There was a certain amount of jubilation on Wednesday when Fluff was finally lowered back onto its springs. However, given the current Coronavirus health advice, John Davis and Phil Bell decided to avoid the high fives and went for the now more fashionable touching of elbows.
The lowering of Fluff has not been without its issues for somebody had left a tool box under the loco which now looks a little worse for wear!
Fred applied some gloss black paint to the sand boxes on Friday.
Roger coated the lower part of the back cab with primer.
Alan and Ade spent Wednesday raising pressure on FR 20’s boiler and got it up to 200 psi before making a note of a few areas of dampness that need to be attended to.
Tim continued to paint FR 20’s tender frames whilst John Dixon decided to spend some time in self isolation, cleaning out the tender tank.
There has been more progress on Wootton Hall with some new firebox cladding appearing for fitting.
The Ribble Steam Railway has recently received a large collection of OO gauge locomotives and coaches of both two and three rail operation. These are being sold to members in the Exploration Centre to raise funds this Wednesday between 8 am and 4 pm.
Finally, news from Embsay is that 5643’s steam test for the boiler surveyor is now scheduled for this Friday 13th March.