Saturday saw the official launch at Preston of the new book entitled ‘Furness Railway No. 20 – The Story So Far’ with Tim on hand in the Ribble Steam Railway’s shop to sign copies. Anne and Phil Burton were also there to operate the FRT sales stand and make some useful money for the Trust. We can also reveal that there have been more on-line book sales, making Chris Rycroft’s efforts in setting up the sales system all the more worthwhile.
There was glorious weather on Saturday so we are pleased to be able to include this great photo sent to us by Mike Ward of FR 20 crossing the swing bridge.
Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 of 1898 was also in service with appropriately attired personnel on board.
Not quite so good news from inside the FRT shed was the discovery on GWR No. 5643 of a crack in the internal boiler pipe that carries the regulator rod. Yet another job to sort out, but a very useful spot whilst the tubes are out.
We are pleased to report, however, that the FRT’s literary output has continued apace with the latest edition of ‘The Iron Horse’ expected to go to the printer today.
Finally, another date for your diary is the ‘Our Lives’ programme entitled ‘The World’ Oldest Railway’ filmed at the Tanfield Railway which is scheduled to be shown on BBC 1 at 19.00 hrs tomorrow evening where you will see some familiar faces. It is available on iPlayer now.
Work on re-assembling the motion of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 has begun this last week with the re-fitting of the two rear cylinder covers. It was an awkward job working in the cramped area behind the cylinder block and with very heavy objects that had to be placed precisely onto the studs!
Furness Railway No. 20 was in action this last Saturday when the Ribble Steam Railway was visited by members of the Preston Photographic Society who had arranged a number of models to pose around the train. Yes, and they did ask for steam to be applied (carefully) with the cylinder drain taps on FR 20 open behind the model on the track.
This next Saturday, 12 th July, sees FR 20 back in action hauling trains on the RSR where there will be a formal launch of the new book entitled “Furness Railway No. 20 – The Story So Far.” Tim will be on hand in the RSR shop to sign copies for those purchasing the book. We are pleased to report that the first batch supplied to the shop has almost run out and that the first internet sale has taken place! Grateful thanks go to Chris Rycroft for his IT wizardry in setting up our new website’s online sales. We now hope to expand the number of lines we are able to offer for sale online.
Finally, the visit of FR 20 to The Greatest Gathering at Derby on the 1 st , 2 nd and 3rd August is fast approaching. Allelys have been commissioned to undertake the move and the loco will be picked up from Preston by two low loaders around lunch time on Monday, 21 st July. This should give us time to put the locomotive into sparkling condition after its recent steamings.
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.
A very short update this week. Now that the cylinder liners on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 have been fitted there remains the awkward job of fitting four locating plugs which prevent the cylinder liners from twisting when the engine is in service. Whilst the liners have an interference fit, i.e. they have been shrunk with liquid nitrogen to slot into the cylinders, the plugs are an additional safeguard to any unwanted movement of the liners. The rear left hand plug is seen in place here. We will leave Keith to relate to you just how challenging a job it was to fit them when you see him next!
A final skim bore of the insides of 5643’s cylinder liners is due to take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. The piston heads will then be turned down to fit and new piston rings fitted. The end of the dry sunny weather is making outdoor work on 5643’s cab roof and side tanks trickier, but Jon and Sim have continued their work, with Jon seen below doing some preparation work on the right-hand tank. Ed has been out to buy some marine paint to coat the insides of the tanks.
Furness Railway No. 20’s next outing in service at the Ribble Steam Railway is scheduled for Saturday, 21st June with a couple more slated for the beginning of July before it departs to attend The Greatest Gathering at Derby on the 1st , 2nd and 3rd August. Finally, Live Steam folk group has been booked to play at the Engine Inn at Cark-in-Cartmel this next Saturday, 14th June, starting at 8 pm.
A quick update before we hit the Bank Holiday weekend. Another 81 stays were caulked by Chris Rycroft yesterday both inside and outside the firebox of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 in the FRT shed at Preston. Only another 30 to do before this mammoth job is complete. Well done to all concerned.
This morning saw the long awaited fitting of the new cylinder liners to 5643. The liners had been machined to size at the Bury workshop of Riley and Son.
