After a break of a week for holidays (and what good weather!) we are back with another short update.
The main event this week at Preston was the removal of the first of the two cylinder liners from Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 by Ian Massey. Ian has promised to reappear in a couple of weeks to remove the second cylinder liner.
More progress has been made by Jon and Sim on the seemingly never-ending job of cleaning and painting the mess room roof. It is to be hoped that the weather stays fair this week for more work on this project.
Furness Railway No. 20 has featured in the latest edition of Heritage Railway magazine with some photographs taken during its recent stay at Minehead. A lovely letter has been received from Andy Palk, the Running Foreman at Minehead, thanking everyone from the FRT who assisted at Minehead for their help. In Andy’s words, “FR 20 did the West Somerset Railway proud for their 150 event.” 
We couldn’t resist this extra photo of our own from the event – two Manchester built locos, but D7017 is a mere 99 years younger than FR20!
FR20 is due to arrive back at Preston on Wednesday or Thursday this week and is scheduled to operate the Ribble Steam Railway service this Saturday.
Finally, the latest edition of the FRT magazine, The Iron Horse, is in the process of being distributed to members along with the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for 2023 and an invitation to the Annual General Meeting which is to be held at 7.30 pm om Wednesday, 18th September in the FRT shed at Preston.
The locomotive was hired by the WSR, along with Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST No. 3581 of 1924, Marston Thompson and Evershed No. 3, from the Foxfield Railway, to haul two VIP trains from Watchet to Minehead to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the opening of that stretch of railway on the 16th July 1874. The first special ran on Tuesday, 16th, the exact date of the anniversary, with a re-run on Saturday, 20th.
On each occasion, the 0-4-0ST led the empty train from Minehead to Williton where it spent an hour in the yard before heading back to Watchet for the ribbon cutting ceremonies with FR 20 in the lead. The two locomotives worked well together, tackling the east bound Washford bank and the westbound climb out of Watchet with aplomb.
Both specials arrived back at Minehead a minute or two ahead of schedule, which on the Saturday was especially important as a main line special from Paddington, hauled by ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 44871,was scheduled to arrive at Minehead at 1 pm. Over the five days, the two locomotives also worked many shuttle trains out of Minehead and over Seaward Crossing, passengers only being asked to give a donation for the ride. These were extremely popular and drew much interest from those visiting the railway over the five days of operation.
There was a large degree of input from FRT members during the visit, which made sure that FR 20 was looking at its very best and therefore attracted many favourable comments from the public and also on social media.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, for the initial steaming, turning the locomotive on the turntable and fitness to run exam took place on Monday, 21st July in pouring rain (photo Mike Lanning) which soaked those involved to the skin. However, the weather then perked up and was generally good for the rest of the stay.
There was a day off from operations on the Friday which allowed a FRT party of nine to visit the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway in beautiful sunshine,
followed by a trip to Woody Bay to see the rolling stock on the revived section of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, with a guided tour and steam cab rides on 2-4-2T Lyn in the platform, arranged courtesy of General Manager Stuart Nellams.
Mention must be made of the efforts of Alison Pinch who sold many souvenirs during the week. The new card reader worked a treat and certainly helped sales.
Finally, FRT member and RSR driver Ben Valentine, who spent the week helping out at Minehead, was offered a cab ride and a turn on the shovel on GWR ‘Hall class 4-6-0 No. 6990 Witherslack Hall last Thursday. FRT member Jimmy Dutton appeared and thought that we had TV star Piglet of the NYMR on board when he looked down the platform. There was a call for Jimmy to get a new pair of spectacles – but then two more people made the same error!
They have also put a top coat of red on 5643’s buffer beam.
He has also been painting the firebox cladding sheets for 5643 which will go back into storage now that the tortoise shell mudhole covers have now received the top coat as well.
Keith has been fabricating new boiler water trays for 5643 to replace the previous trays which had suffered from corrosion.
Finally, as some of you will be aware, FRT member Phil Steer’s Borrows 0-4-0 well tank No. 48 The King has returned to Preston after an extensive overhaul at the Flour Mill workshops at Bream. It had previously undertaken some running in trials at the Avon Valley Railway and had its first steaming at Preston on Saturday. Phil is pictured here with his locomotive.
