A very different week indeed 4 days working keeping things moving. Tuesday, we loaded the Sales trailer and converged on Tenterden putting up two gazebos one for 4253 for us to try and raise money to complete the restoration of the loco. The other gazebo was for the team to give our passengers travelling on the Santa trains their hot mulled wine, or port. Just a simple job on the surface involving running electric cables all over the site, installing power for urns, lighting and heating supplies along with setting up the displays ready for Saturday and the first trains. Friday, we went back to more usual work removing the top plates and angles of the new tank for 5668. This is to make the job to rivet the top angle to the side plates a lot more accessible. We fitted the tank back section to the angles applying mastic to all the joints and bolting up ready for riveting. The drain flange had the holes drilled for riveting to the top plate. We also did some repairs to a broken urn lid ready for Saturdays Santa trains. The sales team were setting up the stands bright and early on Saturday morning ready for our passengers to arrive. The weather was not to kind early on but brightened up later, it all went very well indeed with just a few minor tweaks to be made for next week to help make thing a little better. The feed back was very good from the people coming to the stall all having an enjoyable day out. Sunday the sales team were hard at work with the Tombola as well serving the mulled wine and port to the happy Santa Train passengers. The feedback we had at both stalls was very good indeed. The second team who were at Rolvenden had a good day riveting the new tank for 5668 together, used the day for a training day for teaching members of the team how to rivet. Thanks to every one who braved the wet then the cold on the sales stalls as well as all the midweek team who are keeping the project moving forward .
The team received the best news this week the tubes and things arrived at HBSS eventually. We continued to work on the tank plates that were marked for drilling on Sunday so again we had drill Tuesday 2. We have now completed all the remaining holes on the new tank tops and baffle brackets. We cut the bar for all the remaining studs for the back head for the water gauge, blower and brake ejector, the bar was sent to one of our shareholders to turn into studs, when done these will go to HBSS with all the rest of the studs. K&ESR Apprentice George has started to make the remaining bolts for the brake gear as a training project for his college work ,this is under the supervision of Peter, one of the railways machinists. The access panels in the tank side had all the holes tapped out for the fixing studs. The team reamed all the holes ready for riveting on the top and baffle support angles. Friday we just for a change rebuilt the tank and applied mastic and bolted all the baffle angles up ready for the rivets. We also replaced the restored engine cover the team had done on the mobile lighting unit ready for use at the Santa Specials. Sunday the team set to work on the new tank tops drilling the doubling plates that hold the tank lifting eyes, drilling the lifting eye fixing holes. We then riveted the bottom angle behind the splasher which we had to fit the rivets from inside to outside and form the head. The team then stripped down the cab section of the new tank to allow us access to rivet the top angle section, each of the baffle supports had the bottom large rivet fitted and a few of the lower small rivets done as well. We had a very productive day indeed. Thanks to one and all who came along to help this week
The team hard at work again this week on the project.![]()
It was drilling a hole Tuesday, so we drilled hundreds of holes in all the new tank plates for 5668 new fireman’s tank. We got all the tubes and other bits to be fitted to the boiler wrapped up for their trip to HBSS Liverpool, on Friday fingers crossed this time. The team started work on the mobile lighting tower rebuild and repaint ready for the Santa Specials to for use in the car park at Tenterden. (To see where people are stuck easier) The work on the frames continued doing all the snagging jobs i.e., split pins cut to length and nuts tightened. Friday, we carried on with the last of the hole drilling and we will be able to assemble the tank properly on Sunday. The pallets were loaded on the lorry and finally started the trip to Liverpool. Sunday was assemble it day putting all the tank top sections on then bolt them down, which allowed us to mark the remaining 3 baffles for drilling. The top holding brackets were welded on to the main baffles then marked for drilling on to the tank top plates, we then stripped it all down again to allow us to rivet the bottom angle in place we put in over 130 rivets. We have just a few more to do having to form the head from outside due to the restricted access because of the splasher in the tank floor. We made all the remaining plates for inside the tank baffles now all marked out for drilling on Tuesday. More progress on the boiler by HBSS see pictures .The work on the lighting tower continued ,along with some repair work on our grinders .Please don’t forget the Plug the Gap appeal to help us to keep the water in the boiler by sponsoring a washout plug please go to our web site www.4253.co.uk for all the information you need to help. Thanks to everyone who helped this week keeping us moving forward.
