Boiler Fail

Saturday, 29th October, 2022

The Bury Standard 4 Group is devastated to announce that their Standard 4 mt loco, 80097, failed last weekend with a blown large boiler tube. This is following the replacement of all the 157 small boiler tubes, which had to be replaced following failures in May this year.

It is particularly saddening that it is just four years since 80097 was restored to steam following her thirty four year restoration by the volunteers of the Bury Standard 4 Group. A significant part of the restoration was the almost complete rebuild of the boiler by a specialist boiler company and which cost the Group £130,000. The expected boiler tube life is over ten years.

This latest blow will cause serious financial problems to the Group, who have not yet paid off the £7,000 cost of replacing the small tubes and who now face a bill estimated towards  £40,000. This is in addition to the loss of steaming fees in the busy Christmas season, as 80097 is not expected to return to traffic until Spring 2023.

The Group will endeavour to make as much progress as these financial constraints allow in the current restoration of their Ivatt 2  loco, number 46428.

If anyone would like to ‘Sponsor a Tube’ they can donate on this website, for which we will be very grateful. 

Please go to the 'Shop' page and the donation options are at the bottom.