The new cylinder liners on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 were finally bored to size week commencing 16 th June.
The piston heads have been taken away to the works of Riley & Son at Bury for them to be turned down to the new size and new piston rings acquired. The work means that a start can be made on re-assembling the inside motion on 5643.
Outside the FRT shed, John, Ed, Jon and Sim have been working on the lengthy and often tedious, not to mention uncomfortable, task of refurbishing the side tanks.
Whose legs are those?
Ade re-organised the side tanks with the fork lift truck last Wednesday.
Sam has squeezed himself into the boiler to check things over and to give the internal surfaces a good clean. And Sam is due congratulations on passing out as a locomotive fireman at the East Lancashire Railway. Well done!
On the literary front, a van arrived at the FRT shed first thing Friday morning from The Amadeus Press at Cleckheaton with 67 boxes of books, entitled ‘Furness Railway No. 20 – The Story So Far’. The book is a sequel to ‘The Great Survivor’ that was published in 1999, the 3,000 copies of which have long since been sold out. With FR 20 due to appear at The Greatest Gathering at Derby at the beginning of August, it was felt time to bring the FR 20 story up to date.
In a first for the Trust, the book is now available on line through the FRT’s web site, https://furnessrailway.co.uk/shop/ , a £2.00 postage charge being applied on top of the book’s price which is £6.00. Copies are also available at the Ribble Steam Railway’s shop, although paid up members will be able to obtain copies from Alison and Tim at Preston at a discounted price of £5.00.
There will be a formal launch of the new book at the Ribble Steam Railway on Saturday, 12 th July when FR 20 is scheduled to be operating the passenger service.
