Furness Railway Trust blog

There was a certain amount of jubilation on Wednesday when Fluff was finally lowered back onto its springs. However, given the current Coronavirus health advice, John Davis and Phil Bell decided to avoid the high fives and went for the now more fashionable touching of elbows.

The lowering of Fluff has not been without its issues for somebody had left a tool box under the loco which now looks a little worse for wear!

Fred applied some gloss black paint to the sand boxes on Friday.

Roger coated the lower part of the back cab with primer.

Alan and Ade spent Wednesday raising pressure on FR 20’s boiler and got it up to 200 psi before making a note of a few areas of dampness that need to be attended to.

Tim continued to paint FR 20’s tender frames whilst John Dixon decided to spend some time in self isolation, cleaning out the tender tank.

There has been more progress on Wootton Hall with some new firebox cladding appearing for fitting.

The Ribble Steam Railway has recently received a large collection of OO gauge locomotives and coaches of both two and three rail operation. These are being sold to members in the Exploration Centre to raise funds this Wednesday between 8 am and 4 pm.

Finally, news from Embsay is that 5643’s steam test for the boiler surveyor is now scheduled for this Friday 13th March.

 

It has been another week of birthday cake and presents.

Ade celebrated his birthday on Wednesday and is seen here cutting the cake kindly supplied (again) by Alison. There was some pressure on members to eat up by the end of Friday as we still hadn’t managed to entirely demolish the two cakes from the previous week! (You’re slipping! Ed.)

Keith received a late birthday present in that the long-awaited newly manufactured sets of valves and crossheads for Wootton Hall from Tyesley arrived on Tuesday.

These were followed on Thursday by the six Armstrong Oiler pads for the tender axle boxes which opens the way for Wootton Hall‘s tender frames to be placed back on their wheels.

Much of Friday was then spent in lowering Fluff‘s frames back on to its wheels. The springs have still to be fitted after which it will be possible to move the chassis.

Another step forward in FR 20’s overhaul was made last Wednesday when the boiler was filled with water. One of the tubes needed some attention from Matt Jervis (pictured), but on the whole things looked to be satisfactory. It is hoped to be able to start to raising some pressure over the next week or so.

Finally John Dixon has been fitting some new copper pipework to FR 20’s tender braking system and Tim has been busy painting the tender frames.

We’ve been busy again…!

Keith has cut out the holes in Fluff‘s rear upper cab plate and Phil Bell has been busy making the final adjustments and fitting the brass-rimmed windows.

Fred has been cleaning up the sand box linkage and is seen here persuading a stubborn nut to move.

John Davis has been cleaning up the sand box outlet flanges.

The search for a replacement engine for Fluff continues and Nigel Harris kindly put out a plea on Twitter for people to let us know of any that might be available. One respondent helpfully suggested that we  look at barn sales for agricultural machinery that might possess a suitable Fowler Sanders engine, in particular a gyrotiller. Let us know if you see anything that might be of use…

FR 20’s boiler is now ready to receive some water when we can get it close to the water pipe in the Ribble Rail shed. Tim and John Dixon varnished FR 20’s tender water tank on Friday and John is seen checking for any stray varnish dribbles from the many rivet heads, which are undoubtedly the bane of any painter’s life!

Wednesday saw Keith and Ade head off to Leyland to pick up the newly acquired fire pump and accessories. The RSR, which ran a half term steam service that day, had an overwhelming response from the public, so it took some time to find space for Ade to unload the kit with the forklift truck.

There is no news yet as to the date for 5643’s steam test at Embsay. Please note that there may not be a working party at Preston this Saturday as Keith is otherwise engaged on a steam trip.

There seems to have been a spate of birthdays lately and Alison kindly provided celebratory cakes for Keith and Alan. David Rimmer is seen wielding a knife to one of them under Alan’s watchful eye.

 

A landmark stage in the overhaul of FR 20 was achieved when the dome was finally lifted into position by the Ribble Steam Railway’s track maintenance vehicle’s hi-ab.

Ade is seen making sure that the dome fits neatly into position.

Alan looks as if he has just popped up out of the boiler as he attends to the securing nuts.

John has been preparing the last of the boiler blanks in readiness for some water to be put into the boiler.

Painting of the tender has continued with the left hand side of the tank now showing off its new coat of paint.

Fred and Alan Ogden have been wrestling to free the mechanism on the second of Fluff‘s sand boxes.

More new platework for Fluff‘s rear cab sheet has been cut out and Phil Bell has been drilling some more holes.

With the new steel cut, Keith prepares to chop the old cab plate ready for the skip.

Finally, the steam test for 5643, originally scheduled for last Friday, has been postponed pending the acquisition of some replacement firebars. Colleagues at Embsay have this is in hand and the steam test should be carried out shortly.

