Author: Mike Rigg

There is still a chill in the Furness Railway Trust shed at Preston but we are hoping that another visit from the heating engineer will sort out the air source heat pump tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, there has been plenty to keep the Trust’s volunteers busy over the last week or so.

Ron decided to clean up Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria’s blast pipe and then give the finished product a coat of heat resistant paint – we hope that he isn’t too disappointed when the paint gets burnt off!

 

Alan spent some time assessing Cumbria’s eccentrics and Dave, Anthony and Alan then set about removing the eccentric straps which have now been cleaned and await further attention.

 

The Trust’s boiler surveyor, Adam Wright, visited yesterday and is seen here busy with his trusty hammer testing Cumbria’s firebox rivets as part of the locomotive’s 10 year out of frames examination. Adam concluded that the firebox crown stays will need replacing although the rest of the boiler was deemed to be satisfactory.

Alan and John were busy dismantling the safety valves ready for inspection.

Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 underwent its 14 month examination during Adam’s visit and it now due to undergo a steam test next Monday. One of tomorrow’s jobs will be to put back the fire-grate and fit the ashpan, wash out plugs and mudhole doors.

Finally, we wish Alan a very happy birthday today and look forward to the cakes!

It has been a bit chilly in the FRT shed of late as it is taking some time to get the air source heat pump back in action. However, there is plenty of work to keep us warm!

Some of the jobs that we have to do aren’t all that exciting, but the team has been valiantly getting on with the cleaning of ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria’s chassis and motion in preparation for attending to a list of mechanical jobs. Anthony Fisher, a new volunteer worker to us, is seen here attending to the frames.

Jon and Sim have also been part of the team cleaning up Cumbria.

Furness Railway locomotive No. 20’s annual boiler inspection is due before the start of the new operating season so it was decided to remove the ashpan on Saturday to enable the boiler surveyor full access to the firebox. This work includes disconnecting the linkage to the ashpan door and the removal of the ejector and two sand pipes, so not a two-minute job. Once the necessary blocks of wood have been assembled to assist with lowering the very heavy ashpan onto the ballast, it is necessary to move the locomotive forward over the ashpan to enable it to be taken away and cleaned. Unfortunately, the yard shunter had been commandeered for track work, so it was necessary to use a pinch bar to move FR 20 forward and then return it back to its original position once the ashpan had been lifted clear of the track. Ron is seen here taking his turn with the pinch bar whilst John looks on, waiting for his turn. The lowered ashpan can be seen sitting on the sleepers under the firebox of the loco.

Talking of track work, Ade and Ed have been taking the lead in preparing the south catch point on the main line along with Mick and Richard Parker. Ed captured Ade, Mick and Richard having a short rest from their exertions.

The next two photos show the old point being lifted clear and the new point in situ.

Finally, Mike Rigg informs us that there has been disruption to his local postal service with second class items taking as long as nine days to reach him. There may, therefore, be some unavoidable delays in dealing with membership correspondence at the moment. Please bear with us.

A belated Happy New Year to all our members and supporters! It has been a varied start to the year for some of our volunteers.
Our folk group, Live Steam, played their annual New Year’s Eve gig at the Engine Inn, Cark-in-Cartmel to a very appreciative audience. Representation from station volunteers at Cark and Kents Bank stations was a good excuse to include some railway songs in the set list.

The afternoon of the 5th January saw the arrival at the Ribble Steam Railway of the Railway 200 Inspiration Train which has been touring the country.

The opening ceremony of the visit was featured on the Tuesday evening edition of BBC’s Northwest Tonight programme and you may recognise some of those included on the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCxC8sjfEhU

A number of FRT members provided voluntary assistance during the four days that the train was open to both schools and the general public. Alan is seen here giving a presentation on Furness Railway No. 20 in the Partnership coach.

The train hauled, by 66 719 Michael Portillo, must have enjoyed its stay as it didn’t want to leave; it took six attempts to start the locomotive when it came time to depart on Friday evening! Overall, the visit was deemed to be a great success and it was good to see new members joining both the Ribble Steam Railway and the Furness Railway Trust as a result of the exposure to the public of the work of both organisations.

Elsewhere, members have been busy in the FRT shed preparing ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria’s boiler for its forthcoming Non-Destructive Test examination on the 19th January. We are pleased to welcome Dave Thomas who joined the gang last Wednesday and immediately joined the work on Cumbria.

