Furness Railway Trust blog

A Happy New Year to all readers of the blog. We hope that you enjoyed the Christmas festivities and avoided the seasonal coughs, colds and ‘flu that are around at the moment.

We are pleased to be able to report that some of our members soon put such seasonal distractions to one side and turned out for the working parties over the Christmas period, so well done to them.

Christmas Day itself brought a surprise to those of you who watched Call the Midwife for there was an unexpected fleeting cameo appearance by 5643, allegedly hauling a train from London to Scotland!

Most of us who own cars do occasionally take some time to clean out the boot, and Adrian managed to get a photo of a John Dixon applying the vacuum cleaner to FR 20’s own ‘boot’ in readiness for the New Year – just don’t tell Jean!

Keith has been continuing his work on Wootton Hall and is seen here making the sparks fly.

Meanwhile Fred has been giving attention to one of FR 20’s couplings.

In between finishing the painting of FR 20’s tender brake gear, Phil Bell has been drilling more holes in Fluff‘s running board.

John Davis is seen polishing up one of Fluff‘s lubrication boxes.

Live Steam provided a marathon performance on New Year’s Eve at the Engine Inn at Cark, finally finishing at 00.37 for a much needed rest.

Finally, we had the sad task on the 2nd January of saying farewell to Howard Fletcher. It says much for Howard’s popularity that there was standing room only at Ingol Methodist Church as over one hundred friends and members of his family gathered together for the occasion.

A quick update in what will be the last blog this year.

Firstly, Howard Fletcher’s funeral will take place at 11.00am at Ingol Methodist church on Thursday, 2nd January. It is understood that the wake will be held afterwards at the Ribble Steam Railway.

There has been a continued push to complete the overhaul of FR 20. John Dixon has carried on with his modification to the tender draw gear.

John Davis has been cleaning up more of the tender brake gear.

Even the brake blocks are receiving a coat of paint, from Paul Balshaw.

Phil Bell has been doing more painting under the tender.

Fred has cleaned and painted the engine’s dome.

Alan has re-fitted the washout plugs in the boiler now that Andy Booth has inserted two new patch screws.

Meanwhile, Keith has taken on board the work that Howard was doing to Fluff‘s axleboxes before his untimely death.

There is some good news in that the recently purchased CNC lathe, to which the FRT subscribed, has been successfully commissioned and programmed to produced some stay nuts and boiler stays for Walkden. This has been achieved with the assistance of a couple of people from UCLAN. A Colchester lathe has also been purchased and is seen here being inspected by Alan. The cost is being shared with the Ribble Steam Railway and it will replace the lathe previously used by Bill Norcross. Bill has now retired from the workshop and we wish him the very best for the future.

Looking forward, working parties over the Christmas period will take place on Friday, 27th and Saturday, 28th December. These will be followed by working parties on Friday, 3rd and Saturday, 4th January.

Finally, a reminder that Live Steam will be performing their last gig of the year at the Engine Inn at Cark-in-Cartmel on New Year’s Eve.

Before we finish, we would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We are sorry to have to start this week’s blog with the very sad news that Howard Fletcher, one of our regular working members at Preston, passed away last night. Howard had been taken into hospital last week with a bad nose bleed and was diagnosed with blood pressure issues following which he suffered a stroke. We will publish any more details that we receive in future blogs but, in the meantime, we send our condolences to Howard’s family.

Howard had joined the FRT in recent years from the main RSR workshop and  quickly settled in to become part of the FRT team. He was happy to use his engineering background take on those many fiddly jobs and spent much of his time working on Caliban and Fluff.  We will very much miss him.

Just a short update on work at Preston this week.

Phil Bell is still ensconced with painting the brake gear for FR 20’s tender.

After 21 years, the underside of the lid for the locker at the rear of FR 20’s tender has finally been painted. Tim decided to line it out as a test piece for painting the rest of the tender.

John Davis has again been painting the underside of Fluff‘s frames.

Keith has been preparing and test fitting some pipework to Wootton Hall‘s cab.

