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:
