Furness Railway Trust blog

There may have been a fortnight’s gap in publishing a blog, but you can be assured that there has been plenty of work going on during that time.

A major project completed has been the installation of the new overhead safety wire system on road three of both the heated and unheated sections of the FRT shed. Wednesday, 20th February was spent on moving various pieces of equipment out of the way and taking delivery of a cherry picker and tower scaffold for use of the installers. That didn’t stop Adrian getting a few instructions on how to operate the cherry picker in order that it could be stowed away safely overnight.

There was a very early start on Thursday, 21st February as the rolling stock on road three had to be removed by 8 o’clock so as not to delay the installation process. Adrian, Mike, John Dixon and Tim duly appeared in good time for this to happen. Diesel shunter Stanlow No. 4 had been moved around to the Ribble Rail shed the previous day in readiness for the early start.

Fortunately, despite a short power outage, work progressed steadily during the day. With the rolling stock now out of the way, the opportunity was also taken to undertake a thorough clean of the central section of the shed including the pit.

Mike Rigg volunteered to try on one of the new harnesses and is seen here getting rigged up (geddit?!) with the assistance of Joe Jackson from Trad Safety Systems. A rear view of Mike shows the correct position, between the shoulder blades, for the metal loop to which the back strap should be attached. The installers finished a little later than planned, but all the rolling stock was back in the shed by 17.30 and Stanlow moved back home to the main running shed.  A full operating instruction for the overhead safety wire system has been written and is available both in the mess room and in the harness storage drawer in the shed filing cabinet.

One side benefit from the upheaval in the shed was the opportunity to re-marshal the rolling stock so that Cumbria and FR 20 could be positioned over the pit to assist maintenance and repairs.

Meanwhile, we have been keeping Matt Jervis busy as he and Keith paid a visit to Embsay last Tuesday to remove three stays from 5643’s firebox backhead for replacement. A further visit is planned shortly to ream and tap out the holes after which new stays will be ordered. Matt has also been involved with the removal of Cumbria‘s regulator valve and ‘J’ pipe. The worn faces on the ‘J’ pipe are a clear indication of the cause of the passing of steam whilst the regulator has supposedly been shut.

With Cumbria now more accessible over the pit, more hours have been spent in removing a build up of oily dirt from the frames, brake rigging and motion. Although there will be more to do in the coming weeks, there has already been a vast improvement in the state of the loco.

Outside, Keith has been busy on repairs to the newly acquired tender tank for Wootton Hall and also in cutting up the original which, unfortunately, was well past being repaired. Alan has been loosening nuts with a view to removing FR 20’s valve chest cover and Adrian has been undercoating Caliban‘s frames. Work on Fluff progresses as well.

 

We never seem to be short anything to do at the moment.

The boiler surveyor inspector examined FR 20’s boiler last Tuesday and, apart from a couple of issues, found it to be in good health. There are two corner screws to change as the heads inside the firebox have wasted and the ‘J’ pipe needs to be examined further to check against possible corrosion.

The main event on Wednesday was to conduct a wash out on Cumbria. There was a fair amount of scale on the foundation ring so John, Tim and Ade all took turns in blasting it with the water pump lance and scraping out the sediment. Ade is pictured here under the frames with the lance.

Ade also received some driving instruction on Sentinel diesels and is seen here about Cumbria ready to do the shunt at the end of the washout.

There was further progress on Fluff with John Davis, Howard and Phil Bell all contributing to the task. We now have two Phils on a Wednesday, the other doing a good job cleaning up Cumbria‘s cab.

Jeff Nixon at CMS Cepcor managed to find a slot on Thursday to undertake the skimming of the journals on FR 20’s tender wheelsets. He kindly sent us some footage of one of the wheelsets in the lathe.

After having gloss painted FR 20’s drag box and underside of the cab floor on Wednesday, John then bolted down the floor on Friday.

Roger kindly took on the task of cleaning Cumbria between the frames, making use of his head torch.

Bob was missing from Friday’s working party (too busy consulting his lawyer regarding scurrilous accusations in a previous blog?!), however Fred spent his time cleaning out scale from the floor of Wootton Hall‘s tender tank.

Bill Norcross has been busy machining the new underkeeps for Wootton Hall‘s tender axleboxes.

After Alan had inspected and cleaned the tubeholes on FR 20’s boiler, Friday afternoon was spent loading the new tubes into place. A supply chain was set up to hand over the tubes to Tim and John Dixon, who placed them into the boiler and applied suitable force where necessary. Meanwhile Alan spent his time in the firebox guiding the tubes into the correct hole and shouting suitable forms of encouragement to those loading the tubes. All in all, a very busy couple of hours!

