Furness Railway Trust blog

We start this week’s blog with the sad news that long time member and former Press and Publicity Officer of the Lakeside Railway Society (forerunner of the FRT) Michael Cooke has passed away recently at the age of 85. Despite suffering from ill health, Michael had kept in touch in recent years, sponsoring the purchase of some storage shelves and supplying the mess room with tea bags for the benefit of volunteers. The funeral will be private and we send our condolences to Michael’s family.

The overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 is making steady progress with Sim Dixon alongside brother Jon (out of picture) cleaning the eccentrics prior to re-painting them.

Keith has been in the firebox using gas to cut out old stays.

Tim has applied yet another layer of undercoat green paint to the left hand tender tank side of GWR No. 4979 Wootton Hall whilst Sam Middleton and John Dixon dropped the water from Furness Railway No. 20’s boiler and cleaned the firebox, smokebox and ashpan in preparation for the boiler’s forthcoming 14 month examination by the boiler surveyor.

It’s no joke! It’s the 1^st April and we are already a quarter of the way through 2024!

First of all, we would like to thank the family of the late Fred Jones who have generously donated Fred’s considerable collection of books to the FRT. The books have now been sorted into size and stored on the recently acquired shelves in the mess room whilst we take stock of what we have. A wonderful gift.

The overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 continues with Ed taking the opportunity of some fine weather (is that really blue sky?) to work on 5643’s cab which is outside the workshop.

John Dixon unexpectedly finds himself the subject of yet another photo whilst attending to 5643’s motion.

Meanwhile Keith has been applying some heat to remove one of the firebox stays.

Sam has been preparing new joints for Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s valve covers.

Tim has been applying a second coat of green undercoat to the left-hand side of Great Western Railway 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall’s tender tank having, after the first coat, decided that the tank side needed considerably more work to repair indentations.

The result looks far more acceptable.

A short catch up this week. That is not to say that work is not continuing apace as usual.

Keith has been drilling out more stays in the firebox of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 whilst John, Jon and Simeon Dixon have been working on cleaning and painting 5643’s frames.

The Ribble Steam Railway’s Spring Steam Gala took place on Saturday and Sunday which meant that some resources were deployed to clean Furness Railway No. 20 and prepare it for action. Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 was also in traffic over the weekend so it was given a good vacuuming, a polish of the internal woodwork and the battery charged up.

Saturday turned out to be a very cold and windy day that reminded Tim and his crew on FR 20 why locomotive cabs were invented! The weather took a turn for the better on Sunday, and all went to plan. FR 20 is pictured here during a lunch break with the cab and frames of the former FR 25 in the background.

Anne and Phil Burton staffed a FRT sales stand over the week and took some useful money for the Trust.

It has been another week of steady progress on the overhaul of Great Western
Railway 0-6-2T locomotive No. 5643 at Preston. Keith was busy on
Wednesday making adjustments to the right hand big end, where unwanted
movement of the bearings had been detected during inspection.

John Dixon has continued his quest to clean up and paint those areas of the
frames not usually visible to the public.

Keith has now started to drill out stays on the left hand side of the firebox; his
work on the right hand side so far can be seen here with 71 stay holes visible.

More horse chestnut leaf patterned moquette for Great Eastern Railway royal
saloon No. 5 has arrived this week to enable Anne and Phil Burton to re-cover
all the wooden chair seats. These will match the chaise longue.

Elsewhere on the purchasing front, new cylinder liners for 5643 have been
sourced and ordered. They should be with us in late April if all goes to plan.

It has been a sad day for the FRT as a good number of members gathered at a very full Crosscrake Church near Kendal for the funeral of long-standing volunteer Fred Jones. His family arranged a display of photos charting his life at the wake, including one of Fred with his favourite wire cup brushes.

Finally, on a brighter note, we are pleased to be able to report that former FRT Trustee and Treasurer David Rimmer is now out of hospital and is in temporary care at Huyton in preparation for moving home. We wish him well in his recovery.

