It has been one of those weeks where work has been steady but generally unspectacular in the way of results.
FR 20’s tender continues to be sanded down by Tim, who is taking the opportunity to sort out the odd blemish in the steelwork with filler that time did not permit first time around.
Work on the tender front drag box is progressing well with Roger applying a top coat of paint to the interior.
John Dixon has been putting top coat black to the draw bar, buffing spring and also the drag box cover.
Fred has been cleaning up the tender handbrake (foreground) whilst John Davis (left) has been cleaning up axleboxes from Fluff.
Tim, Alan and Adrian gathered to jack up the rear of FR 20’s engine in order to release a spring. This is to be sent away to act as a pattern for a narrower set of springs that will be more appropriate to the engine’s weight, which has reduced to 25 tons rather than the 36 tons it had been as a saddletank.
Keith has completed the metalwork for the new splashers for Wootton Hall, one of which is seen supporting one of its nameplates.
Keith was able to purchase from the Worth Valley Railway a second-hand ejector elbow..
.. and also second-hand firehole door mechanism for Wootton Hall.
There was also more work carried out on Caliban.
Finally, for those of you who use Amazon to purchase goods, you may be interested to learn that if you opt to use the Amazon Smile web site instead, you can make a small donation to the Furness Railway Trust on every item that you purchase. You should find making the Furness Railway Trust as your preferred charity a fairly simple task.
John Dixon has been creating a bar to be fitted on to the floor of the front tender drag box to support the buffing spring. He is seen here at work with the magnetic drill.
Phil Bell, seen with John Davis, has continued his work below the tender frames which includes the dismantling of some of the brake rigging to allow access to the frames and for cleaning.
Tim has continued the task of sanding down the tender paintwork.
Adrian and Alan have been engaged on the task of fitting new felt lubrication pads into Caliban‘s axleboxes.
We haven’t seen many photographs of Howard lately so here is one of him filing down a metal insert into Fluff‘s new running board.
John Davis has been cleaning up Fluff‘s springs.
Work has also continued this week on Wootton Hall‘s new splashers and the machining the newly white-metalled tender bearings, one of which is shown here.
A second-hand CNC machine, the purchase cost being subscribed to by the FRT, arrived at Preston on Wednesday and has been positioned in the RSR workshop.
Geoff Middleton was on hand to pipe in the last train.
Meanwhile brother Alan entertained as a one man band.
Over at Embsay, Cumbria made a successful return to traffic with the Sunday dining train (thanks to the Embsay loco group’s Facebook for the picture) while 5643 is lined up for a few repairs this week.
First it was necessary to remove the curved fall plate, the bridging piece between the tender and the engine.
Once the tender floor plate had been removed, there was then the more difficult task of removing the thick plate directly above the drag box which could not be moved until both the draw bar pin and the buffing spring pin had been removed. The latter was found to be seized in the lower base plate and so it was time to call in Ade, who has “previous” in taking apart those things that don’t want to come apart! With assistance from Tim also, the pin was finally extracted late last Wednesday afternoon after many applications of jack, heat and a sledgehammer. Ade is seen here at work with the latter, watched by John Dixon, Keith Brewer and Neil Glover.
Once two of the buffer guides and the buffers had been removed, Roger then assisted John last Friday in the task of cleaning up the drag box.
A coat of bright orange primer was then applied.
Meanwhile Tim has been sanding down the one of the tender sides and Phil Bell has been cleaning the tender brake rigging.
Fred has been busying himself cleaning the tender springs and hangers.
Keith has been cutting out new sheet metal for Fluff‘s running board.
This was then successfully lifted into position and fitted.
Paul Balshaw commenced the task of jacking up Fluff last Wednesday so that the wheels could be removed and axleboxes examined.
Phil Bell is seen moving the wheels once the frames had been jacked high enough.
Keith has also been concentrating his time recently in manufacturing new splashers for Wootton Hall.
Disappointingly, the newly acquired regulator quadrant fell at the first hurdle with the end stop coming adrift.
This has now been successfully repaired and re-fitted.
In the meantime we show a photo of Cumbria whilst shunting during its test steaming.
More good progress was made with Caliban last Wednesday with Alan tackling the job of scraping in the newly re-metalled bearings.
With the vision of the locomotive being lowered back on to its wheels in the not too distant future, Ade was checking the spring support pins.
Also achieved last Wednesday, in good time before the lowering of the loco, was the lining out of Caliban‘s wheels.
As forecast in last week’s blog, Ade conducted a shunt which enabled Fluff and FR 20, complete with tender, to be positioned on road three of the heated section of the FRT shed in readiness for the winter work programme. Fortunately it was possible to do the shunt whilst the rain held off and FR 20’s frames made a rare appearance out in the open.
The new line up in the shed is seen here.
FR 20’s tender chassis was duly reunited with its wheels last Wednesday although the blustery wind did its damndest to try and make life difficult for us.
However, patience paid off and, after a successful struggle in damp conditions to re-fit the brake gear, the tender was shunted around to the FRT shed late afternoon after Ade had shunted around some more coaches for the RSR.
We show here a last look at the FRT shed before items are moved around, with FR 20’s boiler (left), Fluff‘s frames (foreground), Caliban (distant left), FR 20’s engine frames and Wootton Hall‘s tender frames (distant right).
In the meantime work has continued in rebuilding the platework and assembling other components, with Phil Bell giving the newly fabricated cab sides a coat of red oxide.
Finally, on the sales side, Alison informs us that she now has a brand new badge depicting Caliban for sale. Please contact either Alison or Alan if you would like to purchase one, with a special members’ rate available.
