Furness Railway Trust blog

We’re back from holiday after one half of the team being away (nice weather, thank you!) and a little late with the blog owing to the mass of things to do on return from a week of bliss!

The attendance at the AGM held on the 16th July showed a heartening increase on that of the previous year, so thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend. No changes to the Trustees to report and, after all reports had been read and duly received, the main item on the agenda was to try and clear Alison’ supper mountain, which we are glad to be able to report kept Ade very happy. Thanks, Alison. The only dampener on the evening was the discovery that someone had tried to enter the FRT mess hut without a key, which had resulted in a broken lock and a bent door frame. Unfortunately, that meant that none of the assembled throng were able to make entry either and, with due thanks to the RSR, everyone retired to the RSR’s Tea Room for the meeting, refreshments and food.

Members had to resort to a children’s playground  table for lunch at the following day’s working party, but we are pleased to be able to report that the man from Preston Locks managed to rectify matters at very reasonable cost in the afternoon and that members will be able to pick up a replacement key for the mess room on their next visit.

Back in the workshop, the overhaul of FR 20 took another step forward with the machining of the tender bearings by Alan Vipond, which had been previously white metalled by Jimmy Dutton. Alan has been busy scraping them in with only one left to do now.

Otherwise it has been business as usual with FR 20’s frames undercoated by John, Phil Bell and Roger whilst Fred has been cleaning up FR 20’s boiler for painting.

Keith has been making new baffles for Wootton Hall’s tender tank and work has again progressed on Fluff.

A short blog this week to keep you updated before some of us join in the school holiday rush to the seaside.

Firstly, don’t forget the Annual General Meeting which takes place in the FRT shed at Preston tomorrow (Tuesday) evening commencing at 7.30. Don’t forget to bring your copy of the Trustees’ Annual report and Accounts and, even if you don’t fancy the agenda, it is worth turning up for Alison’s sandwiches and cakes!

It was more normal business last week in the shed at Preston, with further work on painting Caliban‘s wheelsets and also a start being made on the task of lining out FR 20’s driving wheels. Ade can be see here studiously tapping holes on the top of Caliban‘s spring hangers to remove any traces of paint.

John Dixon continued his work on sorting the niggling loose bolts on FR 20’s running board whilst Phil Bell applied more undercoat paint to the motion. No doubt we’ll shortly have to move the engine forward a few feet in order to attend to those parts of the wheels and motion that cannot currently be reached. Alan took the opportunity to explore the ‘J’ pipe on FR 20’s boiler to evaluate whether there was any need to remove it.

Howard, John Davis and Phil Scales have continued work on Fluff, with more primer paint being applied to the inner frames and more progress on repairing some of the components. Keith has also been busy repairing Wootton Hall‘s tender tanks.

There is no plan for a blog next week owing to the aforementioned holidays. And talking of holidays, we include below a couple of snaps from Paul Balshaw who is visiting Minneapolis St. Paul. He seems to have found a tender to bring back to Preston for repair (oh no!!) and a Q3 which is being re-built.

Work on cleaning and painting FR 20’s frames and motion continued this week. Phil Bell made use of the pit to clean up under the motion.

John Dixon, the seemingly headless man, painted under the running board, with Roger continuing the process on Friday.

Tim lined out the tender wheels.

Jimmy Dutton took on the task of white metalling the tender bearings and is seen here pouring the white metal and with a finished bearing.

We were hoping that Bill Norcross would be able to start machining the bearings, but he appeared on Wednesday to relate a sorry tale of falling down an embankment and into the river by the cricket ground at Sedbergh where Lancashire were playing Durham in the County Championship. Fortunately he survived the ordeal but will be off for a while whilst his cracked ribs recover..! We wish him a speedy rceovery.

Ade continued to clean and prepare Caliban‘s frames for the next coat of paint.

Outside, Fred and Tim unveiled on the wheelsets the ‘Pacific Blue’ paint shade that will adorn Caliban when completed.

Finally, some unexpected news this week is that some components have actually been put back on Fluff! John Davis can be seen here with the clutch control mechanism which has been re-fitted after attention.

 

We start this week’s blog with a couple of FRT projects which are being undertaken in the RSR’s workshop.

Alan Preston and Jim Hanmer have been busy overhauling Fluff‘s engine.

All the pistons have been removed from the liners and given a good soaking in the component wash bath. It is hoped that this process will release the piston rings which, like everything else on Fluff it seems, have seized.

Alan is seen here with one of the piston rods.

Bill Norcross has been machining out recesses in FR 20’s tender axle bearings in order that they can receive white metal.

Over to the FRT shed where work has continued on cleaning FR 20’s engine frames, and paint has been applied on Wednesday and Friday by Phil Bell, John Dixon, Roger Benbow and a rare visit on Friday from Neil.

