{"id":3646,"date":"2025-08-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/?p=3646"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:17:10","slug":"monday-11th-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/?p=3646","title":{"rendered":"Monday, 11th August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The highlight of the last fortnight has undoubtedly been the FRT\u2019s participation at The Greatest Gathering at Derby on the 1st , 2nd and 3rd August which, in effect, had become the birthday party celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Railways. The event was massive, with 140 exhibits on site plus sales stands, carousels, Ferris Wheel, a model railway village plus entertainment. There was good coverage on local TV, including some whistle blowing on FR 20 by the presenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_3vZ9DX2_nc?si=cLTHLkYDJkitS2Ow \">https:\/\/youtu.be\/_3vZ9DX2_nc?si=cLTHLkYDJkitS2Ow <\/a>&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team assembled on site on Thursday, 31st July to set up the sales stand, with Alison, Phil and Anne seen here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_20250803_134650-1-Heather-Edwards-1024x578.jpg\" alt=\"Alison, Phil and Anne with the sales stand\" class=\"wp-image-1866\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Furness Railway No. 20 needed cleaning and prepping to be in steam by 10.00 on 1st August to blow its whistle with others to welcome those waiting at the gate. Around 40,000 people attended over the weekend. Sam, Ade and Alan are seen with No. 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250731_144836-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Sam and Adrian prepare FR 20 as Alan looks on\" class=\"wp-image-1867\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The crowds soon appeared to gain cab access with FRT members on hand to explain the locomotive\u2019s history and the layout of the cab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Paul-Salvo-2-1024x804.jpg\" alt=\"People queueing to look at FR 20's cab\" class=\"wp-image-1868\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Aaron soon developed a good line of patter which also encouraged visitors to purchase a copy of the recently published FR 20 book, copies of which were displayed on the side of the tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250803_092304-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The alternative sales stand\" class=\"wp-image-1869\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Live Steam folk band performed twice a day singing railway songs in the large \u2018G\u2019 shop where trains are assembled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1000011299-PS-1024x700.jpg\" alt=\"Live Steam in action at Derby\" class=\"wp-image-1872\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>All in all, the event proved to be very successful and it is unlikely that we will see anything similar for a long time to come. FR 20 is due back at Preston tomorrow, Tuesday, 12th August and is rostered for service on Saturdays 16th and 30th August. The following photo shows FR 20 being shunted at Derby after the event by non-other than a huge Class 93 locomotive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_729911-GF.jpg\" alt=\"FR 2 being shunted by a Class 93 locomotive after the event\" class=\"wp-image-1871\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Back at Preston work has continued on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 with Ron Crowe and Paul Balshaw removing the handrail from the smokebox. This is to enable the boiler to be turned on its side for new patch screws to be fitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250730_113141-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Ron Crowe and Paul Balshaw dismantle 5643's smokebox handrail\" class=\"wp-image-1873\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The 2nd Class North London coach body that has been stored at Jim Kay\u2019s house in Blackpool for many years finally made it to Preston last Tuesday where Adrian was on hand to do the necessary shunt and arranged for it to be placed on a PMV chassis that had been accommodating various components of the former FR 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250805_122103-AT-1024x588.jpg\" alt=\"The NLR coach arrives at Preston\" class=\"wp-image-1874\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/ciac\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250805_172229-AT-1024x518.jpg\" alt=\"The coach body placed on a PMV chassis\" class=\"wp-image-1875\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The latest edition of The Iron Horse has been mailed out with details of this year\u2019s Annual General Meeting, which will be held at 7.30 pm in the FRT shed at Preston on Wednesday, 3rd September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The highlight of the last fortnight has undoubtedly been the FRT\u2019s participation at The Greatest Gathering at Derby on the 1st , 2nd and 3rd August which, in effect, had become the birthday party celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Railways. The event was massive, with 140 exhibits on site plus sales stands, carousels, Ferris Wheel, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/?p=3646\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Monday, 11th August 2025<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3648,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions\/3648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furnessrailway.co.uk\/about\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}