Freezing nitrogen dioxide was then use to shrink the cylinder liners.
The new liners will again be skim bored in their new position and the piston heads and rings adjusted to suit.
It was a busy morning at Preston for FR 20 appeared on a low loader on its return from hire to the Tanfield Railway.
It has been a very busy fortnight since the last blog. Furness Railway 0-4-0 locomotive No. 20 was due to leave Preston on Thursday, 1 st May to go to the Tanfield Railway and so work continued to sort out the leaking left hand clack valve which showed evidence of a score. The final solution, just in time, was to put it in the lathe giving a clean surface, as seen here. We are pleased to report that this remedy did the trick!
Ben, John Dixon, Sam and Tim travelled up to the north east for the three days of steaming over the Bank Holiday weekend. The BBC was on hand to film the loco and the members at Tanfield for a forthcoming edition of ‘Our Lives’, a thirty minutes programme which is scheduled to be screened in July. There should be no shortage of footage for the editor to work with. Other locos in steam were Barclay 0-4-0 No. 1659 Stanley of 1920 and Robert Stephenson 0-6-0 T No.2730 Twizell of 1891.
The FRT gang was also able to join a social evening on the Sunday, which included a whistle blow and a good portion of fish and chips for all concerned. Unlike, the western side of the Pennines, however, it was not particularly warm, with a cool northerly breeze! FR 20 was also booked to appear again at Tanfield this last Saturday and Sunday, the FRT team this time being Alan, Alison, Peter van Zeller, Sam, John, Ben, plus Anne and Phil Burton. They are (apart from Ben) pictured below together with Preston fireman Aaron Johnson’s daughter and wife, Victoria and Theo.
The second weekend also featured Cockerill 0-4-0VBT No. 1625 Belgian tram locomotive Lucie of 1890, which is owned by Paul ‘Piglet’ Middleton and based at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. We couldn’t resist including the following photo which shows Ben ‘Piglet’ Valentine and Paul together:
Those wishing to view photos and video footage of FR 20’s stay at Tanfield should look no further than the Tanfield Railway Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/tanfieldrailway/?locale=en_GB We show below a photo from Ben of FR 20 and vintage coaches at the very rural and historic Causey Arch station. We thank all the people at Tanfield for the friendship and hospitality shown over the past two weekends.
Back at Preston, work has continued on the 10 year overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Chris Rycroft completed a marathon stay caulking session last Thursday, completing 66 stays, inner and outer, on the left hand side of the firebox, and the remaining 32 stays inside on the top half of the door plate. Well done, Chris!
Chris Rycroft at work on 5643’s boiler
Latest news is that 5643’s new cylinder liners are to be freeze fitted at Preston this next Friday, with the new liners then being bored out over next Saturday and Sunday.
Finally, we hear from Beamish Museum that the agreed temporary re-painting of the FRT’s North London Railway coach into Highland Railway green has been completed, and very smart it looks too!
Furness Railway 0-4-0 locomotive No. 20 successfully completed four days in service at the Ribble Steam Railway over Easter. Remarkably, Keith had never before driven FR 20 in service but was given the opportunity on Easter Saturday.
Since then the main focus has been on preparing FR 20 for its forthcoming trip to the Tanfield Railway. Gauge glass rubbers have been renewed on the right hand side following reports of some fizzing when the boiler was full. More noticeable was the leak in the regulator gland which required another round of packing. Alan is seen reassembling the gland after the repair.
The left hand clack valve was also seen to be passing so, last Friday, the boiler water level was reduced allowing the valve to be dismantled. Some build up of scale was observed along with a small dimple in the lip of the valve, which was letting through unwanted water and steam. The scale was removed and Alan is seen lapping in the valve with grinding paste.
We think that John Dixon got the rough end of the stick in taking on board the retro fitting of FR 20’s spark arrestor. He spent many hours on his knees in the smokebox coaxing metal to fit. Well done, John!
FR 20 is due to depart Preston this Thursday afternoon and is scheduled to be in use at Tanfield for three days over the forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend and again on the Saturday and Sunday of the following weekend.
Work has also continued on Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban where Ron Crowe and Duncan Sawyer are seen together machining a new piston head.
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.
