Phil Bell has now taken on the task of removing the left-hand brake gear from FR 20’s tender and Roger is seen here lending a hand to remove one of the stubborn brake hanger pins.
This will enable some more of the tender chassis as well as the brake gear to be cleaned and repainted. 
Fred immediately went into action to clean off one of the brake rods.
John Dixon has now turned his attention to repairing and modifying the rear draw hook on the tender. Whilst the tender does have an access hole to the pin that holds the brake gear to the draw spring, it wasn’t sufficiently large to enable a stubborn split pin to be removed in such a confined space. 
So John has now created a large access hole in the bottom of the rear tender locker and as a result the draw hook has now been removed.
Meanwhile Alan managed to locate most of the blanking plates for FR 20’s boiler ready for fitting prior to the hydraulic test.
John Davis has been painting some more of Fluff‘s components.
Adrian was busy shunting coaches last Wednesday ready for the Santa Specials which start this weekend so was unable to progress with Caliban‘s overhaul. Keith and Fred have been back to Embsay once again to attend to 5643 after its washout and the loco was test steamed yesterday. Thanks to the Embsay Loco Department Facebook page for this atmospheric image:
Cumbria was in charge of the first of the Santa Specials there yesterday, and Embsay posted this video leaving Bolton Abbey.
Back at Preston Keith has been fabricating new covers for the lubrication valves which are situated on the side of Wootton Hall‘s smokebox. Having successfully made the left-hand one (above) he then spent Sunday progressing the bigger one for the right hand side.
Also on Sunday Neil brought his daughter Caitlin for her first volunteering visit, and what better way to start her career than under FR 20’s tender cleaning off the muck while the brake gear is out of the way?!
This baptism didn’t seem to put her off: she says she wants to come back and do more!
Finally, after their practice last Monday, Live Steam were in action for three gigs at the Ulverston Dickensian Festival over the weekend and are seen in action as they perform the Festival Finale yesterday evening. They have already been invited back to perform at all three venues next year!
Fluff‘s makeover continues to progress at a steady pace. Phil Bell and John Davis have been drilling the new plate for the running board.
John then went on to give the plate a couple of coats of paint.
Meanwhile David Rimmer has been painting the wheels.
John is seen tidying up the rivet heads after welding them into place.
Tim has been on top of the tender to apply a coat of red oxide and Ed Tatham has been cleaning up the nuts that secure the tender tank on to the frames.
Phil and Roger spent Friday starting the process of re-fitting the right hand tender brake gear after it had been cleaned and painted. The left hand brake gear had been deliberately left in place in order to act as a guide for the re-fitting process. Turned out to be a wise move!
Fred spent last Friday cleaning up Wootton Hall‘s tender filler top after a new section of ring had been welded into place.
The recently acquired firehole door mechanism for Wootton Hall has now been cleaned, painted and fitted.
Keith is seen here putting a spot more paint on Wootton Hall‘s tender top.
With the Ulverston Dickensian Festival coming up next weekend, Live Steam have been practicing in earnest this afternoon around a plate of mince pies. They will be performing at the Old Friends pub on Saturday evening and then at Abbeyfield House after lunch on Sunday. Finally they will bring down the curtain on the festival on the outdoor Theatre Street stage late on Sunday afternoon. Let’s hope that the weather stays fine.
The wheels for Wootton Hall‘s tender have arrived in the shed ready for the new bearings to be scraped in. We are now in the process of procuring some lubricating pads although it seems that there is quite a lead time for these items.
More items have appeared from the forge at Kirkham this week. Keith has been drilling holes in the newly-arrived steel supports for the tender footplate floor.
They have now been fitted into position although some adjustment to their shape is necessary before final fitting.
Work continues on painting the inside of Fluff‘s frames and Howard has been attending to the axleboxes.
A second-hand replacement manifold for Caliban was the centre of Alan’s attention last Wednesday. It seems that it has been some considerable time since the various components have been dismantled… 
The old adage says “give me a long enough lever and I will move the earth”…. 
… and so Alan attempted to put this into practice with a series of pipes added to the handle of his stilsons! Adrian, famed for his dismantling abilities, joined to finish off the job.
Fred finished cleaning out the top well at the back of FR 20’s tender and Roger completed the rather extended task of removing the protective gaffer tape from FR 20’s spectacle glasses – we won’t be doing that again in a hurry!
The tender tank is almost ready for painting and Phil Bell is also nearly ready to re-fit the first half of the brake rigging after cleaning and painting. John Dixon has again been underneath the tender and is seen giving the inside of the frames some paint.
The front of FR 20’s tender has come back together now after a strip down for cleaning of the drag box and buffing gear. John Dixon is seen applying a coat of gloss black paint to the underside of the footplate floor last Wednesday before it was lifted back into position on Friday.
Phil Bell has been back underneath the tender to give the inside of the steps a coat of black paint.
We let Phil out from the pit on Friday and he is seen here with a selection of the brake gear for painting.
Even the brake blocks are getting a coat of paint, from John Davis.
With the footplate floor back in place, Roger has been removing protective black tape from the spectacle glass windows.
John has re-installed the hand rail stanchions and is seen fitting one of the top hand rails.
Fred spent all of Friday on top of the tender cleaning up the rear well with his trusty cup wire bush.
There was more progress on Fluff with undercoat on one of the wheelsets and some gloss black paint from John Davis on the inside of the frames.