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.
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.
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!
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.
Jim is seen herein festive mood.
Headline news for this week has been the arrival at Preston of the main components for former Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 25, more recently known as Barrow Haematite Iron & Steel Co. 0-4-0ST No. 17.
Fortunately, all the planning and preparation paid off and the locomotive’s parts were safely offloaded from Martyn Soames low loader by a road crane and then secured on to the CCT frames. 
The CCT was subsequently, on Thursday, moved around to stand outside the FRT’s shed, forming a queue for attention no doubt!
In the meantime, work has continued to clean FR 20’s frames, wheels and motion on both Wednesday and Friday. Fred has now finished wire brushing the firebox and has made a good start on the boiler.
One of Cumbria‘s clack boxes has been brought back from Embsay and John Dixon has spent some time making a box so that it can be despatched for repair.
John Dixon has carried on and completed the work of demolishing the body of the CCT. 
This left only the task of disposing of the wood, which seemed to take a lot of labour – or perhaps it was just a case of people wanting to gather around a warm fire on a cold day!
Adrian did what he does best on Wednesday and started the job of dismantling the cylinder covers on FR 20.
Roger and Tim have been cleaning the motion and running plate whilst Alan has been inspecting the loco for the jobs that need to be done.
Fred has again been patiently cleaning down the exterior of FR 20’s firebox in order for it to be subjected to non destructive testing.
There was yet another riveting session on Thursday when another 50 or so rivets were inserted into the tender frames. 
It is reckoned that there are now less that 100 more rivets to be added before the tender is finished and a start can be made on the engine’s drag box. We suspect that Matt Gervis is hoping for a Christmas break before the latter is attempted to let his shoulder recover! Keith is seen here drilling yet another hole ready for a rivet.
The job of removing the cantrails from GER No. 5 has continued and is now on the last lap. It appears that the north side cantrail has yielded rather more swiftly to John Davis’s attentions.
Live Steam had a busy weekend playing three gigs in less than 24 hours during the Dickensian Festival at Ulverston. After another successful night at the Old Friends inn on Saturday evening, they went on to entertain the residents at Abbeyfield House after lunch on Sunday.
Tim took advantage of an Alan Middleton solo to join the residents and try out the comfy chairs – Alison reckons that he settled in very well and has threatened to make him a reservation for the future!
The band then went out in the cold to provide the Festival Finale on the Theatre Street stage later in the afternoon, attracting a good crowd in the process. This rather belied the rumour that they are always put on last to make sure that everyone goes home!
Another big shunt took place at Preston last Wednesday which saw FR 20’s frames being placed in the unheated part of the FRT shed. Tim spent some time wire brushing the inside of the firebox while Alan went for the cleaner task of removing the external expansion brackets.
Outside, at the end of Wednesday John Dixon had nearly finished the task of dismantling the body on the PMV, which will then be used to accommodate the frames of FR 25 on arrival.
There was a productive shunt last Wednesday when FR 20’s boiler was moved into the FRT shed to enable work to commence under cover. At the same time it was possible to release Caliban‘s wheels which were moved out by hand, with Ed Tatham and Alan Middleton seen here with the driving set. Thanks to Phil, Matt B and Ade who moved the stock around to make it all happen.
John Davis and Paul Balshaw spent more time this week in their efforts to release more of the south side cantrail on GER 5 while Paul Newton continued work on the L&NWR platform seat.
John Dixon and Ed spent time on Wednesday dismantling the body on the PMV.
Howard, Alan Ogden and Mike Rigg concentrated their efforts on Fluff, with Mike seen here trying to remove a stubborn piece of the cab footplate.
Fred was back at Preston on Friday with Roger and brought back from Embsay the high pressure water pump which was suffering from wobbly wheels! Roger set about making the necessary repairs and then subsequently also repaired the fan in the mess room which had disintegrated the previous week.
There was a further riveting session last Thursday although the absence of Matt G reduced the number of rivets fitted. There will be another session next Thursday. Keith is seen here fitting a step retaining bracket on the tender frames.
And finally, outside the FRT shed, Bill Croston’s new mural has been erected alongside the new children’s playground.
The first part of the shunt involved the transfer of the Class 47 cab from the Ribble Rail shed to the workshop where it will be turned around with the crane before being put on display in the museum. Ade and Andy Beswick are seen here conducting the move of the Class 47 at an appropriate slow walking pace. Unfortunately, despite their patience, one set of wheels on the accommodation bogie ran hot and seized about 200 yards further down the line, which brought the shunt to a premature halt whilst things cooled down and oil was liberally applied to those parts that needed it. The tendency of diesel Stanlow to dump its air without notice also delayed matters so it is now anticipated that the next stage of the shunt will take place next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, John Dixon and Tim set about removing the brick arch from FR 20’s firebox. This, like the shunt above, turned out to be a rather longer job than anticipated owing to the fact that the arch did not appear to have deteriorated over the past ten years. However, two and a half hours later the final piece fell to the ground to be barrowed away and the weltrol tidied.
Cumbria‘s clackbox has recently been brought back to Preston for attention, it being replaced at Embsay by one of their own. Keith and Alan can been seen here dismantling the various items and it looks as if we will need to order a special, no doubt expensive, tap to clean up some of the threads inside the body.
Alan Ogden has appeared again from the deep south west and was at work with Howard on Fluff.
John Davis has been continuing with the long and tedious task of removing the cantrails from the GER Royal Saloon as a prelude to the canvas roof being replaced. John achieved the removal of the middle section of the south cantrail this week. Well done!
Various people have been assisting with the removal of the top of the PMV and John Dixon and Roger followed up their work on Friday by removing most of the remaining wood whilst Fred enjoyed a seasonal bonfire with the unwanted pieces of wood.
Andy Murphy offered to operate the crane and, after fitting the lifting straps a few test lifts were made to adjust the positions after which a perfectly level lift was achieved.
The boiler was turned around to enable easier extraction of the tubes when the weltrol is finally shunted into road two of the FRT shed.
After some re-arrangement of the sleepers, the boiler was finally lowered on to the weltrol. A key milestone in the overhaul of FR 20 had been achieved.
Wednesday saw the start of the removal of the body from the newly acquired PMV. Andy Murphy is seen here preparing to light the gas axe.
Once some of the stanchions had been cut through the JCB was brought in to pull the components apart.
John Dixon and Chris Rycroft achieved some further destruction on Friday with a jig saw and, being the thrifty fellow that he is, John retrieved some of the wooden panelling for further use.
Keith is seen here with the rear buffer beam which is now ready for riveting into place.
We had another ‘Dr Who’ invasion on Saturday, but this alien, named George, was happy to be put to productive work removing rivet heads.
Fluff has received more attention from Howard, Alan Ogden and Fred, who applied some primer paint to the frames.
Some further progress as made on Friday by Mike and John Davis on removing the cantrails from GER Royal Saloon No. 5.
Keith was busy preparing for another riveting session on Thursday. The footsteps shown in last week’s blog have now had the steps riveted into place permanently.
Matt Gervis and Keith are seen here riveting whilst an aerial shot shows Wootton Hall’s tender frames and also Chris Rycroft, who was cutting the rivets to size.
John Dixon is seen here heating up one of the rivets; a total of around 50 were fitted last Thursday.
The main event on Friday was the emptying of the newly acquired PMV in readiness for the body to be removed.
In the main workshop Bill Norton has machined up a cog which will eventually form part of Wootton Hall‘s reverser – it is seen here with the reverser handle.