Unfortunately, the shed’s air source heat pump heating system failed in December after a dozen years of reliable service, providing a challenge to everyone to keep warm. The good news is that the heating engineers have now been in attendance and the system is on the mend.

We are in December and heading fast towards Christmas, but still plenty of work to do before then!

Most efforts have recently been concentrated on stripping down the Trust’s ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria in preparation for the 10 year overhaul of its boiler. Ron Crowe, Ed Tatham and John Dixon have been working hard on this culminating in the chimney, cab roof and saddle-tank being lifted off the
locomotive last Wednesday, 26th November. As ever, Ade was in charge of the logistics of moving Cumbria round to the Ribble Steam Railway’s workshop, with assistance from Dave Billington, so that the overhead crane could be used.

The cab roof is lifted:

The saddle-tanks touches down on Stewart Waugh’s wagon:

Once these components had been removed it was then possible to start removing Cumbria’s clothing (as it is known), with John Dixon seen here cleaning down the running board after the cladding plates had been removed.

Meanwhile, Jon Dixon has also been working to spruce up 5643’s cab and Tim Owen has applied the first coat of British Railways gloss green paint to the outside of the bunker.

Following its boiler washout, Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 has been moved into the RSR’s museum for the Christmas period and the duration of the visit to the RSR of the Railway 200 Inspiration Train during the first full week in January.

Jo Booth and Dave Hughes have found a slot in their work schedule to take the front of Furness Railway No. 25’s cab into the paint shop to give it a couple of coats of red oxide primer.

Finally, don’t forget the FRT’s Christmas Dinner at 7pm on Friday evening at the Pig & Whistle on Blackpool Road, Preston..

The Furness Railway Trust’s rolling stock fleet has been arriving back off hire over the past few weeks. First to arrive back was Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 from the East Lancashire Railway on Tuesday, 21st October. This was followed by Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No.5 which returned from the
ELR on Wednesday, 29th October.

Saturday, 1st November saw Sam giving FR 20 a boiler washout, courtesy of the FRT’s fire pump team. Sam then went home feeling under the weather and since seems to have been suffering from ‘flu, along with Keith. We hope to see them both back soon.

Finally, ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria arrived back from the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway late afternoon on Tuesday, 4th November, being offloaded first thing the following morning. It was immediately shunted into the FRT’s shed where Ed and Ron began the process of dismantling items in
the smokebox last Saturday. Needless to say, some gas heating was required to remove stubborn nuts, but the blower ring and vacuum ejector exhaust pipes were successfully removed – next task, the blastpipe!

Alan had a long day out to Williton on Tuesday, 4th November to view progress on Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s boiler and to discuss options for the way forward with the major overhaul that it is receiving. He made it back just in time to attend and report back to the Trustees’ meeting that evening. Well done, Alan!

Alison is still collecting names for the FRT’s Christmas dinner which is taking place at 7 pm on Friday, 5th December at the Pig & Whistle on Blackpool Road, Preston. The menu is shown below to whet your appetite:

Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 arrived back at Preston last Tuesday morning after its appearances at the East Lancashire Railway’s ‘Rail 200’ and Autumn Steam Galas. As ever, it was well supported by the FRT’s working members who made sure that the loco’s paint and brasswork were polished. The photo below showing work in hand prior to it’s operation at the Autumn Steam Gala.

The loco is seen here at Summerseat with a train for Ramsbottom. The FRT’s Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 can be seen at the rear of the train.

The sales team also made sure that visitors had the opportunity to take away some souvenirs: Anne and Phil Burton are pictured with the sales stand on Friday, 17th October.

FR 20’s tender has now been filled with water in readiness to enable a high pressure boiler washout to be conducted using the FRT’s Coventry Climax fire pump once the spark arrestor and plugs have been removed.

Meanwhile work continues at Preston on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 where there has been a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing some components being returned to the frames. Both injectors have been re-fitted, the right-hand side being seen here:

Some of the lubrication pipework is also now back in place.

Finally, we have left the big news of the week until last. The FRT’s Christmas Dinner is to take place at 7pm on Friday, 5th December at the Pig & Whistle which is situated on a main bus route on Blackpool Road, Lea, Preston. The festive menu offers two courses for £15.99 and three courses for £19.49.
Please let Alison know if you wish to attend.