 

Work has continued with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 with Keith seen here scraping in the white metal on one of the axleboxes.

Jon Dixon continued the beautification of the driving wheels which, after significant effort, are now rapidly becoming very black and shiny.

With the start of the Ribble Steam Railway’s operating season fast approaching, Ade transferred Furness Railway locomotive No. 20 and Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 to the RSR running shed last Wednesday. Sam used the opportunity to fit the mudhole doors on FR 20 whilst it was over the pit.

GER No. 5 had been advertised for use on the Mother’s Day train service, being fully booked throughout the day for the occasion. John Dixon made some last-minute adjustments to the window of the guard’s door.

Phil and Anne Burton worked hard to put some temporary brown covers on the chairs to make them look uniform in appearance. Some more horse chestnut leaf moquette is on the way which will then enable the chairs to match the chaise longue in the east saloon.

Just before the departure of the first train on Sunday morning the flexible steam heat pipe on the east end of the saloon announced to all that it had come to end of its working life. Fortunately, it was possible to remedy this fairly quickly, the steam crew and John Dixon engineering a swap in a very efficient pit stop. This was just as well as there was a cool moderate breeze and rain that day.

GER No. 5 is seen leaving Riverside Station behind Courageous. After the furore yesterday over the editing of a Royal Family photo it was decided not to edit out the unsightly bucket from this photo!

Ade managed to take this photo of Alison during a short break from preparing GER No.5 for its next set of customers.

Finally, the arrangements for the funeral of long term volunteer Fred Jones, who sadly passed away on the 25^th February after a short illness, have been confirmed. The service will take place at St Thomas’ Church, Crosscrake on Monday 18th March at 12.45pm. All are welcome.

Work at Preston has again focussed on the heavy general overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Jon and Sim Dixon have been working on sprucing up the appearance of the driving wheelsets.

Paul Balshaw has been cleaning one of the pistons.

Ed has been working inside the frames, viewed here through the left hand cylinder.

Ian Massey has completed his welding work on 5643’s boiler.

Allen looks on as Keith drills out another of the 300 stays to be replaced.

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, work has also been taking place to de-winterise Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 so that it can be used on the 10^th March. Anne Burton has been busy cleaning the upholstery and carpet.

John Dixon is seen here cleaning a steam heat pipe brass coupling prior to moving it to a rather better pipe. This will then be fitted to GER5 which, for some reason, was missing a steam heat pipe at one end.

Finally, Caliban’s new piston head is seen here being machined in one of the lathes in the Ribble Steam Railway workshop.

We are very sorry to have to start this week’s blog with the very sad news that Fred Jones, a long-time member of the Trust and regular volunteer at Preston, passed away peacefully in Lancaster Royal infirmary last night. As readers of this blog will be aware, Fred suffered a medical problem recently and we were all hoping that we would see him back again at Preston in the not-too-distant future. However, Fred was taken into Lancaster Royal Infirmary last week for tests after continuing to feel unwell.

Fred loved railways and thoroughly enjoyed working both at Haverthwaite and at Preston, taking on board the many less glamourous jobs, particularly  of cleaning and painting components. He is pictured above after having worn out yet another cup wire brush. He will be very much missed by us all. Our thoughts are with daughter, Helen, son Andrew and family.

Work on the overhaul of 5643 has continued this last week with Ian Massey paying us another visit on Wednesday when he completed his work on the tubeplate of 5643’s boiler. Ian is seen making sparks fly as he grinds off excess weld.

Jimmy Dutton has re-metalled 5643’s front right axlebox and is seen here with Keith ready for the axlebox to be machined.

Elsewhere on 5643, Dave Reynolds has been inspecting the radial horn guides for wear.

John Dixon has produced a baffle for the hot water boiler in the kitchen of Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 to prevent scalding hot water overtopping the urn. The coach is due to be in service for Mother’s Day so a number of winter jobs are now being completed for the occasion.

Following last week’s photo of the first coat of green undercoat on the left-hand tender side of Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall, Tim has been inspecting the surface closely to identify and fill any imperfections.