Sunday saw the team marking out the tank top section along with the remaining baffle supports for drilling ready for riveting. So, we drilled all day long hole after hole by the end of the day we had the top on but only drilled down one edge, so we must This week was a very full on 3 busy days indeed on the project. Tuesday the team continued work on the second tank for 5668, by fitting the back corner and starting to fit the top angles permanently to the side sheets. The water gauge mechanism holding plate was drilled and trial fitted, the top plates were put into position, all the bottom angles were reamed, and all the holding bolts fitted ready for riveting. Lots of repair work was done to the bunko booth as well. Friday saw the team carrying on with the tank work trimming bits off the baffles to make them fit and to allow riveting to take place easily on the bottom rail. The centre baffle was drilled and trimmed ready for fixing. We had a pleasant surprise when the part for fixing the water gauge mechanism arrived from being milled .So we had a handing over ceremony to celebrate,we all then had to sit down and have a cup of tea to get over the shock .This was not the only trauma on Friday the new 4253 news letter came out and lots of people found they had the No 13 again and not No 14 after a lot of head scratching a resolution was found .The new news letter shows how you can help us keep the water in 4253 boiler with our new appeal, Plug The Gap .You can now buy your own washout or fusible plug to help us get the boiler back in steam sooner. Please go to our web page www.4253.co.uk for all the details on how we can keep things moving forward . do it all again on Tuesday down the other edge. We had the baffles in place late afternoon so we could now measure the back of the tank to allow the drawings to be done. We can now send these to the fabricators to bend the new sheets to fit the tank. Thanks to one and all who came to help this week .
The week was 3 days again working on the project.![]()
Tuesday, we completed the jobs that the team started on Sunday that included removing one failed rivet on the new tank floor joining strip, fitting the doubling plate on the tank cab side plate for the hand brake column. The green team painted all the new rivets, the plate for the balance pipe had the holes tapped out for studs to be fitted before its riveted on. The 4253 was painted on the back buffer beam and the front numbers had a freshen up after it’s been 4/5 years since they were done (thanks to Meg). The new body casting for the blowdown valve arrived from the foundry it will now be going on to be machined and finished. Some more floor angles were fitted to the floor plate ready for the rivet gang on Sunday. All the baffles and tops of the tanks arrived from the profile cutters and were instantly primed ready for drilling and trial fitting. Friday the team continued with making the parts for the new water gauge for 5668 new tanks. We got everything ready for all the tubes and other parts for the boiler to be moved to HBSS Liverpool but at the last minute the haulier phoned up to say the lorry had broken down, words like oh gosh and dash and damn were uttered or words very similar. Sunday was a very busy day indeed we finished the floor section rivets, then moved the cab section of the new tank where we could get to rivet it together. All the angles had mastic applied and bolted on. The riveting started ,which, on this section took the best part of the day. Some of the team laid down the floor section and started to reassemble the side panels, mastic was applied to the securing angles it was then bolted together. The new securing brackets for the baffles were cut, drilled and bolted on ready for marking up for final fixing. So, a very good day was had with over 200 rivets done. Thanks to all. Who came to help this week .
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Set of 3 Stays (Sponsor)£99.00 -
Life & Times of 4253 Book£9.50 -
Pen & Torch Gift Set£6.00 -
FLUE TUBE CLOCKS£27.50 – £30.50 -
BOILER TUBE EGG TIMERS£15.00 – £18.00 -
4253/WISE OWL CIDER TANK IN OO GAUGE£15.00 – £20.00