Pete Waterman, pop mogul, steam enthusiast and loco owner was present at the launch of a £500,000 appeal for the boiler for 'The Unknown Warrior' on 19th May at the LNWR Heritage Loco works. The all new parallel ‘Fowler’ boiler of traditional construction with a copper firebox has been commissioned by the LMS-Patriot Project, the charitable group who are building the new Royal British Legion endorsed National Memorial Engine.

Twelve spring hangers have been made for 'The Unknown Warrior' with assistance from Project Director Neil Kinsey. The spring hangers were machined at Fastlok Engineering Ltd. in Nottingham and have now been taken to the Llangollen Railway Works to enable the rolling chassis to be assembled.

The blanks for the cross stays have also been manufactured.

Photos by Andrew Laws and Neil Kinsey.

The drag box for 'The Unknown Warrior' was completed during December 2009 at the Llangollen Railway Works. The steel plate was delivered to the Works in pre-cut sections where coded welder Ian Massey welded the sections together to form the new dragbox. The completed dragbox will require heat treatment off site to even out the stresses within the newly welded structure. The dragbox will then be returned to Llangollen for fitting in the frames, at the cab end of the locomotive.

The newly welded dragbox is seen in the images below, taken at Llangollen on 20th December.

The Patriot Project, the Company behind the first LMS new build steam locomotive, is pleased to announce that the name for the locomotive is 'The Unknown Warrior'.

The new name was chosen by steam enthusiasts and readers of Steam Railway magazine who voted for their favourite name from a shortlist of five names that were drawn up from all the names suggested. The name 'The Unknown Warrior' received the most votes in the subsequent competition.