Paul Balshaw and Howard have been working on Fluff‘s frames with Phil Bell also turning his hand (excuse the pun) to the handbrake control rod. Outside, John Davis and Keith have been working on Wootton Hall‘s new tender tank whilst Tim and Fred have been painting Caliban‘s wheelsets. The latter are now turning bright blue with undercoat paint.

Keith has been over to Embsay and reports that a problem with 5643’s vacuum pump has now been identified and fixed and that the loco should be back in traffic this next weekend.

It would be remiss of us not to refer to the step change in train service that took place yesterday on the former Furness Railway. We show a photo of a brand new Class 195 waiting to be ceremonially waved away from Barrow station to Manchester Airport, one of what has doubled to eleven such weekday services that were introduced as part of the timetable change.

Finally, all members should have received an invitation to the Annual General Meeting on the 16th July. Let us know if you haven’t. Also, The Iron Horse has been proof read and is now back with the printer. Hopefully, they will be sent out in the next week.

We can announce this week that the Annual General Meeting of the Furness Railway Trust will be held in the FRT shed at Chain Caul Road, Preston at 7.30 pm on Tuesday, 16th July 2019. The Accounts for 2018 have been passed by the Independent Examiner and the Annual Report duly approved by the Trustees. Printing of these is currently in full swing and should be sent out before the end of this week. It is taking up a lot of time so consequently the blog is somewhat shorter in detail this week! In addition, we can report that the latest edition of The Iron Horse is also in the course of being printed but will be sent out separately a little later.

Work has continued at Preston on the overhaul of FR 20 with further preparation for painting. Phil Bell is seen here cleaning the inside of the frames.

John Dixon (supervised by Ade) has been cleaning the rear running plate around the reverser and also underneath the engine’s drag box and the latter was duly painted with Roger’s help on Friday. Fred and Tim have been cleaning and preparing Caliban‘s wheels for painting.

Various components from Fluff are still receiving attention including the seized clutch control assembly which has been presenting a challenge to Howard.

Finally for this week, outside John Davis has continued his work cleaning up the metal on the new tender tank for Wootton Hall.

FR 20’s overhaul continues with Alan carrying out work to reduce the ‘clatter’ from the right hand crosshead. He is seen here removing a burr from the piston rod end. John has continued to clean up components and paint them ready for fitting, including the hornstays whilst Phil Bell has been cleaning the frames and reverser quadrant and Tim has applied gloss Indian Red to the wheels.

Jim Hanmer and Alan Preston have made a prompt start to overhauling Fluff‘s engine in the RSR workshop. Jim is seen here with the engine where all the pistons and liners have been removed.

Extracting the pistons from the liners has proved to be a challenge with something like four tons of force being required to remove the first. The piston rings were found to have seized solid.

The other pistons and liners await their turn.

Paul Bradshaw and Phil Scales have continued their work on Fluff’s frames.

Ade has finally found time away from helping others to apply some gloss paint to Caliban’s frames.

Finally, Keith went back over to Embsay on Saturday to find 5643 chuffing away happily but Cumbria suffering from another bout of injectoritis and issues with the steam brake. A plan has been formed which hopefully will see Cumbria back in traffic soon.

 

As reported in last week’s blog, the seven wheelsets that were sent away for machining have returned and the photo shows a grand line up outside the FRT shed with the new tender tank for Wootton Hall in the background.

Left to right are the three wheelsets from the Hall’s tender, Caliban’s two wheelsets and then those for FR 25 which weren’t sent away.

Inside the shed were FR 20’s newly machined tender wheelsets which were being readied for painting.

Wednesday saw Fluff’s engine removed from its frames to the RSR workshop for overhaul. It was a tricky operation in confined spaces so hats off to Alan Vernon who is seen here reversing the fork lift truck back down the shed after the successful lift.

The engine-less frames looked pretty rusty but it wasn’t long before members started to attack the rust ready for preventative paintwork to be applied.

Phil Scales was attacking the rust on the outside of the frames with a needle gun on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Phil Bell was to be seen cleaning FR 20’s motion.

Steve Davies, former director of the National Railway Museum paid us a visit on Wednesday with a Japanese party who are in the process of building a old replica train back in Japan. They had spent the previous day at Embsay and been hauled there by the Trust’s ‘Austerity’ Cumbria.

Keith was busy making up a new piece of plate for Wootton Hall‘s tender tank.

On Friday Bob Thomson was working on a component for Wootton Hall‘s new reverser.

Roger Benbow is seen here continuing his work on painting the crinolines for FR 20.

Over at Embsay the washout and maintenance work for 5643 has been proceeding. Keith and Fred completed the main washout work on Saturday, which itself proved to be a washout and caused our volunteers to get very wet! 5643’s boiler has now been boxed up and filled with water, but Keith will be heading back to Embsay again on Thursday to attend to some maintenance issues in the smokebox.

