It’s Mid-summer’s Day already – where has the time gone?
Work on Furness Railway No. 20 continues to progress with another pipe wrestling session taking place last Wednesday in an effort to complete the engine’s vacuum pipe system. The was much discussion about elbows and offsets with the conclusion that we had one elbow too many and an ‘S’ bend in the main pipe too few!
John Dixon arrived to see whether his homework, a new wooden pattress for one of FR 20’s numberplates, would pass the test – the previous pattress had succumbed to rot on the lower side. The result looked pretty good to us!
The painting of the front of the engine has now been completed and Ron and Tim polished and fitted the brass letters and numbers on to the buffer beam.
The Fluff team reached the stage where they needed to refit the fuel tank and John Davis and Phil are seen here loading it into the cab.
Most of the brake gear has now been fitted on to Wootton Hall‘s tender with just a few items still in production in the machine shop.
Alan, Ade and Tim headed over to Embsay on Friday to work on Cumbria‘s injectors which had been giving trouble. As previously described, a water leak into the dry steam pipe to the fireman’s side injector had been identified and it was decided to remove the associated clack box so that the pipe could be examined with an endoscope. The clack box had not been removed from the backhead of the firebox since it was fitted at the last overhaul and it proved resistant to most forms of persuasion to remove it. It was nearly three hours later that the nuts had been removed either through heat or had snapped off leaving all six studs requiring replacement. Even when the nuts had been removed, the clack box stubbornly refused to move until attacked with wedges driven between it and the backhead. Lunch was then taken around 3pm. After blanking off the delivery pipe on the backhead, the boiler was then topped up to reveal small traces of water leaking between the outside of the dry pipe and the backhead. This was the answer to the problem that we had been hoping for, as no one fancied having to renew a dry pipe. Once a set of tube expanders had been applied the water leak stopped. We now need six new studs and to clean up the surface of the clack box where it fits on to the backhead before refitting.
There wasn’t time to fit the new set of cones that had been purchased for the fireman’s side injector, but it was possible to extract the handbrake shaft through the cab roof so that it could be taken back to Preston for attention. By then it was 6.30 and time to wrap up and go home. Needless to say, volunteers to assist for the next visit to Embsay will be very much welcomed!
Last Wednesday saw some progress on re-fitting the engine’s vacuum pipe which, for some reason, is proving to be a challenge. John Dixon, Alan, Ron and Ade are seen here wrestling with the recalcitrant pipework.
The cab sides have now received coats of primer and undercoat as part of the push to complete the paintwork.
Work has also continued on Wootton Hall‘s tender where Fred has been cleaning up the vacuum pipework and Keith has been welding up and grinding off any suspicious areas of metalwork.
Fred is seen here taking a well earned break – he will be glad to know that the next box of cup wire brushes has arrived!
Sam was kept busy on Friday cleaning and piecing together the tender brake linkage.
Sam was so enthused by the task that he appeared again on Saturday to fit the linkage with a helping hand from RSR’s new recruit, Jack Davenport.
On Wednesday, 26th May, the final wheelset had been fitted with its axleboxes and was being readied to be moved under the chasis.
On Saturday, 29th, Keith, Neil and Sam, with assistance from the massed ranks of the RSR workshop volunteers to ensure each wheel was perfectly located, lowered the chassis on to the wheels. Later that day the vacuum reservoir was fitted, followed by all the refurbished springs and finally the spring hangers.
By the following Wednesday, the cotter pins had been made and added to the hangers, and a rolling chassis had been achieved.
There has also been further progress with FR 20. On Wednesday, 26th May, the decorative brass covers on the firebox were fitted by Tim, John Dixon and (new volunteer) Ron Crowe.
A few pictures this week of progress in fitting the new injector steam valves on Furness Railway No. 20. The first, taken last Wednesday, shows Alan marking up one of the new flanges that is being fitted to the left hand steam pipe.
The right hand steam pipe can be seen lined up nicely with the valve after a bit of tweaking.
It was left to Sam to remove the pipes and the new valves so that the cladding sheets could be fitted.
Both cladding sheets were duly fitted on Friday by Roger, John Dixon and Tim. The sheets are a ‘nib fit’, so it took some time to get them exactly in the right location and screwed down without damage to the new paintwork.