The annual FRT Christmas dinner took place at The Hungry Horse restaurant at Lea Gate last Friday and was enjoyed by 22 members and guests. Thanks as ever to Alison for making the arrangements and for reminding us all as to what we had ordered!

Work has continued on FRT projects at Preston despite the call on labour to assist with the RSR’s Santa Specials.

John Dixon has continued with repairs to the drawgear on FR 20’s tender.

Tim has been preparing the tender for painting whilst Phil Bell has been busy painting more of the tender brake assembly.

There has been more work on Fluff with Paul Balshaw and John Davis painting the running boards and John Dixon making a small alteration to the steelwork.

David Rimmer has been adding some more paint to the frames.

Keith Brewer has received the new floor supports for Wootton Hall‘s tender back from the forge after amendment and, after fitting them, has been applying some paint.

With the Santa Specials in full swing, Jen, Alison and John Davis have been in festive mood and in charge of FRT sales over the last weekend.

But… Someone apparently not in festive mood was Sunday’s steam driver, Ade!

 

A short update this time, just to let you all know that work is still progressing on all fronts, although with little massively new to report.

Tim has been rubbing down the weatherboard on FR 20’s tender, although the sudden news that the overhead wires on the West Coast main line had come down last Wednesday caused him to down tools and jump into Alison’s car for a lift to Carnforth – and what a good move that was with services only recovering the following morning! Work also continued on cleaning and painting the tender brake gear. John Dixon has worked further on his modification to the rear tender drawhook arrangement and is seen here busy with his angle grinder.

More paint has gone on Fluff and John Davis is seen bolting down the running boards.

Finally, with the Ribble Steam Railway’s Santa Specials operating on Saturday and Sunday, Tim and Alan were busy entertaining the passengers on board the trains whilst Alison, Jen and Jim were busy staffing the FRT sales stand. Jim is seen along with Derek, who made an appearance on Saturday.

 

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.

One of the many tweaks that are being applied to FR 20 during its overhaul has been the addition of more dummy rivet heads by John Dixon. Horror of horrors, it had been noted by the rivet counter amongst us that one side of the tender possessed a few more rivets than the other!!! We can now all breathe easy now that this error has been rectified, even though it took 20 years to spot the error! 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.

Adrian has been making some more progress with Caliban and Keith and Fred have again been over to Embsay to complete the washout of 5643.

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.

Tomorrow will see the Trustees meet at Over Kellett where there will no doubt be another pile of food to tackle before they are allowed to go home. However, there might well be the odd left over pieces of cake for Ade on Wednesday!

 

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.

Finally, as forecast last week, Keith and Fred have been across to Embsay to give 5643 a wash-out prior to the operation of the Santa Specials there.

 

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.

Finally, Keith is hoping to go across to Embsay next Saturday and Sunday to undertake a washout on 5643. Please let Keith know if you can assist.

 

There is more steady progress to report this week at Preston.

John Dixon has been working on FR 20’s tender footplate. It was originally slightly short of metal on the up-curve next to the coal hole, which had previously been overcome with the temporary expedient (20 years ago!) of being filled with fibreglass. Over time some of the fibreglass has broken up and so a proper job is now being undertaken this time around.

Tim continues to prepare the tender tank and outside frames for painting whilst the brake rigging is also in the process of receiving a fresh coat of paint and Phil Bell is seen cleaning up one of the brake hangers.

Fred has been cleaning up some of the brake pins.

Meanwhile Roger has been undertaking a long overdue clear out of the rear storage box on the tender, reaching into areas where no one has dared to explore for years!

Fluff is slowly going back together and John Davis is pictured adjusting the cab foot pedal under the watchful gaze of Howard and John Dixon.

Ade has again been attending to the axleboxes on Caliban.

Keith has been shaping the injector delivery pipes for Wootton Hall.

Keith has also been over to Embsay where 5643 sprung a steam leak at a joint with the main steam pipe a couple of weeks ago. A loose stud was eventually found to be the cause of the problem and, after Keith had fitted a replacement, the locomotive was successfully tested this week. A wash out is now due before the start of the Santa Specials, so please let Keith know if you are able to assist.