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.
Ade has again been working on Caliban‘s axleboxes and preparing some new steel cover plates for them. 
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 has continued his work on Wootton Hall‘s tender tank and preparing new platework. With a fair amount of welding work now building up, the Trust has purchased some new kit to comply with recent directives regarding weld fume. 
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…
Over at Embsay, Cumbria is out of traffic for its 14 month boiler survey and also some attention to its regulator and left hand injector amongst other things. Charles Adams has become a member of the FRT and has kindly taken on the role as guardian of the loco whilst it is at Embsay. Charles has drawn up a maintenance list which is being ticked off as individual tasks are completed.
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.
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.
Ade can be see here studiously tapping holes on the top of Caliban‘s spring hangers to remove any traces of paint.
Alan took the opportunity to explore the ‘J’ pipe on FR 20’s boiler to evaluate whether there was any need to remove it.
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.
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.
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.
The latter are now turning bright blue with undercoat paint.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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(!).