Work has also continued outside on the cab and bunker of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 where John Dixon and Ed Tatham have been cleaning off old paint and rust. During this process the state of the shovelling plate in the bunker was called into question, so Keith set about cutting out some pretty thin metal which will be replaced.
Furness Railway No. 20 was back in service for Armed Forces Day at the Ribble Steam Railway, along with Great Eastern Railway Royal saloon No. 5 where customers were served with coffees, ploughman’s lunches and afternoon teas.
The return of the reprofiled radial wheels for Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 has allowed the truck to be re-assembled, ready for inserting under the frames at some point in the future.
Phil Bell has made a welcome return after his spell in main works and has fitted some new handles to the drawers in the kitchen of GER No. 5.
With apparent renewed energy after his layoff, Phil has also been lending a hand to remove stay heads on the firebox of 5643.
Finally, Furness Railway No. 20 is due to appear in service at Preston next Saturday with Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 in connection with Armed Forces Day. Its last turn in operation was on Father’s Day on Sunday 16th June, with Ade driving.
Some of you who have visited Preston in recent times will have noticed that the paintwork on ‘FRT Towers’ (our portacabin mess room) has started to look jaded – probably because we have been giving priority to painting our rolling stock. However, with the odd gap in the rain appearing during our very British summer, Sim has made a start on cleaning the roof of muck and rust and has been giving it a coat of red oxide. Hopefully the weather will allow the job to be completed before winter!
Back inside the FRT shed, there has been more work on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Ian Massey spent some time welding up the inner smokebox ring last Wednesday.
Tim has been rubbing down the firebox cladding sheets which have now received grey undercoat on the inner faces.
The next task will be to rub down and paint the outer sides of the frames. John Dixon is seen here removing the vacuum pipe to enable full access to the frames. The steam heat pipe on the other side has also been removed for that same purpose.
Work has again been concentrated on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. The driving wheelset that had its balanceweight rivets secured is receiving a coat of paint.
Simeon Dixon is seen cleaning the radial wheelset, which has recently returned from tyre turning at Bury, in readiness for a fresh coat of paint.
John Dixon has continued his work outside the shed cleaning the bunker ready for painting, and has also been preparing the internal cab lockers for painting when external weather conditions have put a stop to the bunker work.
GWR 0-6-2T 5643’s radial wheelset, which returned from the East Lancashire Railway last Monday after its tyres had been re-profiled on the wheel lathe, was duly positioned behind 5643’s frames last Wednesday, ready for it to be returned to its rightful position.
John Davis has been busy grinding off more stay heads on 5643’s firebox, this time on the backhead.
Keith has been fettling up 5643’s manifold ready for re-fitting when required.
Meanwhile, John Dixon has started work on cleaning up 5643’s bunker. We hope that the recent warm dry weather will continue to enable him to complete the work without too much down time.
Over in the Ribble Steam Railway running shed, several FRT members have been assisting the FRT’s Mike Rigg, who has for some time been in charge of the Mark 1 coach fleet. BSK 35128 has been undergoing intrusive investigation to its end crash pillars, which has meant removing corridor end platework. As can be seen, Tim has been using his creative skills with body filler to hide the joins in the new platework.
There has been more progress at Preston with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643, with a variety of jobs being tackled. Painting and cleaning of the inside motion is just about complete and Ed can be seen here cleaning rust and paint from one of the water tank filler apertures.
Re-profiling of 5643’s radial wheelset on the East Lancashire Railway wheel lathe at Bury has been completed with the wheelset arriving back at Preston today.
Talking of the ELR, the railway has just announced that Furness Railway No. 20 will be visiting for their Autumn Steam Gala on the 11th to 13th October. FR 20 is also scheduled to be travelling elsewhere this summer, but details are still to be announced by the host railway. Last Wednesday saw FR 20 out of the running shed at Preston for its ashpan to be re-installed and a warming fire to be lit after its cold examination by the boiler surveyor. It was then successfully steamed for the boiler surveyor on Friday so is now back in ticket.
The radial wheelset of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 was
The wheelset was then hoisted aboard the lorry which was handily equipped
Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 is due back in service on the RSR
Some further progress has been made by welding contractor Ian Massey on
The above photo illustrates that there are still some more areas to be tackled