Project Update, November 2020

Progress has been steady as much of the background work progresses. We recently decided, to focus mainly on the compliance side for the project. This covers the design , development and the production of the locomotive.

Our main areas of activity have focused on:

* Computer-Aided Design
* Purchasing drawings
* Research into documents and manuals
* Compiling a components’ list
* Locating critical components

* Safety and compliance of the build

* Appointment of the projects ICP (Independent competent person)

COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN (CAD)

In September 2017 we gained a new Committee Member, Andrew Thomas who is a full-time CAD engineer working in an industrial business. Andrew has taken on the role at Project 22 as Head of Design Engineering.

Andrew’s work is intense and time-consuming, and provides Project 22 with the critical drawings needed to gain the costings for specific aspects of the project. Andrew has been in close discussion with the now appointed ICP for Project 22, and ensuring we answer all the questions regarding safety, construction, production and compliance to name just a few. Above are the first two rendered CAD images of the Mainframe stretched assembly, the as you can see identify the individual parts through the colouring of said parts.

PURCHASE OF DRAWINGS

Doug Parfitt, our Project Manager has been working for 3 years to list and locate the relevant drawings needed to provide Andrew with data needed to produce the CAD drawings.

We have a fully-catalogued list of all drawings needed and are methodically locating them and purchasing both hard and electronic copies. It will take another 3 years to collect all the drawings we need, which are purchased in order of priority.

Getting drawings is not as straight-forward at it seems. We have listed those we need but it takes several weeks to locate batches of 20 at a time. Actual numbers of drawings purchased will be updated in the next update

RESEARCH INTO DOCUMENTS AND MANUALS

In addition to the multitude of blueprints we need there are many other documents needed such as component manuals, brake and wiring diagrams. Much of this information is available from the National Railway Museum, and regular visits have been taking place with many more planned for the 2021.

COMPONENT LIST

A critical area of development is the completion of a complete component list for a D6300 locomotive. The list will identify the components used in the original locomotive and cross-reference with those available and compatible that can be recovered from existing locomotives, where components may be available from preservation groups or industries in the UK. This list will also identify what new components can be used as replacements, an option preferred by Project 22.

This is a massive job which is progressing slowly.

LOCATING CRITICAL COMPONENTS

As we have already located and purchased an NBL/MAN power unit, the next task is to find a transmission. We have located several around the world. This is the “holy grail” of the project – the Voith LT306R – as it is the defining diesel hydraulic component.

Due to the complexity of negotiations we choose to not provide any detail or specific information until we have some actual information to share, other than saying we have located two transmissions that could be made available to us in the future, and we are confident that we will secure one for Project 22.

THE FUTURE

There are many other projects going on within the group and we are still spending many hours slowly moving forward. Our policy is still to keep our heads down and work on the important design and development work before we rush out making announcements. Project 22 will come back to the public eye when we are prepared.

We think our decision to reduce the level of marketing was the right move, as we were very much in danger of peaking too soon. Project 22 become very public before it even got started, which gave the impression that it was for more mature than it was. It is going to take us a few years before we realise the real potential of the project. Slowly but surely a strong sustainable structure is developing. We still have a long way to go before we can really start the actual stages of costing the build in real terms and setting out to raise the funds needed to build and maintain a locomotive.

We still need to recruit working members who can help use reach our aim, of the first stage of assembly by 2022. There are many projects as shown above where we need more people to help. We are not at the stage of needing a great deal of manual help, but this project is bigger than the six active committee members currently working on the project.

Become and Investor and donate to Project 22! We won’t get it built without the commitment of people like you!

Download the form from the ‘Button’ below, print the last page and post it to us; or go to menu and select ‘Become an Investor’ and use PayPal.

For a small monthly amount you can support Project 22 and help us achieve our aim of building a D6300 locomotive.

All donations are currently going into our Transmission Account to be used as match-funding when we apply for grant to help secure to purchase of a Voith LT306 R transmission at some point in the future.