Month: March 2024

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.