John Davies has been cleaning the copper cap for Fluff’s chimney.

Finally, there was concern this last week when we were unable to contact former Treasurer and Trustee David Rimmer. However, David has now been in touch to say that he has been in hospital. We wish David a speedy recovery.

Things are getting back to normal now we hope with a more consistent publication of the blog following illness.

Work has continued on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. John Dixon has been giving the spring hanger bolts a good clean and several coats of paint.

Sim (left) and Jon Dixon are seen here giving the exterior of the steam chest and smokebox saddle a coat of high temperature black paint.

We now have a first blog photo of the new chimney casting for Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 that was recently supplied by the Severn Valley Railway. The casting will need to be machined and the familiar GWR copper top fitted.

Meanwhile Tim, after much filling and sanding, has been giving the left-hand side of Wootton Hall’s tender tank a coat of green undercoat paint. There is still more work to do though before the former ’ploughed field’ surface is ready to receive a top coat of paint.

Work on Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 continues with Phil Burton cleaning up the two bronze royal picture frames that will be fitted to the coach.

The top and left-hand side of the frame can be seen gleaming here.

Finally, it has been a bumper week for cake in the mess room this week with both Keith and Alan celebrating birthdays. John Dixon is seen here tucking in to a portion of cake…

… while Alan had a small birthday celebration at Preston on Saturday and is seen here with some of his own cake.

Apologies once again for the inconsistent publication of the blog. We are hoping that the effects of the winter ailments are now mainly behind us!

First of all this week, a big thanks to all those of you who have made such generous donations to the Trust whilst renewing membership over the past couple of months. With so much potentially expensive work going on at the moment it is really very heartening to have such support from members. It is very much appreciated.

The overhaul of 5643 has continued apace with the coded welder Ian Massey paying a visit last Wednesday to commence work on 5643’s boiler, focussing on some wastage at the bottom of the front tubeplate. A further two visits are expected in the coming weeks to finish the tasks requested by the boiler surveyor.

Ron Crowe is pictured here drilling out one of the firebox backplate stays, one of 300 stays to be renewed.

A set of special die chasers has been purchased for the purpose of manufacturing new stays.

Work has also continued on cleaning and painting the frames and attachments with Jon Dixon seen here cleaning the bottom of the smokebox saddle prior to painting with high temperature paint.

Finally, Keith has picked up from one of our machinists the refurbished ‘J’ cock, one of 5643’s cab fittings, the original body for which having been unfortunately damaged during the process of dismantling.

Apologies for the lack of a blog over the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, a member of the blog team has been knocked by an extended Christmas lurgy that seems to be doing the rounds. However, we are pleased to be able to report that others have escaped illness and that work has continued apace at Preston over the past few weeks.

As ever, most of the resources have been devoted to the continuing overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Phil Bell and John Davis have been grinding down the exterior heads of the stays that need to be renewed on the boiler and Keith has been in the firebox to attack the stays from that direction. The result is that Ron Crowe has now drilled out and removed the first stay with many still to come!

Other members have been busy continuing the work of cleaning and painting the frames, including Ed…

… while Jon Dixon has been wielding the paintbrush on the wheels.

Another step forward with the overhaul of 5643 has been the white metalling of the front right hand brass by Keith and Jimmy Dutton, which has now been located in the axlebox ready for machining

Anne and Phil Burton have continued their work on the chairs from Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5, a photo here showing one of the chairs reupholstered in horse chestnut leaf moquette as an example of how they would look with this pattern.

Whilst most of the recent attention has been concentrated on 5643, we are pleased to be able to report that the purchase of a second coupling rod for Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 locomotive No. 4979 Wootton Hall has been concluded and also that a brand new chimney arrived last Monday, having been supplied by the Severn Valley Railway.

Finally, elsewhere at the Ribble Steam Railway site, Peckett 0-4-0ST No. 2013 of 1950 has arrived, having been purchased by Furness Railway Trust member Jimmy Dutton, who also owns Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST Linda.