George appeared on Saturday and did some work on Cumbria‘s steam brake.

The installation of a new overhead safety wire system is booked for this coming Thursday. The rolling stock will have to be moved out of road three in both the heated and unheated sections of the shed by 08.00 to enable access for both a cherry picker and tower scaffold, which are due to be delivered to site on Wednesday. There will also be a need to move various items out of the way on Wednesday to enable the work to take place. There will be training on the new safety system at the end of the day on Thursday, so all are welcome to attend. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal the following week.

We have received details of the funeral of former Live Steam guitarist, Stuart Bennett (see last week’s blog). A service will be held on Friday 1st March at 10.30 in St. James’ Church, Blake Street, Barrow followed by cremation and a wake, provisionally to be held at the Royal British Legion in Holker Street.

Please note that owing to the Blog Putter Upper going off on a jolly abroad next week without his laptop, there will be no blog next Monday.

We start this week’s blog with profuse apologies to Bob. Last week’s publication erroneously summed up Bob’s contribution as “poring over drawings, sensibly in close proximity to the kettle in the warmth of the mess room.” However, it appears that our Friday correspondent had not done his homework and Bob assures us that he had in fact been busy in the workshop repairing Cumbria‘s regulator valve. We trust that this full and frank apology will spare the Trust any litigation.

Wednesday started early with members on site in good time to enable prompt loading of seven wheelsets when the low loader arrived. Just for the record there were three from Wootton Hall‘s tender, both Caliban‘s wheelsets and FR 20’s tender wheelsets. These are expected back sometime next month after attention to tyres and/or journals. Adrian is seen here with the fork lift.

Martyn Soames straps the wheelsets to his rig.

Once the wheelsets had departed it was time to wash out FR 20’s boiler. This had been delayed by bad weather over the previous two Wednesdays. Alan and John watch on here as Tim takes the drastic step of inspecting the instructions for the water pump in the hope that it might be coaxed into life.

Fortunately, Mike appeared and twiddled the right knobs with the result that a throrough wash out was carried out. An inspection by the boiler surveyor is booked for tomorrow, Tuesday.

The rest of Wednesday was spent watching Crewe’s Class 47 D1924 being winched on to a massive trailer for trip back to its home depot. The loco had taken refuge at the RSR the previous Thursday after suffering a problem which prevented any longer distance movement by rail. We trust that D1924 will soon be back in good health.

On Friday John Dixon and Roger continued their work on FR 20’s drag box, attending to the securing holes on the footplate and applying a coat of undercoat.

Matt Jervis made a start on removing Cumbria‘s regulator (borrowed from 3793) and ‘J’ pipe whilst Fred continued to clean Caliban‘s buffers. Paul Newton continued his work on the former L&NWR platform seat and John Davis and new volunteer Phil Bell attended to the removal of Fluff‘s rear cab sheet.

There has been more progress on Wootton Hall with the arrival of new steel for the construction of the reverser – no, that round thing isn’t a log!

Keith has started the job of making up pipework for the injectors and is seen here with a newly cut corner stay for the recently purchased tender tank.

We conclude with the sad task of recording the death last Thursday evening of former Live Steam band member Stuart Bennett. Stuart had, in the 1970s, been a member of popular South Lakeland folk group Bag ‘O Rags, which had entertained members on many occasions during those folk revival days. They were legendary occasions which brought many of our members together and the tales are still retold of merry nights out at such hostelries as the White Hart at Bouth and the Swan at Urswick. In 1999, after a period of time away from the folk music scene, Stuart accepted an invitation to join Live Steam and brought a new dimension to the band with his vocals, harmonies, guitar instrumentation and contributions to musical arrangements. Stuart clocked up over 140 gigs with the group, including the recording in 2001 of the CD Silver Jubilee, before reluctantly having to retire through ill health in 2008. We had many, many good times together and we send our sincere condolences to Stuart’s wife, Carol, and his family.

It was a very snowy Preston last Wednesday which probably explains why there was a delay to some of our members arriving. It was soon concluded that it was again too cold to undertake a washout on FR 20’s boiler.

However, the weather had not deterred Martin Clark who had driven down from Richmond, via a very bleak Stainmore summit, to see us and deliver some books for the sales stand. There were still plenty of other jobs to undertake in the comparative warmth of the shed so Martin was put to good use after making that effort to come, and is seen here cleaning the accumulated dirt and oil from around the front of FR 20’s cylinders and valve chest. John Dixon test fitted a former for the future construction of a brick arch in FR 20’s firebox and Tim continued the task of cleaning and painting FR 20’s wheels.