We start this week with the good news that the NDT on 5643’s firebox tubeplate, required by the boiler surveyor as part of the 14 month dry examination, revealed no traces of cracking and preparations are well in hand for the second part of the examination, the steam test, to take place at Embsay this Friday, 14th February. New fusible plugs and stay nuts have been acquired from South Coast Steam and it is planned that these will be fitted tomorrow, Tuesday.

Much sadder news from Embsay has been the passing of Charles Adams last Monday, 10th February, after a brave fight against cancer. Charles had been a stalwart of the Yorkshire Dales Railway (as it was previously known) for around 45 years and was in recent times the railway’s Footplate Standards Manager. Charles joined the Furness Railway Trust last year and became the guardian of ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria which is currently on hire to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. With assistance from others, Charles successfully worked to cure the leaking regulator valve which was very much appreciated. Our condolences go to Charles’ family.

Back at Preston Alan and Ade have been fitting a new dome joint on FR 20’s boiler in readiness for its forthcoming hydraulic test.

Underneath FR 20’s tender, John Dixon and Roger have re-fitted the vacuum pipe with its new custom made brackets. John is seen making use of the new access hole in the “boot”.

Another job on the list of things to do was to look at the two water shut-off cocks located on the sumps below the tender tank, the problem being that they have stiffened up with rust over time and are now impossible to do the job for which they were intended and actually shut. They have been removed and are undergoing attention from John.

There has been more assembly of Fluff and Phil Bell has been fastening down more of its platework.

More bits of Fluff have been dragged out from store in the outer shed area and Fred is seen making the best of the brighter weather on Friday cleaning up a sand box.

The FRT seems to be getting more and more involved with the RSR’s coaching stock, with Mike Rigg having taking on the C&W role. Seats on TSO 5036 have been removed for re-covering.

The professionally refurbished seats are now returning and John Davis and Mike Rigg are seen busy loading them aboard ready for re-fitting.

As ever, work has also continued on Wootton Hall and Keith is seen here fitting some newly formed copper pipe.

Finally, avid readers will remember the visits to our shed by local artist Gavin Redshaw, who has been preparing sketches of Caliban in preparation for a forthcoming exhibition at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery. That full exhibition opens this weekend – and full details are available here.

Work continues apace on the Trust’s projects at Preston.

FR 20’s tender is steadily changing colour as Tim progresses with the Furness Railway paint scheme. Underneath, John Dixon has been drilling holes to fix  the new vacuum pipe carrying brackets.

Ade and Alan spent some time on Wednesday removing the valve seats from FR 20’s dome for machining. The seats had previously been pressed into the dome so it took some persuasion to remove them, but with ace dismantler Ade to hand, we shouldn’t have worried!

Just to demonstrate that dismantling isn’t Ade’s only talent, we include a welcome photo of him fitting one of Caliban‘s springs.

Work continues on Fluff and here we see John Davis cleaning up one of the window frames, with the trunk from ‘Nellie’ the fume extractor in close proximity.

Keith has been busy fitting more pipework to Wootton Hall. He is seen here under the cab floor with the vacuum pipe that links the brake valve to the tender vacuum cylinder.

Finally, the NDT examination of 5643’s tubeplate was carried out last Wednesday and, at the time of writing, we await the boiler surveyor’s prognosis.

Just a short update this week. Projects continue to tick along but still with some way to go to the finishing line for any of them!

John Dixon has continued his quest to up-rate the quality of the vacuum system fixing brackets on FR 20, having now remade all of them from scratch from steel off-cuts. They are now in the process of being painted.

Tim has concentrated his time this week painting FR 20’s tender, which is now rapidly changing colour.

Alan has continued the task of  preparing FR 20’s boiler for a hydraulic test and is seen here removing the brass safety valve casting from the top of the dome.

Ade has been working on Caliban‘s axleboxes and there has been further progress on Fluff.

Keith has been welding up the new pipe which stretches from Wootton Hall‘s four cone ejector to the smokebox and he has also been preparing the new screw reverse baseplate for welding by Ian Massey.

Finally, the proof copy of The Iron Horse magazine has now been read and corrected so the magazines will probably be with us later this week for posting out to members.

Plenty of photographs this week as our working members get to grips with a variety of projects.

Work on FR 20 continued with Alan spending time preparing joints for the boiler blanks. Beneath FR 20’s tender, Roger and Phil Bell (seen here) have been cleaning and painting the underside of the frames and tank.

John Dixon has decided to upgrade the brackets which support the vacuum pipe which runs below the engine and the tender. This was put together rather hastily at the beginning of 1999 and is now being brought up to a standard befitting of such a venerable locomotive. John is seen here at work tidying a piece of steel  with a file….

