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
Final Week Lot more work achieved on Charwelton this week with many more running plate sections painted, the sanding and drain cock levers all re-assembled onto the cab side sheet and the cab received more paint and a cleaning of the brass window frames. In the background of this shot you can see the skip we filled and sent off for … Read More
Result of Livery Vote Lining the Loco GWR Swindon Colour Specs All that Brass – Part 2 Richard (Dick) Beckett Dave Dee Memorial Bench Rods Progress Boiler Progress
Week Four Half of the team spent most of Tuesday and Friday continuing working on the P Way department’s tamper by dismantling the track lifting units which, as they’re outside was hot work. Most of the components are seized solid so a degree of drilling out and hammering was required and, once separated, a lot of effort to clean off … Read More
Final Week During the week, the painting work continued and one of the number plates was fitted to the bunker plus a start made on the lining to show how it will finally look. This was mainly for the benefit of visitors to the weekend’s Steam Up and open day at Rolvenden. Some of the insulation for the cylinder area was … Read More