Continuing the theme of cleaning and preparing were John Dixon and Roger who blitzed FR 20’s drag box. It is strange to recall that for some months the engine’s drag box acted as a store for the vast array of nuts and bolts that was used during the loco’s restoration in the Engine Shop at the Barrow Shipyard more than 20 years ago!

Ade continued his laudable work on Caliban‘s frames by filling and sanding various indentations.

Fred took on the task of cleaning rust from Caliban‘s buffers whilst Keith prepared brackets to hold the injectors on Wootton Hall and Bob continued his task of poring over drawings for the Hall, sensibly in close proximity to the kettle in the warmth of the mess room. Derek paid a visit to do some more filming of the work being undertaken and Mike Rigg appeared with a prospective new member who was being shown around the site.

John Davis was also busy on both Wednesday and Friday working on Fluff‘s frames.

And finally, a recent visit to Embsay by experienced boilersmith Graham Beddows had confirmed that it would be sensible at this stage to replace three stays in 5643’s firebox above the firehole door. With this in mind, Keith and George were planning to meet at Embsay on Saturday to remove pipework and cladding so that access can be gained to undertake the task.

The Trustees met last Tuesday evening at Over Kellett to sign the shed lease and consider David’s cash flow statement – as many of you will be aware, there has been a significant outflow of money in recent weeks in order to progress the Trust’s projects! Attendance at the meeting was reduced due to the poor weather forecast but was just sufficient to be quorate and to transact the business. With the weather in mind, Alison’s sandwiches were duly eaten during the meeting to save time and all was done and dusted before 9.30 -this must be some sort of record! Opening the front door revealed an unwelcome layer of snow that had arrived while the meeting was underway, and those heading back towards Furness had to endure a blizzard.

The cold weather put paid to any thoughts of undertaking a washout on FR 20’s boiler on Wednesday and so efforts were turned to removing Caliban‘s front buffers in readiness for the cylinders to be re-bored.

The new tubes for FR 20’s boiler arrived late in the day and can be seen in this artistic photo taken by Ade of Alan inspecting the tubes viewed through the fork lift’s mechanism. (Suspect he just couldn’t be bothered to get off the fork lift! Ed.)

Cumbria‘s dome cover and dome lid were removed on Friday morning in readiness for the regulator and ‘J’ pipe to be removed for machining. John Dixon is seen here replacing one of the studs.

Fred spent much of the day finishing the cleaning up of FR 20’s tender wheels… … then John Dixon applied a coat of red oxide paint.

Roger continued Phil’s efforts at cleaning FR 20’s brasswork and can be seen here busy at his work.

Keith has been working on the new keeps for Wootton Hall’s tender, and is seen here fitting one to one of the axleboxes.

And there was yet more work carried out by John Davis and Howard on Fluff.

After the mass of news and photos contained in the first two blogs of the year, we have a petite version this week. This is partly due to some seasonal ‘man flu’ affecting part of the blog team!

Firstly, as predicted, Cumbria arrived back at Preston last Monday and was tucked into the top of road three in the FRT shed ready for attention.

Work has continued on FR 20 with the first of the Indian Red gloss paint being applied to the engine’s wheelsets. This is literally a rolling programme as the engine will need to be rolled forwards or backwards for all areas of the wheels to be so decorated! All the copper pipework has been cleaned up ready for annealing to take place and further cleaning and polishing work has been carried out on the brass that fits to the front and back of the firebox. The steam cleaning of the tender wheelsets has been completed and they have been given a further hand clean in readiness for paint to be applied.  Finally, new tubes have been ordered and a cheque despatched; the tubes should appear in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, with the all the old tubes now removed, a washout is planned for Wednesday, subject to a shunt being arranged and the pressure washer playing ball. With the formal NDT report now received, it should then be time to call in the boiler surveyor.

Progress has also been made on Wootton Hall where brass edging to the cab side can now be seen in place. A start has also been made on bringing together the components for the brake gear so that it can be assembled on the tender.

John Marrow called in last Friday to examine Caliban with a view to re-boring the cylinders. This will require the removal of the front buffers and small holes cutting in the front buffer beam to allow access for the borer.

Finally, a Meeting of the Trustees has been convened for tomorrow evening (Tuesday), so don’t be surprised if one or two members are looking a little bleary eyed on Wednesday morning after scrutinising David’s cash flow analysis.

