Week One It’s the Santa Specials time of year again and, on top of the usual three days on the loco, we manned the Sales Stand on Tenterden Station on Saturday and Sunday as well. Tuesday started with preparing the side rod oil pot lids to be fitted to the rods which involved tapping threads into them to accept the plugs. … Read More
Week Four First job this week was to cut off the mounting brackets from the deceased vacuum tank so they could be cleaned up and reused on the new tank. The second was to take the trailer containing the gazebo and tables etc up to Tenterden for the Santa Specials next weekend. After that it was back to testing all the … Read More
Final Week This week, Charwelton’s cab repaint is coming down the home straight and the various other Charwelton parts we’ve painted have been finished and moved out to make room for the metalwork for 4253’s crinolines that we need to start next. Many odd jobs were carried out on 4253 with the gudgeon pins trial fitted to the crossheads, painting of the … Read More
The ‘Rods’ Story — A Milestone After many long years and countless hours of searching and labour, we have finally, against all the odds, fitted two complete sets of rods to the locomotive. This is indeed a milestone achievement for volunteers and shareholders alike. To mark the occasion, we have decided to once again revisit the rods story in this … Read More
Week Four On Tuesday, the last of the spherical bearings was fettled and fitted which meant we could finally fit all the rods to 4253. It took most of the day, moving the loco backwards and forwards, to line everything satisfactorily and jack/hoist each rod until it could be slid into position on the crank pins and the fork ends engaged. … Read More
Week Four During the week we’ve progressed work on 4253’s front running plates with sections painted and then fitted, together with the hand rails and lamp brackets. The rods had all the old restrictors removed from the oil pots which turned into almost a day’s work on its own given they were corroded solidly into place and had no intention … Read More