Furness Railway Trust blog

Progress continues to be made on the ten year overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Ed is seen here fitting new stays on the backhead of the firebox.

Two pairs of feet can be seen in the left hand side tank of 5643 as John and Ed get to grips with cleaning the internal metalwork.

With the weather forecast showing rain in the coming days it was quickly decided to apply a top coat of black paint to one side of the side tank.

Meanwhile, with Furness Railway No. 20’s trip to the Tanfield Railway drawing closer, work has been taking place to refit the spark arrestor that was last used many years ago and was brought back on the lorry from Locomotion, Shildon, when FR 20 came home to Preston in 2018. Unfortunately, it has been discovered that some of the bits are missing, so John has been cutting new pieces of steelwork.

Whilst Alan has been making new cleats to fasten the spark arrestor together. Before its trip to the north east FR 20 is scheduled to operate passenger trains at the Ribble Steam Railway over the Easter period.

We are pleased to announce that Furness Railway 0-4-0 locomotive No. 20 will be visiting the Tanfield Railway for the first two weekends in May. FR 20 last visited the Tanfield Railway in September 2008 and it is appropriate that it heads back to the north east in this 200th Anniversary year of the first public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which opened on the 27th September 1825.
Talking of FR 20, it made its first operational appearance of 2025 this last weekend at the Ribble Steam Railway’s Spring Steam Gala, which featured five locomotives and also the Furness Railway Trust’s Great Eastern Railway royal saloon no. 5 of 1898. This time the Gala offered brake van rides using the ‘Queen Mary’ bogie brake van, which proved to be very popular. Saturday was particularly busy and Phil and Anne Burton staffed the sales stand whilst there was a second-hand book sale in the FRT shed. It was pleasing to see that the winter maintenance on FR 20, which saw the left inside motion dismantled, had been successful, with the locomotive operating smoothly. Alan is seen here at the regulator making sure that all is well.

Elsewhere, work has continued on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. The good weather on Wednesday allowed outdoor work to proceed and we see Sim here applying some filler to the cab roof.

Another short update this week.
Work has continued on the major re-staying of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s firebox with Chris tackling the caulking of new stays inside the firebox. He reckons that after doing so much caulking in a day that he will be going round in circles in his sleep!

Ed and Ron have undertaken more reaming and tapping of stay holes with the result that Keith has been able to fit many more new stays.

Ade moved Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 from the FRT shed to the running shed after piecing up the tender and engine back together. Tim proved that he could still get through the firehole door into the firebox to re-fit the grate, although there was a minor wardrobe malfunction as he tried to squeeze out!
Fortunately, John Dixon was on hand to assist! (No photos, thankfully.) We are pleased to be able to report that the locomotive passed its statutory steam test on Friday. Sam is seen on the footplate with Adam Wright, the Trust’s boiler surveyor. FR 20 and the FRT’s Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 are scheduled to run at next week’s Spring Steam Gala.

We leave you this week with a photo of Grant Richie 0-4-0ST No. 272 preparing to haul the Ribble Steam Railway’s five coach service on Saturday on the popular occasion of a visit by Paddington Bear.

A short update this week.
Furness Railway No. 20’s ashpan has been re-fitted, washout plugs and mudhole doors tightened and water fed into the boiler in readiness for its steam test this next Friday. More work has also taken place on Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s cab. With 550 stays to replace on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s firebox, it’s not surprising that we have another photo of the ongoing work, this time with Ron and Ed tapping out some more stay holes.

Meanwhile, John Dixon has been seen crawling into one of the side tanks. The aim being to clean out any debris from the refurbishment work that has been taking place.

Saturday morning saw the arrival of a new ash pan for 5643 delivered by Bradshaw Sheet Metal Ltd.

The new ashpan soon had a coat of paint applied to protect it from the weather.

Tuesday, 4th March saw Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 receive its annual cold boiler inspection, which we are pleased to report it passed. Thanks go to Andy Booth for tapping out the fusible plug holes and supplying new plugs. The ‘in steam’ test is scheduled for Friday, 21st March. With this in mind, John Dixon and Sam, set about re-fitting the left-hand connecting rod and crosshead in readiness for the locomotive to be moved, receiving guidance from Alan.

It is planned to re-fit the ashpan this coming Wednesday.

Meanwhile, there has been good progress with the re-staying of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s firebox. Keith is seen here burning out some of the front stays from inside the firebox.

Chris has once again been caulking up new stays where they have been fitted.

