LMS-Patriot Project

The chassis of Newbuild LMS Patriot 4-6-0 no 45551 The Unknown Warrior inside the shed at Llangollen.

5551's drivers side cabside painted in its former LMS colours of crimson lake with its 4 digit LMS number of 5551 instead of the 5 digit BR number.

The Unknown Warrior's fireman side nameplate with the new crest placed above it replacing the RBL's crest which needed to be removed.

An almost complete looking 5551 inside the shed at Crewe Heritage Centre, on this day she was to have her new crest unveiled. The boiler was fitted temporarily to make sure it fitted perfectly, it would later be returned to the firm which was working on it.

On 31 March 2009, two frame plates were cut at Corus Group plc Steel, Cradley Heath in the West Midlands. Measuring 39 ft in length 4 ft high and 1 1/8 in thick (28 mm), the frame plates were then taken to the Boro Foundry, at Lye, West Midlands, for machining and drilling, before being taken to the Llangollen Railway Works for assembly. The dragbox was fitted to the frames, the front buffer beam fitted, the bogie bolster was cast and fitted, all five of the five frame stretchers were cast and fitted to the frames.

In September 2010, the first driving wheel was cast at the Boro Foundry, using the pattern made for LMS Jubilee Class 45699 Galatea. The two classes share the same size 6'9" driving wheels. The six new driving wheels were cast by The Boro Foundry Stourbridge and machined and assembled by the South Devon Railway,[3] who machined and fitted the plain axles, crank axle, tyres, and crank pins. The six driving axle boxes were cast by Johnson Porter of Stourbridge, machined at FHT Southam Warwicks and final machined and fitted to the wheels at Tyseley Locomotive Works.

The three cylinders were cast and machined and were fitted to the frames during January 2015. This is the first use of polystyrene patterns (made by Premier Patterns of Smethwick), for locomotive cylinders which were cast at Coupe Foundry Preston and machined at Harco Engineering of Brierley Hill. The motion girders, motion brackets, cylinder covers and slidebar were fitted and sandboxes fabricated.

All the components for the bogie were manufactured and assembled at Tyseley Locomotive Works; completion was scheduled for November 2015. The remaining wheelset was assembled by the South Devon Railway in Buckfastleigh Devon. The locomotive became a 4-6-0 once the bogie was completed.

An ex-LMS Fowler tender, that remained at Woodham Brothers Barry Scrapyard and was later stored in the ex EWS wagon depot, was secured for use with 'The Unknown Warrior'. The frames were in very poor condition and were cut up following the acquisition of the second tender (see below). The Project purchased a second tender from the East Lancs Railway, Bury. The frame plates were in good enough condition to be used along with four of its axle boxes, two of which received major remedial work. The wheelsets and springs were removed from the Barry tender and refurbished. A new tank will be built as the original was badly corroded, having suffered the ravages of the sea air at Barry for a number of years. The new tank was also to be redesigned to give greater water capacity to help with mainline running. Most of the work on the tender was to be carried out by Rowlescourt Engineering of Alfreton, Derbyshire, where renovation of the frames was intended to be completed by the end of November 2015. Work on assembling the tender tank was scheduled to begin at Rowlescourt in January 2016.

At The LMS Patriot Project's AGM on 14 November 2010, it was announced that the boiler for 'The Unknown Warrior' would be built by LNWR Heritage at Crewe. The new boiler would be of traditional construction with a copper firebox. A fundraising campaign for the boiler for £500,000 was launched. The smokebox and front tubeplate were manufactured and fitted to the locomotive in July 2013. The copper firebox was under construction at L&NWR Heritage at Crewe and expected to be complete by the end of 2015, with construction of the boiler proper scheduled to begin in January 2016 and completion scheduled for the end of 2016.

Much of the engine's motion was reclaimed from scrapped Jubilee class locomotives and was to be refurbished. A new connecting rod was forged and machined and other items sourced. A number of parts were also offered to the project, such as four original LMS buffers from a scrapped crane at Ruddington (GCR N), original LMS lamps, a genuine whistle, the surviving chimney from 45539 E C Trench and many other smaller components.

The completion date was originally planned for Autumn 2018 with formal dedication planned for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, however this was delayed for 18 months.[4] Construction was slowed down in spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.[5]