The company was formed in January 2018 by its current directors, Rory Edwards and George Balsdon. Having both had a lifelong interest in steam, the pair met whilst working together at the Dartmouth Steam Railway on the completion of 75014 “Braveheart.” Their work together to take the locomotive from the lifting of the boiler to pulling a train in just under 3 months sparked an idea that perhaps there was a gap in the heritage market for an external contractor who could deliver projects such as this on such tight, commercial timescales.

Starting his railway career at the East Somerset Railway aged 11 as a volunteer, Rory learned a lot of the valuable basic skills required in both boilerwork and the mechanical aspects of steam locomotive maintenance. As part of his studies for an NVQ level 1 and 2 in mechanical engineering, a day a week (in addition to the voluntary time at the weekends) was spent at the ESR workshops furthering his hands on skills, alongside the theoretical classroom work, thus allowing a great number of hours of experience to be gathered.

In October 2008 Rory moved to the Dartmouth Steam Railway as a fitter, and over a number of years worked closely with the local British Engineering surveyor to bring nearly all of the required boilerwork back in-house. In 2011 he was formally promoted to boiler-smith, and as a part of this role spent some time at LNWR Heritage at Crewe working on the new copper tubeplate for 75014 and further broadening his skill set.

One of the achievements at the PDSR of which he is most proud is his instrumental role in the implementation of a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant. Having found damage to both 7827 and 5239 due to poor water quality, alongside carrying out the necessary repairs, Rory also did a huge amount of work to find the route cause of the problems and then put together a documented case for investing the not insignificant sum of money in an RO plant, which was agreed to by the Board and is still in use today.

During the course of his time as the DSR’s boilersmith, amongst many other jobs, Rorys work included the following:

• Removal and replacement of 411 copper stays on 7827 and 5239.
• Caulking of lap seams on 7827.
• Partial re-riveting of 7827 foundation ring.
• Entire removal, repair, refitting and riveting of 5239’s foundation ring.
• Entire reaming, countersinking and riveting of 75014’s foundation ring.
• Pressing back of quilted platework on 7827.
• Numerous (over 100) patch screw replacements.
• Replacement of 7827’s smoke tubes and re-beading of flue tubes.
• Fitment of 75014’s smoke tubes and beading of all tubes.
• Marking out, drilling, tapping and fitting over 600 side stays to 75014.
• Washout plug hole repairs.
• Caulking of all firebox, foundation ring, front tubeplate and barrel seams on 75014.
• Overhaul and repairs of the superheater header for 75014.
• Testing and final commissioning of both the boiler and the completed locomotive.
• Fitting out of smokeboxes and backheads including fittings, superheater elements etc.
• Other mechanical aspects such as whitemetalling and machining of rods and axleboxes, fitment of valves, pistons and glands etc.

With his childhood bedroom window overlooking the neighbours yard, where a traction engine could often be seen, George’s interest in steam goes back as far as he can remember. In 2006 (when George was aged 11) the family were lucky enough to purchase a traction engine of their own, however, without the funds to pay for it to be restored commercially, it was left to George to learn the skills necessary to do it. With the guidance and help of some highly skilled family friends (one of whom being an ex-boiler inspector) the vast amount of work required was gradually carried out. This included fitting of a new firebox, new front tubeplate, new boiler fittings throughout, new cylinder and associated motion, new mains, big ends, gears, pipework and the usual host of smaller jobs.

With the completion of the restoration in 2010, and with it out in public running as well as it did, George was approached by a gradually increasing number of people to carry out paid machining and boilerwork on their traction engines. This soon then extended further, with contacts made through his fathers haulage business George was also soon carrying out machining for local machinery repairers, quarries, and even for projects related to tidal power at the university, alongside studying for his 4 A-levels.

With the foundations of a successful business building, yet still wanting a firm theoretical understanding of the work to build upon, in 2013, George began studying a 4 year degree in Mechanical Engineering, graduating in 2017 with a Master’s Degree with honours.

Alongside the degree, also in 2013, George was approached by the owners of a traction engine (Burrell No.2189) in Scotland requiring a full restoration after 40 years sat in a barn. This ended up requiring the replacement of every single bearing (bar the two front wheels), all new copper pipework, new firebox, foundation ring, backhead, front barrel section and front tubeplate, new longitudinal stays with forged ends, new girders designed in accordance with BS2790 alongside the RSA surveyors approval, new tender, and a full repaint. Since then a further traction engine restoration has been carried out for the same owner, which is detailed in a case study later in this document.

Alongside the tail end of finishing 2189, and the degree, in 2016 George also took on a part time job at the Dartmouth steam railway. This included, as well as footplate work, 3 days a week in the workshop assisting with all manor of tasks to take 75014 from a bare set of frames to a fully tested and usable locomotive in time for the Christmas season. George is still a fairly regular fireman at the DSR today.