We find ourselves once again heading towards the end of another year, one that will be memorable amongst other things for successful visits with Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 to the West Somerset and East Lancashire Railways, some excellent progress with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643, the despatch of Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s boiler to Williton for overhaul as well as the production of new castings for its motion. Volunteers have met new challenges with boiler work on 5643 and also overcome, with some difficulty for the more elderly, the art of getting out of a deep Premier Inn bath.
The past couple of weeks have seen more progress with drilling out stays on 5643’s boiler (the vast majority now done) and the tapping of stay holes of which over 100 are finished and mostly fitted with new stays – just the caulking to do.
The batch of 550 new nuts has been received from Williton, with Keith seen here testing one on a stay.
5643’s main steam pipe has been away for shotblasting and three of the engine’s driving wheel springs have had their holes re-bushed to give a better fit.
They have then been re-fitted on to the locomotive.
Sam has removed and cleaned FR 20’s washout plugs and the ashpan has been removed for Sim to clean and paint.
Jon has been giving the Coventry Climax fire pump yet another overhaul, this time including a full clean, emptying of the fuel tank, and the fitting of new leads. This will hopefully reduce the lead time in getting this 70 year old machine into action when boiler washouts are arranged.
The latest edition of The Iron Horse magazine is with the printer and should be out early in the New Year.
The Ribble Steam Railway’s Santa Specials concluded yesterday, with Ade driving Bagnall 0-6-0ST Courageous on its last day in service before a 10 year boiler overhaul.
There will be working parties at Preston on Friday, 27 th , and Saturday, 28 th December. The normal Wednesday/Friday/Saturday pattern of working days will re-commence on Friday, 3 rd January.
Finally, our folk group, Live Steam will once again be performing at the Engine Inn, Cark-in-Cartmel on New Year’s Eve, so do come along if you are in the area.
Best wishes from the blog team go to everyone for a merry Christmas and a very prosperous and productive New Year.
The recent better weather conditions (OK, forget today!) have enabled good progress to be made outside the shed on the refurbishment of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s bunker, which John Dixon has been persevering with, seen here removing rust.
Jon and Sim have been busy applying green undercoat to the cab roof.
Ed has been taking his turn grinding off stay heads on 5643’s firebox in preparation for the stays to be replaced.
This last weekend has seen what was scheduled to be the last major event for the Furness Railway Trust this year, with Furness Railway No. 20 booked to appear at the East Lancashire Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala on the 11th, 12th and 13th October. As with all these occasions, there needs to be some advance preparation and Phil Burton, Alison, Ade and Anne were busy in the mess room last Wednesday sorting out sales stock and, incidentally, taking the opportunity to get rid of some long out-dated items that were taking up unnecessary room.
Ian Massey was with us once again on Wednesday, seen here working on Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall’s tender where more new plate has been welded in.
Outside, Sim and Jon were applying some red oxide to GWR 0-6-2T No. 5643’s cab roof.
New axle pad oilers have arrived for 5643’s driving wheels this week.
And so to Bury where Alison is seen with the FRT’s sales stand, which she looked after on Friday and Saturday. Phil and Anne appeared on Sunday to continue with the sales to the many visitors to the Gala.
FR 20 worked either on two Mark 1 carriage shuttles to Ramsbottom, seen here with former RSR resident L&Y ‘Pug’ No. 19…
… or operating brake van rides top and tailed with recent Ribble Steam Railway resident Barclay 0-4-0ST No. 1969 JN Derbyshire.
Seen again, at Bury Bolton Street station. Photo kindly shared by John Earnshaw Photography, with thanks.
Gremlins struck on Friday afternoon when a noise from FR 20’s right hand side suggested that an examination was required. It was decided to miss the loco’s turn on the evening fish and chip special to Ramsbottom and head back to the shed where removal of the front right hand cylinder cover revealed that a small gap had opened up been the piston and the retaining nut. An 80 thou’ bronze washer was quickly machined up by Bill Beverage and fitted. Matt Hainsworth is seen refitting the cylinder cover on Saturday morning (with Bill looking on) and, after what was the equivalent of a Formula One pit stop, the loco was quickly back in service with the 11.37 brake van trip to Burrs. Our thanks go to Matt, Bill and Andy Booth for their assistance in getting the loco back on the road so quickly.