Whilst at Embsay this week, Keith learned the sad news of the death in April of Charles Boylan at the age of 65. ‘Big Charlie’ as he was affectionately known came to Haverthwaite in the late 1970s with a group from Embsay and subsequently went on to be employed at Haverthwaite before working at the Dolly Blue Mill. He then joined the Cumbria Police up the west coast before transferring to the British Transport Police at Preston. On retirement he became a teaching assistant. Charles had continued to volunteer at Embsay, with the P Way Gang, but also confessed to having played Father Christmas on the Santa Specials. Charles was a big affable guy with a great sense of humour and we are sure that he will be missed at Embsay. Our condolences go to his wife Christine and family.

We are back after the Bank Holiday break with a short update.

Work has continued on the various ongoing projects at Preston.

John Davis is seen here driving out rivets on the shovel plate in the new tender tank for Wootton Hall.

Howard has been measuring up for new axle box lids for Caliban.

Paul Balshaw is seen scraping rust from Fluff‘s frames.

Examination of FR 20’s cylinders and piston rings has continued with some debate now as to whether the rings actually need changing. Underneath, the job of cleaning frames and motion continues.

Alison provided us with some leftover cakes a week last Wednesday from the previous night’s Trustees’ meeting, a photo of which we include for Adrian’s benefit(!).

The seven wheelsets that were sent away for machining were finally delivered back to Preston last Friday afternoon, which will open the way for further work on Wootton Hall‘s tender, FR 20’s tender and Caliban.

Finally, over at Embsay, Keith and Fred have been undertaking a wash-out on 5643. Keith will also be going back this Thursday and next weekend to attend to a leaking gasket on one of the superheater elements and to prepare 5643 for traffic again. Meanwhile, as locomotives do when they know that you are dependent on them, Cumbria broke a spring which took two days of hard labour for Embsay’s gang to sort over the last weekend.

 

With Cumbria now safely delivered to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway last Monday, it was time this week for the Trust’s working members to concentrate on other jobs at Preston. The following photos give a flavour of what has been going on.

Fluff‘s brake shaft, which controls the brake rods that apply the brake shoes, has been proving difficult to rotate. In short, it has seized up because of lack of use. The application of a 14lb sledge hammer proved to be fruitless so Phil Bell decided that it would be helpful to re-mount the hand brake handle and pedestal to apply pressure and we are pleased to be able to report that this was a success.

The seven wheelsets that were sent away for machining are due to be picked up from Coalville next Wednesday and are likely to be delivered to Preston the following Wednesday. In anticipation of this, John Dixon has been cleaning the underside of FR 20’s tender so that it can be painted before the wheelsets are fitted.

Keith has been cutting up the last portions of the base from Wootton Hall‘s old tender tank….

…. while Fred has been applying black gloss paint to the upper inside parts of the new tender tank….

…. meanwhile, John Davis has been removing rivets from the bottom of the tender tank coal space so that new plate can be fitted….

…. finally, the new water hose connectors for Wootton Hall‘s tender have been made up and await silver soldering of the flanges.

The Trustees meet tomorrow evening at Alison’s house in order to tackle the usual mountain of refreshments as well as to agree and approve the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for 2018. Hopefully it will also be possible to set a date for the Annual General Meeting.

Advance notice here that there won’t be a blog next week because the editorial team is taken up with other duties during the Bank Holiday and half term week – OK there’s a holiday beckoning!

Ade got up bright and early again last Wednesday to put Cumbria over the pit at Preston before putting a small fire in the firebox ready for a test steaming. Alan and Tim then dismantled the left hand piston rod gland and found the metallic packings to have fragmented, confirming this as the cause of a steam leak when the loco was under load. Soft packing material was located and fitted prior to steam being raised to maximum. Tim and then Ade took Cumbria for trips up and down the yard in order to test the new packings and the steam brake before Ade loaded up the spare springs.

Friday saw John Davis and Phil Bell descend on Cumbria to clear the coal bunker and to give it a final clean and polish. Tim meanwhile removed the lubrication pipes to the piston rod and valve spindles to be cleaned out. The oil pots were replenished with fresh oil and the trimmings cleaned, primed with oil and replaced to give a steady satisfying drip of oil over the rods and spindles.

Work has again continued on Fluff, FR 20 and Wootton Hall. Fred is seen here painting Wootton Hall‘s tender tank in between heavy showers of rain. News from Leicestershire is that machining work on the wheelsets for Caliban and the tenders for Wootton Hall and FR20 has been completed and arrangements are now being made for their return to Preston. One of the additional tasks undertaken was removing a score from one of the crank pins on Caliban‘s wheels. Jeff at CMS Cepcor kindly sent us this short video of the crank pin being machined – click on this link to view.

Today saw Cumbria loaded and despatched to Embsay where it will join the Trust’s GWR 0-6-2T No. 5643. We show here a photo of 5643 double heading with Illingworth, also a recent temporary resident at Preston, courtesy of the Embsay Locomotive Department Facebook page.