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Driving wheels appeal passes quarter-way mark

OUR appeal to raise £40,000 to have the four coupled wheels cast for No. 3840 County of Montgomery has passed the quarter-way mark.

The ‘Forty 4-4-0s Club’ was launched back in March as a long-term appeal in which supporters can ‘adopt’ one (or more) of the original 40 ‘Counties’. These locos were all named after British and Irish counties with which the GWR had connections, albeit obscure ones in some cases. To date 11 of the locos have been snapped up, securing £11,000 in funding towards the wheels.

The four 6ft 8½in wheels will be made of high quality cast steel and cost £10,000 each to manufacture. They will be cast from the pattern created to cast the wheels for the Great Western Society’s ‘Saint’ 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend; these being identical to those of the Churchward ‘Counties’. The CCT is grateful to the GWS for the loan of the pattern.

So far the following ‘Counties’ have been adopted – Middlesex, Somerset, Hants, Limerick, Dorset, Warwick, Bedford, Salop, Flint, Berks and Worcester. This has put us well on the road towards having No. 3840’s wheels cast, and we have opened dialogue with a number of potential suppliers. However, there are still 29 ‘Counties’ desperate to be given good homes.

Membership of the ‘Forty 4-4-0s Club’ is set at £1,000 (payable in one lump sum or in eight payments of £125 by standing order), and comes with a string of incentives including:

  • An invitation to the launch of County of Montgomery
  • A seat on the locomotive’s first train
  • A special certificate acknowledging the ‘County’ being adopted
  • A framed and mounted photograph of the ‘County’ being adopted
  • A mounted print of No. 3840 by Jonathan Clay or Stuart Black
  • Your name on Roll of Honour  
  • Life membership of the CCT

The full list of remaining ‘Counties’ available for adoption, and details on how to join can be found on the ‘Adopt a County’ page.

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