3672 Dame Vera Lynn Fundraising Team member, Ian Foot, takes us through what's been happening recently and future plans for this Austerity Class locomotive.

Welcome to The Vera Blog, this is the first of occasional blog posts all about ‘our’ locomotive, No. 3672 Dame Vera Lynn. 

The current situation finds the loco unit outside No. 6 road of the Deviation Shed at Grosmont. Informal discussions have taken place this week with the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (N.E.L.P.G.) team. There are various workarounds possible to enable us to work on 3672 once she is inside the shed. It will be a tight squeeze as No. 5 and No. 80135 are inside on No. 6 road and might require to be shunted up slightly.

Vera awaits entry into the Deviation Shed

Meanwhile, the tender is currently outside the boiler shop on No. 2 road. The tank has been made watertight enough to enable it to give it sufficient weight to achieve a transfer to Newbridge for onward road transport to Ian Riley & Sons. No specific date has been made for moving the tender yet, but one possibility is for it to go through at 15mph with J27 No. 65894 when this locomotive is due to go away for its summer holidays.

Andrew Jeffrey checks the axleboxes prior to the move to Newbridge.

Our locomotive has recently been featured in the Yorkshire Post and a short piece in the current edition of Heritage Railway magazine.

This has started a noticeable increase in donations, for which we are very grateful. We have been working with Heritage Railway magazine to contribute to a major feature on 3672 in the next issue. We're told that it will be 6 or 7 pages long and should act as a major fundraiser which should also increase the profile of the locomotive's overhaul. It will include a large section on the history of the locomotive, particularly the shipping from Greece and the Mid Hants and Lavender Line connections. The NYMR is, in reality, just part of the story to be told. The magazine will also be including periodic updates on the progress of the work taking place.

Once the locomotive unit is under-cover, we should be allowed to start working parties again with suitable Covid-19 precautions in place. We also hope to be able to fundraise over the Annual Steam Gala four-day event later in the year (23-26 September).

Ian Foot, 24 June 2021.
3672 Dame Vera Lynn Fundraising Team Member.