The ream team of Ed, Ron, Keith and Tim had a very productive shift this last Saturday, Ed and Ron reaming out over 100 stay holes with the air drill whilst Keith caught the reamer from inside the firebox and Tim applied cutting compound. This methodology saw a hole being reamed out every 55 seconds, give or take the occasional lunch and tea break!

We are still awaiting the fitting of the new cylinder liners to 5643, however, it appears that the new liners have been machined to size at Bury, including the port and oil holes.

Finally, there was some sadness as the final eighteen empty bitumen tankers were hauled away from the Ribble Steam Railway on Tuesday, 4th March by Colas Class 56 no. 56113.

The major event this last week has been the boring out of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s cylinders as a precursor to fitting the new cylinder liners. The first photo shows the borer located in the left hand cylinder and the motor, bottom right, connected to the borer drive by bands.

Chris Birmingham from Riley & Son engineers of Bury was in charge of the operation.

The next stage in the process is the machining of the new liners to fit, which will take place at Bury, and then the shrink fitting of the new liners (cryogenics is the technical term) at Preston programmed for week commencing 3rd March.

Meanwhile Ron and Ed have been reaming out some more stay holes on 5643’s firebox.

We have now received news from Williton in Somerset that Caliban’s inner firebox has now been removed:

With this in mind there has been more work this week on Caliban’s cab. Jon and Sim have been attending to the interior, John Dixon has been pulling the metalwork back into shape, whilst Tim has made further progress with the cab exterior.

Sam has been preparing Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 for its forthcoming boiler inspection, seen here taking the opportunity to give the safety valves a thorough clean.

Some video here of the FRT’s ‘Austerity’ 0-6-ST Cumbria courtesy of Paul Newton who visited the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway on Thursday.

Finally, it has been Alan’s turn to celebrate a birthday, seen here in the mess room with the obligatory cakes.

A short catch up this week.
Ade appeared with a fork lift on Wednesday to place one of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s side tanks on its side. This has enabled Ed and John Davis to clean it and check for any weak spots.

Work has continued on the repairs and refurbishment of Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s cab with John Dixon fabricating some pull rods to bring the entrance to the cab back into shape whilst Tim has continued to work on the outside of the rear of the cab to improve the surface ready for painting.

Finally, work took place on Saturday to remove the left-hand connecting rod from Furness Railway 0-4-0 No.20. Sam is seen removing the slide bar lock nuts.

The slide bars and rod are seen after removal, ready for measuring to remove unwanted movement around the little end.

As mentioned in last week’s blog, work has started on some of the winter
maintenance jobs listed for Furness Railway No. 20. With the left-hand
motion dismantled, Alan is seen measuring up components with a view to
eliminating the undesirable side movement around the little end that has been
apparent in recent times.

Ron Crowe has been helpfully cleaning up the motion.

Andy Booth has been tapping out the fusible plug holes in FR 20’s firebox
which will increase their size by 1/16”. New plugs are on order.

Work has continued on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No.
5643 with rust being removed from the side tanks in readiness for new paint.
It should not be too long now before work on fitting new cylinder liners takes
place.

Member Jo Booth appeared last Wednesday with his scratch built ‘O’ gauge
LMS ‘Pacific’ No. 46222 Queen Mary, a quite amazing piece of work
considering he only started on the project last August.

Sam Middleton, Chris Rycroft, Jimmy Dutton, and Mike Stewart spent Saturday at Cheltenham on a
BESTT tubing course. Sam is seen here at work. We are pleased to report that
all have received certificates of competency.

Finally, RSR overhauled Peckett 0-4-0ST Hornet made it out on to the main
line and into Riverside station on Saturday as part of its shake down
programme.

Work has again continued with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T locomotive No. 5643 with Ed and Ron reaching the landmark stage on Saturday of drilling from the outside all the firebox stays to be replaced. There is still work to be done from the inside of the firebox before the holes can be reamed and tapped.

Another shunt of the shed has taken place and Furness Railway No. 20’s engine has been split from the tender in order for it to be squeezed into the heated part of the shed, above the pit, to enable winter maintenance to take place. 5643’s chassis is now at the west end of the shed to allow work to replace the cylinder liners to take place.

With the Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s boiler away at Williton for the fitting of a new firebox, attention has turned to repairing the cab and readying it for painting. A skim of filler is being applied to improve the surface of the metalwork. 

Sam took a trip to Embsay yesterday and found the Trust’s ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria in service.

Finally, the Ribble Steam Railway’s workshop has turned out Peckett 0-4-0ST No. 1935 Hornet of 1937, which was being warmed up on Saturday in the sunshine in readiness for a full steam test, hopefully this week.