A TURNING point was reached yesterday as wheels on the P2 Prince of Wales locomotive at Darlington Locomotive Works went into motion for the first time.
A long time in the making, this is a significant step in the progress of this locomotive.
Following a hugely successful fundraising campaign, The Motion Club will be closing at the end of February.
Donations have turned into components, which have all now arrived at the Darlington Works and the P2 Class locomotive stands with all coupling rods attached.
Chairman of Darlington Locomotive Works, Steve Davies MBE said: “This plays a major role in Stockton and Darlington 200, which is in 2025.
“Covid has had an effect on the progress of this engine and like everyone across the country, money is tight, but what we’re trying to do is reinvigorate enthusiasm.
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“This is a major example of the British doing what the British do well. These are crazy ideas, if you said to someone you were going to build one of these they’d have thought you were mad but this quintessentially British attitude of ‘well if you say it can’t be done, it will be done.’
“We were confident about the design and build but we needed to run both sets of wheels coupled to check that everything is square and smooth and although I know David (Elliot, P2 Engineering Director) had no problems thinking it was going to work, I saw a wonderful sigh of relief on his face when he realised that it was absolutely spot on.
“There are key moments in the building of any steam engine and this is one of those milestones. From the point of view of the public and our supporters, it’s something really tangible that says progress. We’re getting there, the finishing line is in sight. We will get this finished but we want to get it finished quicker.”
Speaking of the progress of the P2 Prince of Wales, David Elliot, P2 Engineering Director said: “It’s definitely had an effect on visitor number. Last weekend numbers were up by about a third.
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“When we started, we said we could build it in seven years from an engineering point of view but that required raising an average of five million pounds, but of course we’ve had quite a bit of inflation since then, that required us to be raising money at £700,000 a year. Now, in practice we’ve been averaging a little over half a million a year, so it’s looking more like ten years now.
“For the last two years, and it’ll be going on for another six months or so, of pipe work and conduit work for electrics. Which is essential, quite expensive, time-consuming, but not sexy. You can’t get people to sponsor a pipe, they want to sponsor a wheel.”
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