There has been more work this week at Preston on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No 5643 as the ten-year overhaul continues. Ed is seen here entering the water space at the bottom of the bunker.

The outside of the bunker has now been painted in undercoat green.

Meanwhile folk group Live Steam played for Barrow Model Railway Club members and exhibitors at the annual exhibition on Saturday. The observant of you will notice that the venue was a brewery!

Sam and John Dixon made the trip to Bury on Saturday to clean and polish Furness Railway No. 20 which is scheduled to be in service at the East Lancashire Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala along with Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 this next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, FR 20 and GER 5 are due to arrive back at Preston on Wednesday, 22^nd October. 

Sam has been incarcerated inside Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s boiler again in order to dismantle some of the internal pipework. He is seen here applying heat to one of the pipe clamps that was proving to be extremely stubborn. However, the task has been made a little bit easier as the boiler has been turned onto its side in recent weeks.

Work has continued on 5643’s bunker since it was re-fitted onto the frames. The inside of the bunker has had a coat of black paint applied now that refurbishment of the metalwork has been completed.

The outside of the bunker has been sanded down and remedial work undertaken.

Ron Crowe is seen here beneath the bunker during the process of re-fitting the right-hand water valve.

The other main news is that the Trust’s Austerity 0-6-0ST Cumbria is expected back at Preston shortly so that its ten-year overhaul can be progressed.

Don’t forget that the Furness Model Railway Club’s 62nd annual exhibition is due to take place this next weekend, 11th and 12th October, at a new venue, Chetwynde School in Rating Lane, Barrow-in-Furness, 10.00 to 17.00. Folk group Live Steam are due to entertain the exhibition staff on Saturday evening at the Ulverston Brewery premises.

There hasn’t been a blog for a couple of weeks due to holidays, but the work of FRT volunteers has continued. First of all, there have been a couple of working parties at Embsay over the last couple of weeks attended by John, Alan and Tim. Some good progress has been made in removing cab pipes and fittings from ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria although some of the backhead fittings may well need some further persuasion with the help of some heat.

Work has continued outside at Preston on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s side tanks. It seems however that Sim found a new use for 5643’s new ashpan whilst brother Jon works in the background.

FR 20 was in use on both days of the Ribble Steam Railway’s 20th Anniversary Gala on the 6th and 7th September. Adrian and Aaron bore the brunt of the wet weather on the Sunday with Aaron seen here looking very wet.

Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 was loaded up on the Sunday evening of the Gala for transportation to Bury for the East Lancashire Railway’s Rail 200 Gala the following weekend, followed by FR 20 the following day. Thanks go to Adrian for looking after the loading.

Sam and John went to Bury last Friday to clean FR 20, which was used on both Saturday and Sunday to haul three return trips between Bury and Ramsbottom with a Lancashire & Yorkshire saloon along with GER No. 5. In addition, FR 20 hauled a Saturday evening Fish and Chip Special which also had a Great Western saloon attached. No photographs of the event yet to hand but there are some videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Tx6nMedJk

Thanks go to the loco and sales teams for all their efforts over the weekend.

We have feedback from a couple of visitors that they were taken aback by the shine on FR 20’s paintwork.

It has been another busy week at Preston as the overhaul on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 continues. There were two pairs of legs to be seen protruding from the locomotive’s right hand side tank last Wednesday as further cleaning and painting took place.

John Dixon has fabricated and fitted a replacement flange for the tank which will form the connection to the balance pipe.

Thursday saw the arrival of a very large crane which re-fitted 5643’s bunker to the frames in pouring rain.

The crane was then used to flip the boiler 90 degrees before replacing it onto the lowmac wagon for new patch screws to be inserted.

Friday saw the Ribble Steam Railway welcome Hunslet 0-6-0T No. 2409 of 1942, King George, on loan from the Didcot Railway Centre, having previously been hired by the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. The locomotive is expected to provide cover at the RSR for the remainder of the year.

FR 20 is scheduled to be active in the RSR’s 20th Anniversary Gala this next weekend before departing to the East Lancashire Railway next Tuesday along with Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5.

Finally, a reminder that the FRT’s Annual General Meeting will be held at 7.30pm this Wednesday, 3rd September, in the FRT shed at Preston. Alison is once again kindly providing refreshments.