We are pleased to be able to report that Keith was happy with the lubrication trials on the first two of Wootton Hall‘s tender axleboxes. The chassis is now being raised so that the wheelsets can be rolled into position underneath.
This should pave the way for placing the tender chassis on to the wheels in due course.
Tim has produced a dozen new lubrication trimmings which will siphon oil from the upper oil tray. The first two axleboxes have now been assembled and fitted with the new pads and trimmings and the rate of flow of oil from the trimmings will be checked over a period of time.
Last Wednesday saw another welcome step forward in the overhaul of Furness Railway No. 20. With the assistance of the Ribble Rail staff, FR 20 was pulled out of the FRT shed to enable the hi-ab on the self propelled TRAM to lift into place the dome cover and cab spectacle plate. Tim is seen wielding a spanner during the course of tightening up the nuts holding the spectacle plate in position.
Whilst out of the shed, it was also a good opportunity to re-fit the ashpan, which needs to be done whilst the engine is situated on sleepered track to allow sufficient clearance below the firebox. Ade used the large fork lift truck to convey the ashpan to the far end of the shed.
Fitting the heavy ashpan can be an awkward task and no less than Ade, Matt Crabtree, Tim, Sam, Ed and Alan are involved. Needless to say, brute force and plenty of wooden packing won the day.
On Friday, Roger was found lying down on the job as he painted the Furness Railway water crane.
Fred also took advantage of the better weather to add some paint.
John Davis also made the best of the weather to polish the copper top of Fluff‘s chimney.
With much relief, John Dixon successfully removed the formers from FR 20’s brick arch without any unplanned collapse. The engine’s hand rails have had to be fully stripped of any paint to enable them to be fitted through the stanchions, which gave Fred a job on Friday. Even then it was quite a fight to fit the right hand rail, but persistence won through and FR 20 is shown below in its current state.
In the meantime, Alan has been adjusting the smaller dome cover to enable the new larger injector steam valves to the fitted.
The Fluff gang of Paul Newton, John Davis and Phil Bell have refitted the left hand sand box.
It was then the turn of the cab side to be fitted back into place, under the supervision of Mike Rigg.
The work on FR 20’s overhaul continued this last week with the casting of a new brick arch. As Tim had successfully cast the previous two arches in the confined spaces of the locomotive’s firebox it was deemed that he should go for the hat trick. John duly supplied the concrete and, six bags of concrete later, the task was completed. Let’s hope that all is well when the formers are removed!
The new replacement steam valves for the injectors have now arrived and Alan is seen here sizing up how they are going to be fitted. The previous steam valves had to be opened to their maximum to get the injectors to work and experience had shown them to have a limited life span if not handled gently.
We have been pleased to welcome back Roger Benbow, Paul Balshaw and Phil Bell after their respective periods of absence. Roger and Fred worked on the former Furness Railway water crane last Friday whilst the full Fluff team of Paul Newton, Paul Balshaw, John Davis and Phil Bell were back in action last Wednesday.
With Alan allocating his time on Wednesday to dressing up for filming for the RSR’s new web site, Sam took on board polishing the copper pipework that had been annealed the previous week.
Ed rubbed down FR 20’s right hand running plate ready for filling and painting.
John Dixon continued his work on the formers for FR 20’s new brick arch, which hopefully will be cast this next week, while Tim smartened up FR 20’s smokebox, chimney and lower front end with a coat of grey undercoat.
Ade was seen giving Caliban‘s smokebox a tidy up with a wire brush.
Paul Newton returned from giving assistance to the vaccination process to refurbish a cab seat from Fluff.
We are heading towards the casting of a new brick arch for FR 20 with John Dixon now in the final stages of constructing the formers in the confined space of the fire box.
With the injectors now fitted, Alan has been annealing the copper steam pipework that now needs to be connected. Meanwhile Ed has continued his work cleaning up the chimney.
John Davis has been painting the controls in Fluff‘s cab.
Fred has been back in action after the lockdown break and has been cleaning up the former Furness Railway water crane from Foxfield. Needless to say, it didn’t take him long to wear out his first cup wire brush of the year!
Meanwhile Keith has finished fabricating a new fire box for the water crane.