Week Two On Tuesday and Friday the team continued with making/cleaning clock bodies to re-plenish our sales stock. Building a new cupboard to hold drawers for all our engineering drawings and removing the Dave Dee memorial bench from storage to check it over pending the unveiling which is to announced shortly. This has sadly been delayed for over 12 months due … Read More
Final Week On Tuesday, the slide bars were cleaned and re-oiled to ensure the crossheads move freely in preparation for fitting the piston rods to them. The remainder of the cylinder cover pressure relief valves were tested, set and fitted to the covers which then had their mating surfaces cleaned up ready for re-fitting. Finally, the superheater header and regulator box … Read More
Week Four One loco off the to-do list this week as 6619’s boiler is now fully revealed and awaiting the boiler inspector’s visit. During Tuesday and Friday, 5668’s tank had the top panels bolted into place and reamed as necessary. Others were on the long task of annealing the ends of 4253’s tubes (with this shot clearly showing the furnace) cleaning … Read More
Week Four Another full week working on 4253, 5668 and 6619. Tuesday saw 4253 moved from road 2 to road 1 in the shed which is the first time she’s moved with all the inside motion connected up and, thankfully, there were no issues. Work continues on the machining of the pressure relief valves. Meanwhile others were grinding and assembling more of … Read More
Final Week Tuesday saw 4253 get a bit if a clean up after its extended period living in the open plus more painting of 5668’s fireman’s side tank components. Work continued on the motion with various trimmings made, split pins fitted and a new cotter pin made for the pony truck. This continued on Friday with more work on the motion … Read More
Week Three Work continues on 5668’s driver’s side tank which, as usual, means someone has to wedge themselves inside it to mark the positions for yet more holes to be drilled. After that, the panel concerned gets taken down and a set of calipers used to mark the position of those holes that couldn’t be marked from inside the tank. … Read More
We Are Back! Week 4 Decent progress this week as everyone gets back into the swing of it. Luckily there are so many different thinks to be progressed that we can accommodate quite a few people as they’re all working in separate areas. Tuesday and Friday saw more work on the baffles and associated brackets for 5668’s driver’s side tank plus yet … Read More
Final Weeks Closed for Tier 4 Covid-19 restrictions. Week Three A shortened week due to the Tier 4 restrictions arriving on Saturday. Progress continued with 5668’s tanks having the top angle removed so the corners of the overlapping side plates could be ground back. The front sections were delivered during the week and, with much difficulty and numerous quotes from The … Read More
Week Four Tuesday was spent working on the one-way walkway posts which was a shame given that, on Wednesday, Kent was placed in Tier 3 so the Santa trains have been cancelled. Not only is that work down the drain but so is our last opportunity for some much-needed fundraising in 2020. Progress on 5668’s tanks continued with brackets to attach … Read More
Final Week The camping coach emergency exit steps are nearing completion with the main framework all welded up and painted and new steps cut and welded on. This project has also given us the opportunity to provide a bit of welding training to one of our younger volunteers as well. The staff transport overhaul moved forward with the steering re-bushed … Read More