One of the issues highlighted during the building of the site has been what to do with the damaged and deteriorating engineering drawings that have come into my possession over the years and the best solution has been to redrawn them using a CAD package in exactly the same style as they would have been originally. As a qualified mechanical design engineer with over 30 years experience this has enabled me to combine modern engineering design practice and my extensive knowledge of manufacturing methods and design practice over the last 200 years that is backed up by a large collection of period design and engineering texts covering the Victorian and Edwardian periods through to the 1950's.

I am willing to provide this service to others for a modest fee and even free of charge for suitably interesting material or worthy causes.

Some basic examples are shown below.

The image on the left is from a photographic negative of an original foundry drawing taken during WW2, the negatives were then stored in a separate location to ensure that a copy survived in the event that the original was destroyed. Some attempt had been made previously or at the time of photographing to remove enough grime for the drawing to be visible with some judicious rubbing particularly round the existing damage.

Other records provided information on the driving wheel diameters which was enough to provide the scale of the drawing the accuracy of which was corroborated during reconstruction as all the other dimensions logically slotted into place. The drawing has been reproduced accurately even to the extent of the company stamp.

Gaston was built in 1836 for the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad in North Carolina and was one of the earliest locomotives to run in the USA alongside its twin named Raleigh.    

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