The ELR had also brought in former Bury resident BR 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 seen alongside FR 20 at Ramsbottom on Saturday evening.
The recent better weather has allowed progress outside the shed on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s side tanks, bunker and cab roof. Inside the shed, Keith has started to reassemble 5643’s radial truck and, with the new axle pads for the driving wheels received, it should now be possible to lower the frames. Having completed the reaming out of the remaining first batch of stay holes in the firebox the previous Thursday, attention was now turned to completing the riveting work elsewhere on the loco on Friday.
Meanwhile, last Wednesday saw final preparations for the departure of Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20, which left Preston by low loader to go to the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) for its forthcoming gala appearance after lunch the following day. John Dixon and Sam were at Bury in order to re-fit the guard irons and sand pipes, fill the tender tank and to light a warming fire.
The run had not been advertised and was even a surprise to the signalman at Bury when the engine appeared. However, two Mark 1 coaches were duly collected and moved to platform 4 at Bury Bolton Street station, where tea was duly taken by all concerned. Andy Booth’s Hunslet 0-6-0 tender loco Douglas was also in the station with the five coach dining train, which left at 12.30.
It had been decided to stop at all stations on the way to Ramsbottom to ensure that there would be no problems in re-starting the train on the gradient, and the opportunity was taken to photograph the train in Summerseat station.
Ramsbottom was duly reached in a time of 25 minutes without breaking sweat, so it was time for another cup of tea (what, more tea? Ed.) and a chat with Responsible Officer for the day, Richard Law. Once the dining train had passed through Ramsbottom on its way back towards Bury, it was time to complete the return trip, this time non-stop. It was decided on return that there was no need for a second test run and so the carriages were deposited back into the siding and FR 20 returned to the shed. All in all, a very satisfactory day.
The Ribble Steam Railway Autumn Steam Gala took place this last Saturday and Sunday, so there was considerable effort made to prepare and clean Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 so that it looked its best for the occasion.
The Gala saw the first publicised appearances of newly overhauled Borrows 0-4-0 well tank No. 48 of 1906 The King and Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST No. 1969 of 1929 JN Derbyshire. Both of these locomotives were in ex-works condition and worked back to back for passenger workings, being accorded by some the nickname the ‘Preston Double Fairlie’. With other home-based locos Bagnall 0-6-0ST No. 2680 Courageous and Grant Richie 0-4-0ST No. 272 also in steam, along with the chance to ride in the FRT’s Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 and partake of tea, coffee, ploughman’s lunch and cream tea, there was plenty to see and do. In fact a number of visitors were noted to have spent both days at the Gala.
There was also a large second-hand book stall in the FRT shed which raised some welcome funds and it was a great opportunity to meet up with friends and visitors and display the current work being undertaken by the Trust.
Wednesday morning saw Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s boiler being loaded onto a hi-ab lorry… 
…which swiftly departed to Bradshaw Sheet Metal near Bolton to pick up the smokebox before heading off south to the Williton workshop of West Somerset Restoration which has been contracted to fit a new inner firebox, fit new tubes and conduct a hydraulic test.
Having despatched the boiler it was then time to fill the large skip that had been delivered, with John, Tim and Ed loading two sets of boiler tubes (5643 and Caliban), two sets of superheater elements (5643 and 4979) and 5643’s flue tubes. Needless to say, the work in the hot sun was interspersed by the odd cup of tea!
The hi-ab lorry set off from Williton before dawn on Thursday to deliver the tank to Tyseley Locomotive Works and then pick up the new superheater elements for GWR 0-6-2T No. 5643 and the second-hand coupling rod that had been purchased for GWR ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall. These were delivered to Preston around 2 pm that day, being received by John Dixon.
Friday saw John, Keith and Tim assemble to tidy up the shed, stack the superheater elements and bring in the coupling rod.
Finally, we received this week the latest West Somerset Railway Journal, which features some recognisable ‘old timers’ on the back cover celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Watchet to Minehead Railway.