 

We start with the news that a milestone in the restoration of the FRT’s ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 locomotive No. 4979 Wootton Hall was reached on Thursday when the riveting gang fitted the last rivet to the re-built tender frames. The front of the tender frames had been severely wasted by years of water and coal dust which had cascaded down from the cab floor. As followers of this blog will know, the riveting team of Matt Jervis, Keith Brewer, John Dixon and Chris Rycroft have been meeting regularly on Thursdays over the last few months and have been responsible for completing the fitting of several hundred rivets which have locked together the new steelwork with the old. The final day saw 30 rivets fitted, which is quite an effort! Well done to all!

John is seen preparing the gas torch to heat up the rivets.

Keith is pictured holding the final hot rivet in place.

And Matt Jervis applies the force to finish the job.

Staying with the Hall’s tender, and Alan Middleton is seen on Wednesday with the newly arrived second hand 4,000 gallon Collett tender tank recently arrived from Tyseley.

As you will see here, it didn’t take long for Keith to set to with a cutting disc to remove the corroded shoveling plate. This will also enable scale to be removed from the tender tank.

Onto other projects, and the axleboxes have been removed from FR 20’s tender wheelsets and cleaned. The wheelsets have received some attention from scrapers to remove twenty years of grime and the first set is seen here being steam cleaned by Matt Bedford.

Andy Booth has completed the removal of the tubes from FR 20’s boiler and they were cut in half by John Davis before being placed in the scrap metal skip.

There was a visit to Embsay on Saturday by Keith, Fred and Mike. Fred and Mike cleaned below the running plate on 5643 whilst Keith attacked the inside motion. Both 5643 and Cumbria were drawn outside the shed to allow the water to be drained from the boilers and for Cumbria’s spare springs to be loaded. There was then time to polish up the bright work.

Cumbria is due to arrive back at Preston today (Monday) to enable repairs and servicing to take place before it goes back out on hire.

Finally, the trials and tribulations of the veteran Class 37 hauled services on the Furness and Cumbrian Coast Lines have been recorded here in past blogs. It is only fitting therefore that we leave you with a photo of the Class 37 Farewell Tour about to leave Carnforth on Friday on its return leg to Carlisle.  This marked the end of regular loco-hauled  services along the Cumbrian Coast. The Class 37 diagrams are now covered by Class 156 diesel multiple units, themselves now around thirty years old.

A belated Happy New Year to all our readers!

Yes, the blog has taken quite a long break since its last publication on the 17th December. But that does not mean that the Trust’s volunteers have been idle over the Festive period – in fact nothing could be further from the truth as you will see…

Work has continued apace on the overhaul of FR 20, with Alan seen here prising off the front right hand cylinder cover. Both covers were removed with assistance from Ade and, at first sight, it looks as if new pistons rings will be required. Tim has since located the spare set that was ordered over twenty years ago.

Cleaning and painting of the engine’s wheels has also continued with a primer/undercoat of red oxide being visible here.

John Dixon has been cleaning up the toolbox that is usually located on the running board to the right of the smoke box.

The decision was taken to lift the tender to get the axle journals skimmed and polished as these had given some problems in times past. Ade is seen here moving the tender to the unloading road after a massive shunt on the 2nd January. Well done Ade!

Work has also continued on cleaning up Fluff‘s frames and bodywork over the Christmas period and John Davis is seen here at work with Mike Rigg.

Keith has, as ever, been working on Wootton Hall and the left hand ‘Collett style’ cab side is seen here mounted temporarily.

After eight days of playing Christmas songs on the RSR’s Santa Specials before Christmas you would have thought that Alan and Tim would have wanted a rest, but they are seen here with George and Pete performing a successful Live Steam gig at the Engine Inn at Cark-in-Cartmel on New Year’s Eve.

Friday, 4th January brought the good news that FR 20’s boiler and the three Hall tender wheelsets had passed Jim Kennedy’s NDT examination. Jim is seen here at work on the boiler.

And so to yesterday, Monday, 7th January. A crane was at the gate at 09.00 signalling a long day of work at Preston for the team. The first job was to lift FR 20’s tender to release the wheelsets for machining in February. The tender body has, in the meantime, been situated on blocks in the RSR’s car park.

The axleboxes were transferred over to the FRT shed so that the components can be cleaned up. This was an opportunity to use the previously untested parts washer that had been generously donated to the FRT some while ago. After studious reading of the instructions (that’s unusual!) Keith Brewer watches on as John Dixon cleans the axlebox covers.

Late afternoon the newly purchased Collett tender tank arrived from Tyseley.

After some time manoeuvring of the low loader and crane into position, the tank was successfully lifted on to pallets alongside the FRT shed. The photo below shows a winter’s evening scene at Preston as preparations are made for the lift.