Wednesday saw FR 20’s tender axleboxes being re-assembled and mounted on the journals. This is in readiness for the arrival of a crane this next Wednesday morning when it is planned to place the tender back on its wheels.
We include a photo this week of Keith silver soldering a flange on to a piece of Wootton Hall‘s injector pipework.
Over at Embsay there has been significant progress with Cumbria. A new regulator gland has been cast and machined following the discovery of a fracture in the old regulator gland. This has now been fitted and packed along with a replacement regulator quadrant.
Andy Booth has completed the expansion of the tubes in the FR 20’s boiler and has been beading them over in the firebox. He will return to complete the job early in September. Meanwhile, Fred has started the job of giving the boiler a coat of paint.
Roger has again been on his knees painting the boiler cladding or, as we are assured by John Dixon the correct term is, clothing.
Alan Vipond has been machining Caliban‘s newly white metalled bearings ready for them to be scraped in.
Ade, who spent most of last Wednesday shunting carriages, has fitted one of the spring hangers with one of the newly manufactured pins.
John Dixon has been making a new bench for a pipe bending vice.
And Phil Bell has continued his work on Fluff‘s cab platework.
We arrived at Preston on Wednesday to hear the distant sound of a steam chime whistle and later found out that it was none other than 70000 Britannia on a northbound run through Preston to Carlisle. Just for the record, here is a photo of the loco heading back south through Lancaster at speed with The Lakelander just after 5 pm.
Tim and John Dixon virtually completed the painting of FR 20’s frames, motion and wheels on Wednesday. John is seen here painting some of the motion.
The fresh gloss paint on the frames and motion now gives it a smart appearance.
Finally a painted and lined out wheel.
Roger came in on Friday and started the task of cleaning and painting the internal surface of the boiler cladding sheets.
John has been preparing some new wood to be inserted on top of the front buffer beam where previous area of oak had perished.
Fred has continued to work on cleaning up the smokebox and we have a rare photo here of him having a ten minute breather.
Work continues apace on Fluff with John Davis drilling holes in the newly inserted steel stretcher plate between the frames.
Phil Bell has continued the task of drilling holes in one of the new cab sides.
Ade has been testing the fit of the first of his newly fabricated axlebox covers for Caliban. 
First of all he hoisted a test axlebox into position before heading off to the bench with a file to start the process of modification!
We are glad to be able to report that Bill Norcross is back from sick leave and he is seen here setting up to drill some holes in a brass flange for Wootton Hall.
Paul Newton came in on Friday to continue his work on the L&NWR seat from Preston station.
Work on FR 20 has this last week focused on completing the painting of the engine frames and wheels. Lining out the wheels can be an awkward job and Ade caught Tim trying to make himself comfortable on the floor before finishing off the right rear wheel – you can never find a pillow when you need one!! Meanwhile Alan has finished scraping in the white metalled tender bearings.
There has been continuing good progress with Fluff as various components are freed off and prepared for re-fitting. Paul Balshaw has primed some more areas between the frames whilst Phil Bell has been preparing new cab sheets (seen here in store) as well as re-working an existing door sheet that can be re-used.
Jimmy Dutton has completed the white metalling of the bearings which await machining once Alan has returned from sunning himself in the south of England.
Keith is seen here modelling the new welding mask complete with air blower.
Alan, John and Tim spent the latter part of Wednesday assembling the new mobile fume extractor. Delivery was certainly very prompt but, unlike a car which you expect to be able to drive away from a salesroom without having to fit the wheels, the same cannot be said for the supposedly mobile fume extractor which turned up with quite a number of subsidiary cardboard boxes containing wheels, tube, extending mechanism, nuts bolts and sealing rings plus (just to confuse) a few bits and pieces that you didn’t actually need. Added to that were various meaty booklets in a wide range of languages with complex diagrams explaining how your A level rated Meccano set should be constructed. Of particular note, there was an alarming warning sign illustrated with a set of teeth that indicated that you had to be careful when releasing the tensioned extending mechanism from tie wraps to prevent yourself receiving a blow in the mouth! 
We are pleased to be able to report that the extractor was successfully assembled without damage to either the equipment or the volunteers and that Nellie (with the extendable trunk) was tested without managing to inhale any loose wigs…
The overhaul of FR 20 continues to make steady progress with Alan working on the last of the newly white metalled bearings for the tender.
John Dixon and Tim have been busy putting gloss Indian Red paint on the frames, and undertaking further cleaning and painting of the wheels now that the engine has been moved a few yards further forward.
Work has also continued on Fluff where components are now being re-fitted. Phil Bell is seen here giving the loco a well aimed hammering under the watchful gaze of Alan, Howard and Paul Balshaw.
A jig has been made up to mount Fluff‘s engine which is seen here being lowered into place with assistance from Jim Hanmer and Alan Preston.
It was Howard’s birthday on Wednesday and he is seen blowing out the candles on his cake, made by Alison.
Ade enjoyed sampling one of the dozen trifles that Howard brought along to celebrate the occasion.
Alison thought that it was her birthday as well when she saw the new roundabout being installed in the children’s playground.
Fred turned up on Friday with a lady whom he and Bob had met during their usual visit to the Take 5 cafe en route to the RSR. Karen Penny is walking around the coast of Britain and Ireland to raise money for Alzeimer’s Research UK and was delighted to be shown around the FRT shed. You can follow Karen’s journey on 
Fred then continued the task of cleaning FR 20’s boiler ready for painting.
Bob spent more time working on the new reverser handle for Wootton Hall.