Week One This week, Tuesday only involved half a day’s work as it was our annual Christmas lunch (always held in January) at The Star pub in Rolvenden and, as usual, it was excellent even though they had suffered a flooding of their cellar that morning due to the heavy rain. However, we still managed to make more cladding bits for … Read More
Week Four This week, yet more clever shaped cladding bits were cut out and bent and more cones for the washout plug areas were made. The driver’s side corner pieces have now all been made to below floor level so the end of this job is now in sight. We also trial fitted a few bits we’d made some years back … Read More
Final Week This week, Tuesday involved manning the sales stand at the Santa Specials, Friday was Boxing Day, so only Sunday was an on-the-tools day and, although we only had four people for that, it was a productive day. We started off by constructing a building bench for 5164’s bunker so we could work on setting out the floor panel, lifted … Read More
Final Week With the Santa Specials trains starting this weekend, the trailer was loaded up with all the Sales Stand gear and moved up to Tenterden where our new gazebo was erected, the raised floor installed and all the tables, wiring etc. set up ready for the weekend. Typically, it rained for most of Saturday which always adversely affects how … Read More
Week Four The long job of fabricating all the joining pieces between the shoulders of the firebox and backhead cladding continued this week with more bits being measured, cut, bent, screwed and welded together. The new oil lubrication pipe cover that fits on the smokebox side was trial fitted to mark the holes that need cutting out to allow the … Read More
Is it Finished Yet? Matt Taylor reunited with 4253 …. 42 years on! AGM Notice 5164 Bunker Rebuild Santa Specials RVR Track Bed Inspection Elephant’s Ears!
Week Four This week started with taking apart the old ducket from 5164’s bunker which involved a lot of drilling, cutting, rivet removal and hammering before it surrendered. We then offered it up to the new platework and it’s a decent fit that will just require a little trimming and fettling before we can integrate it. Next job was fitting the … Read More
Final Week An extra day was worked on Monday this week with 4253’s cab and fireman’s side tank removed so a few rivet heads could be dressed back to prevent contact after which the tank and cab went back on. On Tuesday, the steam manifold was lifted into place so the position of the opening required in the cab front plate … Read More