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Steam Improvements of the Last 30 Years

Welshpool & Llanfair Railway Locomotives
updated 05/05/2000

Nigel Day and Shaun McMahon performed several locomotive modifications on the engines of the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway in Wales in the 1980's. These photos show Welshpool & Llanfair Railway No. 14 (former Sierra Leone No. 85) and the fitting of its Lempor exhaust sytem in 1993. The components were designed by Shaun McMahon and Nigel Day, and manufactured in the railway's workshops. The final photo shows W&L No. 2 ("the Countess"), during its front end modernization work.

W&L_14

W&L No. 14
Locomotive during trials in 1993. Note test instrumentation cables leading to the balcony of the front carriage.

W&L No. 14
Lempor exhaust stand during assembly.

W&L No. 14
Lempor exhaust nozzle (back side) showing 4 nozzle openings and careful attention paid to internal streamlining of steam passages to minimize flow losses.

W&L No. 14
Lempor nozzles in position below bellmouth. Note the poor arrangement of exiting the vaccum ejector exhaust within the smokebox.

W&L No. 14
Nigel Day fitting test instrumentation to W and L No. 14 prior to in-service testing.

W&L No. 14
Home made dynamometer balcony setup for testing!

test instruments

W&L No. 14
Test instrumentation inside the cab.

W&L No. 2
During front end modification work by Day and McMahon Steam Technical Services in 1994. Unfortunately, the W&L wished to modify their locomotive fleet without altering their appearance in any way. Because of this, the improvements were in the region of only 50% of what they could have been.

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