…. before bending it into shape with the aid of some heat.

John Davis has been cleaning up the journals on Fluff‘s wheelsets with the aid of some emery cloth.

Fred has been studiously painting Fluff‘s lubrication oil boxes.

Paul and Martin from the Ribble Rail staff helpfully arranged to shunt FR 20’s boiler out of the heated part of the FRT shed on Friday which allowed Caliban‘s wheels to be hand shunted into position in front of the frames. Caliban‘s own boiler on a lowmac was then positioned in front of the wheels so that work on it can commence when resources permit.

The newly purchased hydraulic table lift was unpacked and, for once, needed little assembly before being tested in readiness for future use.

There were productive working parties over at Embsay on Thursday and Saturday. Keith, Fred and George attended on Thursday, dismantling and cleaning the areas that the boiler surveyor needed to access. Keith and Fred returned on Saturday to be joined by Mike and Ed.

Keith removed both valve covers in order to assess the play in the valves.

Ed concentrated on cleaning the cab area.

Fred polished up the brightwork.

Mike gave the coupling rods a good clean.

The boiler surveyor conducted a formal 14 month examination of the boiler today and passed it fit for further use subject to an NDT examination of the bottom of the firebox tubeplate. Arrangements will be made for this to take place as soon as possible. In the meantime, thanks to all those of you who braved the January weather to prepare 5643 for the survey.

A short update to let you know that the working members have still been hard at work this week.

FR 20’s brake gear has been re-assembled after the long job of cleaning off old paintwork and re-painting – and, of course, remembering how it all fitted together! It seems that there was a little difficulty in getting the final split pins to fit with the suspicion being that the latest layer of paint is thicker than the previous layer. However, with the assistance of clamps, the job was finally achieved.

John Dixon has finished his work in modifying the rear drawgear on FR 20’s tender and, now that the brake gear is also in place, this will enable the painting of the outside of the tender to take place. Tim got out the masking tape and made a start with the painting on Friday afternoon.

Alan has been busy cutting out jointing material for the boiler blanks which, when fitted, will enable the hydraulic test to take place. However, before this can happen, the boiler itself needs to be moved to an area where it can be accessed by a lifting device to enable the dome to be re-fitted. The first shunt move to enable this to happened took place on Thursday morning. It is to be hoped that the next moves, which will also involve the movement of Caliban‘s wheels to the front of the frames, will take place in the not too distant future.

Work has continued to paint Fluff, with John Davis wielding the trusty brush.

With various smaller lifting tasks due to take place as projects progress, a 500kg lifting table has been purchased and is due to arrived this next week. It will be interesting to find out just how much assembly will be involved and just how soon we will have to resort to the instructions!

We have been joined over the last couple of weeks by artist Gavin Redshaw, who is preparing some drawings to be put on show in the Harris Institute. Fred is seen watching over Gavin as he sketches Caliban‘s wheels, whilst we can give you a preview of the previous week’s sketch of Caliban‘s frames on blocks.

Over in the main RSR workshop, the FRT’s former RMB has been lifted for maintenance.

A reminder that there will be working parties will take place at Embsay this next week on Thursday, 16th and Saturday, 18th January. Keith, Fred and George will be present on Thursday and Keith would be grateful for any further assistance that can be offered on either day.

A Happy New Year to all readers of the blog. We hope that you enjoyed the Christmas festivities and avoided the seasonal coughs, colds and ‘flu that are around at the moment.

We are pleased to be able to report that some of our members soon put such seasonal distractions to one side and turned out for the working parties over the Christmas period, so well done to them.

Christmas Day itself brought a surprise to those of you who watched Call the Midwife for there was an unexpected fleeting cameo appearance by 5643, allegedly hauling a train from London to Scotland!

Most of us who own cars do occasionally take some time to clean out the boot, and Adrian managed to get a photo of a John Dixon applying the vacuum cleaner to FR 20’s own ‘boot’ in readiness for the New Year – just don’t tell Jean!

Keith has been continuing his work on Wootton Hall and is seen here making the sparks fly.

Meanwhile Fred has been giving attention to one of FR 20’s couplings.

In between finishing the painting of FR 20’s tender brake gear, Phil Bell has been drilling more holes in Fluff‘s running board.

John Davis is seen polishing up one of Fluff‘s lubrication boxes.

Live Steam provided a marathon performance on New Year’s Eve at the Engine Inn at Cark, finally finishing at 00.37 for a much needed rest.

Finally, we had the sad task on the 2nd January of saying farewell to Howard Fletcher. It says much for Howard’s popularity that there was standing room only at Ingol Methodist Church as over one hundred friends and members of his family gathered together for the occasion.