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.
