The LMS-Patriot Project, the charitable group who are building the Royal British Legion endorsed National Memorial Engine ‘The Unknown Warrior’ – has launched a £50,000 appeal for the cylinders. The appeal has been launched as a result of the discovery of a pattern maker – Precision Patterns of Oldbury who can make polystyrene patterns at a fraction of the cost of traditional wooden patterns. This will result in a significant saving in the overall costs of building the new ‘Patriot’ class 4-6-0 steam locomotive ‘The Unknown Warrior’.

Britain’s leading family-owned, independent oil blenders and marketers, Morris Lubricants, is throwing its weight behind an exciting £1.5 million project to build a new 'Patriot' steam locomotive.

The Shrewsbury-based company, which is the market leader in steam heritage lubricants, is enthusiastically supporting the project to build a locomotive to the original Sir Henry Fowler parallel boiler design, capable of running on the mainline.

The project team hope to complete the new national memorial engine, named 'The Unknown Warrior', in time for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice in 2018.

The LMS-Patriot Project has acquired a second Fowler tender that was originally built for a 'Royal Scot' class loco. The ex Barry scrapyard tender, purchased from the East Lancashire Railway at Bury, will be stripped and after a thorough assessment will be considered for restoration and eventual use with 'The Unknown Warrior'.

New driving wheel axle boxes are being made for 'The Unknown Warrior. The axle boxes from unrestored ex Barry Stanier 8F number 48518 were found to be of different dimensions to 'Patriot' axle boxes.

A 'Royal Scot' axle box pattern that was obtained from Wroughton needed too many modifications to make it suitable for use with 'The Unknown Warrior'.

A new 'Patriot' axle box pattern has been made by Master Pattern Maker Eddie Mocroft at the Boro Foundry. Six new loco driving wheel axle boxes have been cast. These are being machined before being fitted to the driving wheels to enable the rolling chassis to be assembled.