We start this week’s blog with the good news that 5643 successfully operated a train from Embsay to Bolton Abbey yesterday, double-heading with Taff Vale 0-6-2T No.85 – a rare case of two ‘Taffy Tanks’ operating together! The run successfully drew to a conclusion the winter work on 5643 which has included the replacement of three stays. Well done to Keith and his team.
Back at Preston, it has very much been a case of ‘more of the same’ as our members have continued to clean up the Trust’s ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Cumbria. The running plate and cab steps have been rubbed down and primed ready for the undercoat to be applied this week. 
New member Phil Scales is seen here busy with the sand paper.
Work has also continued on Cumbria‘s regulator valve which has given trouble over the past year. We’ll spare you yet another photo of Bob with his feeler gauges but we can report that the sliding brass faces are very much close to being finished. Tim came in on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday to try and tame the ‘J’ pipe, which is also looking much closer to the finishing line.
Alan Ogden has re-appeared from the south west to continue his work on Fluff‘s electrical systems whilst Howard, John Davis and David, among others, have again been working on the frames.
There is promise of further progress on Caliban this week with John Marrow due to arrive tomorrow and Wednesday to re-bore the cylinders.
Saturday and Sunday marked the start of 2019 passenger services on the Ribble Steam Railway with a successful Diesel Gala. Guest Colas C0-C0 locomotive No. 56 090 is seen here on the end of one of the trains.
Finally, we conclude with further good news in that the lease for the Furness Railway Trust Shed has been executed today. It appears that years of persistence have paid off and thanks go to everyone who has been involved in what has turned out to be rather a long drawn out process. We have a home that we can rightly call our very own at last!
Bob is seen applying his feeler gauge to check test progress. By the end of Friday both the regulator valve and the ‘J’ pipe were deemed to be in much better shape although further work will be required this next week. In view of time pressures, Tim spent another day on the job today.
The spruce up of Cumbria has also continued apace, led by John Dixon and assisted by Phil Bell and Phil Scales. The running board is receiving a rub down with a view to giving it a fresh coat of black paint in the near future.
Alan is seen here on Friday inspecting the results of Ade’s endeavours.
Roger spent more time cleaning, in this case up FR 20’s drawhook spring.
Bill Norcross has started the machining of the new axlebox brasses and completed the first successful fitting into an axlebox on Friday.
A great deal of progress was made on both Wednesday and Friday with the thorough clean being given to Cumbria. Roger, Phil Bell, and John Dixon have concentrated their efforts on the frames, motion and brake rigging whilst John Davis worked on the wheels.
Matt Jervis had successfully removed the ‘J’ pipe from the boiler which was subsequently machined by Bill Norcross.
Bob and Tim spent all their time on Friday (strictly limited number of tea breaks!) in their efforts to produce flat polished surfaces on both the regulator valve and ‘J’ pipe faces. Keith had kindly manufactured a flat steel plate to size with which to apply the carborundum paste although one or two high spots on the cast iron ‘J’ pipe needed some rather more aggressive attention! The task is still quite a way from completion and more work is planned for this next week.
A major project completed has been the installation of the new overhead safety wire system on road three of both the heated and unheated sections of the FRT shed. Wednesday, 20th February was spent on moving various pieces of equipment out of the way and taking delivery of a cherry picker and tower scaffold for use of the installers. That didn’t stop Adrian getting a few instructions on how to operate the cherry picker in order that it could be stowed away safely overnight.
Fortunately, despite a short power outage, work progressed steadily during the day. 
With the rolling stock now out of the way, the opportunity was also taken to undertake a thorough clean of the central section of the shed including the pit.
Mike Rigg volunteered to try on one of the new harnesses and is seen here getting rigged up (geddit?!) with the assistance of Joe Jackson from Trad Safety Systems. 
A rear view of Mike shows the correct position, between the shoulder blades, for the metal loop to which the back strap should be attached. The installers finished a little later than planned, but all the rolling stock was back in the shed by 17.30 and Stanlow moved back home to the main running shed. A full operating instruction for the overhead safety wire system has been written and is available both in the mess room and in the harness storage drawer in the shed filing cabinet.
One side benefit from the upheaval in the shed was the opportunity to re-marshal the rolling stock so that Cumbria and FR 20 could be positioned over the pit to assist maintenance and repairs.
Outside, Keith has been busy on repairs to the newly acquired tender tank for Wootton Hall and also in cutting up the original which, unfortunately, was well past being repaired. Alan has been loosening nuts with a view to removing FR 20’s valve chest cover and Adrian has been undercoating Caliban‘s frames. Work on Fluff progresses as well.