Looking forward, there will be another riveting session on Wootton Hall‘s tender frames in the FRT shed on Thursday. Keith and Fred will be travelling over to Embsay on Saturday to undertake some cleaning of 5643 and would welcome offers of assistance.

Last week’s blog contained a teaser that there was further news to be broadcast to you all. We can now reveal that the FRT has purchased a second-hand Collett 4,000 gallon tender tank that was advertised for sale nationally. Keith went to look at it at Tyseley and deemed it suitable for further use and ideal for fitting to Wootton Hall‘s chassis which has been the subject of extensive repairs over the past few years. The tank is not expected to arrive at Preston until the New Year.

Keith is seen here opening another early birthday present on Wednesday when a set of newly cast axlebox underkeeps and brasses appeared in a delivery from the Severn Valley Railway. The axlebox underkeeps are indeed fine castings with no signs of corrective fettling, as can be seen here.

On the departure side, Adrian is seen here placing on to the delivery lorry a set of six springs from Wootton Hall‘s tender which are to be overhauled after over fifty years out of use. Two spare springs are to be manufactured at the same time.

And talking of Wootton Hall, Keith is seen here temporarily fitting the right hand cab side in order to take measurements for boiler cladding and other fittings.

Another view here with the cab side number plate fitted completely alters the appearance of the loco and shows signs of things to come!

The main job on Wednesday was to jack up FR 20’s boiler to allow easier access from under the firebox. The front of the boiler is now positioned on steel stands.

Elsewhere in the shed some smaller but nevertheless important jobs were tackled on Friday, including degreasing FR 20’s boiler cladding and rejuvenating steel trestles which had gone rusty after being used outside.

The FRT Christmas dinner was held at The Ribble Pilot pub on Saturday when 19 members and guests sat down to meal.

Looking forward to this next week, an NDT examination of FR 20’s boiler and Wootton Hall‘s tender wheelsets has been booked for this next Friday. The Iron Horse is now back with the printer after proof reading and, all being well, should be despatched to members before Christmas. The magazines will also contain membership renewal forms and it is hoped that you will all take the opportunity to return them quickly as we move towards yet another year with plenty of work on the horizon.

Finally, we hope shortly to be able to publish the details of some planned working parties over the Christmas period.

Much of volunteers’ time this week has been spent on the very basic but important task of cleaning up the motion, frames and boiler of Furness Railway No. 20. An undoubtedly dirty and sometimes very uncomfortable task, this type of work is sometimes inevitable during the day to day work of servicing and overhauling our locomotive fleet. However, if the load is spread, as in this case, it doesn’t become too much of a burden on any one particular person and we are pleased to report that Mike, John Dixon, John Davis, Paul Balshaw, Tim, Roger and Fred have all buckled down to the job with the result that it has progressed extremely well. Hopefully we will soon be in a position whereby can move on to other more satisfying work!

Andy Booth appeared on Sunday and has started the job of removing the tubes from FR 20’s boiler.

Howard has made some more progress on Fluff with assistance from George, who came to give us a hand on Saturday.

There was no riveting last Thursday as the gang is waiting for some special wedges which will enable the more awkward rivets to be fitted on Wootton Hall‘s tender frames. Meanwhile, more progress has been made on the upper platework for the tender frames and the test fitting of components.

Keith has also been sizing up the position of the reverser stand on the loco frames so that other steelwork can be arranged around it.

The RSR’s Santa Specials along with the FRT sales stand have again consumed much volunteer labour this last weekend. Alan and Tim provided the music with assistance from Matthew on Sunday, Paul B and Mike helped Santa whilst John Davis, Jim, Alison and Jen ran the sales stand. That’s nine of us! With gales forecast, Tim and Matthew took the opportunity to be the first overnight campers in the mess hut to ensure that they were there in good time on Sunday and which we are told worked out well. Jim is seen herein festive mood.

Looking forward, the Trustees have approved expenditure on the overhaul of the tender springs and the supply of two spares. It is anticipated that the six existing springs will be uplifted from the shed on Wednesday.

The Trustees have also approved the expenditure for a new safety wire system for working at height. It is planned to have this installed throughout the heated and unheated sections of road three of the shed. The technical sales representative of the supplier is due to pay us another visit on Wednesday to finalise details. Finally, just to add to this spending spree, the Trustees have also authorised expenditure on turning tyres and/or journals on a number of wheelsets, namely the three for the Hall‘s tender, two for Caliban and also the two tender wheelsets for FR 20. The work is expected to take place in February. There is something else on the way, but perhaps we’ll leave that for another blog!

Alan has completed the latest edition of The Iron Horse which is now with the printer. And a reminder here that it is the annual Christmas dinner on Saturday evening.