at the East Anglian Railway Museum and funded by donations, if you can help in any way either by Volunteering or making a donation this would be appreciated. Please see the Lamport donation details below or the volunteering page here
Lamport Restoration Donation
Click the button to be taken to the special donation page on PayPal. You will have the option of donating any amount.
You can still donate to us with a cheque. They need to be made payable to ‘East Anglian Railway Museum’ (not ‘EARM’) with reference “ Lamport Restoration Appeal” on the back. Please send cheques to Lamport Restoration Appeal, East Anglian Railway Museum, Chappel & Wakes Colne Station, Station Road, Wakes Colne, Essex, CO6 2DS. If you would like a receipt, please include a SAE.
Larger donations can be made via bank transfer. Please email reception@earm.co.uk or click on Contact Us for further details.
If you are a UK Tax Payer, it is possible for you to GiftAid your donation – if dontating online please choose the GiftAid option – if donating via Cheque, please fill in and return a GiftAid form with your donation.
