James May Visits Darlington to Make a Slacking Cock Flange

I promise I did not choose to write this article simply because it has the word “cock” in it. I’m 36 years old and have matured beyond such juvenile humor. Oh who am I kidding; it says “cock” in the title, hehe. It’s been so long since we’ve heard that word in conjunction with James May that it feels like an old friend coming back to visit. So on behalf of James May fans everywhere, I welcome back the “cock.”

Back to business now. James May was in Darlington yesterday to make a slacking cock flange for a P2 steam engine he is building, called The Prince of Wales. He is making this engine in conjunction with the organization that owns the Tornado locomotive. A slacking cock flange connects a hose to wash out the cab of a steam engine, according to the source article.

James first became involved with Tornado in Series 13 , Episode 1 when James raced Jeremy and Richard in a LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado steam train. As expected, May took a liking to the old train and plans to make more parts at home.

The chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, Mark Allatt, says:

“It is wonderful to have someone on board who is enthusiastic about engineering and what we can do in this country.”

So why does James think he was chosen for this job?

“They gave me this job because the name is funny. They sent me the drawings and the metals for it more than a year ago but then my life became quite complicated. My machines at home aren’t really big enough for it so I came up to make it.

I don’t know how many other parts of a steam engine there are with vaguely sexual or comical names, although there is a drain cock.”

Hehehehehehehe……”Drain cock.” I’m a special kind of grown up.