We start this week’s blog with the very sad news that David Rimmer, former Membership Secretary and then (extremely) long time Treasurer of both the Lakeside Railway Society and the Furness Railway Trust, passed away at the age of 80 last Thursday, 18th April, after being diagnosed with cancer. David was a guard, booking office clerk and locomotive cleaner at Haverthwaite during the earlier days and became a stalwart of the Carriage and Wagon gang. He was also involved in the restorations of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 and Furness Railway No. 20 as well as being a keen supporter of the Wootton Hall project. David’s presence at Preston was reduced in more recent times as he took on caring for his brother John who had suffered a stroke. However, although retiring from being Treasurer and a Trustee at the end of March 2022, he continued to look after the Gift Aid claims for the Trust. His loss will, we are sure, be keenly felt by all those who have worked with David over the best part of 50 years.
David’s funeral will be held at 2. 45 pm on Wednesday, 1st May at Springwood Crematorium, Springwood Avenue, Allerton L25 7UN. His family hopes that as many as possible of David’s friends will be able to attend. Our sincere condolences go to brother John, sister Judith, brother in law Mike and the rest of David’s family.
Last Wednesday saw FR 20 being given a boiler washout in preparation for its forthcoming cold inspection by the boiler surveyor on the 3rd May. Sam was in charge with the hose.
John Dixon fed the hose to Sam whilst Jon Dixon operated the fire pump which he had coaxed into action after giving it a full service.
Ron Crowe has been drilling out more studs on the firebox backhead of 5643 whilst Keith has been removing more stays, seen here clearing stay debris from the foundation ring of the firebox.
Once he had finished his work with the fire pump, Jon Dixon took on painting 5643’s buffer beam with undercoat red.
Last Wednesday saw Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643’s boiler being dragged out of the FRT shed during a gap in the rain showers in order to remove the chimney, manifold and safety valves. John Dixon went inside the smokebox to fix the chains below the chimney.
Keith went on top to guide Paul Wood, Ribble’s RRV operator, using the microphone and earphones clamped to his head to communicate.
The two new cylinder liners for 5643 arrived at Preston on Wednesday and now await fitting.
Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban was also moved a small distance last Wednesday in order for Alan to check its valve moments before the cylinder covers are re-fitted.
The overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 is making steady progress with Sim Dixon alongside brother Jon (out of picture) cleaning the eccentrics prior to re-painting them.
Keith has been in the firebox using gas to cut out old stays.
First of all, we would like to thank the family of the late Fred Jones who have generously donated Fred’s considerable collection of books to the FRT. The books have now been sorted into size and stored on the recently acquired shelves in the mess room whilst we take stock of what we have. A wonderful gift.
The overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 continues with Ed taking the opportunity of some fine weather (is that really blue sky?) to work on 5643’s cab which is outside the workshop.
John Dixon unexpectedly finds himself the subject of yet another photo whilst attending to 5643’s motion.
Meanwhile Keith has been applying some heat to remove one of the firebox stays.
Sam has been preparing new joints for Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban’s valve covers.
Tim has been applying a second coat of green undercoat to the left-hand side of Great Western Railway 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall’s tender tank having, after the first coat, decided that the tank side needed considerably more work to repair indentations.
The result looks far more acceptable.
Saturday turned out to be a very cold and windy day that reminded Tim and his crew on FR 20 why locomotive cabs were invented! The weather took a turn for the better on Sunday, and all went to plan. FR 20 is pictured here during a lunch break with the cab and frames of the former FR 25 in the background.
Anne and Phil Burton staffed a FRT sales stand over the week and took some useful money for the Trust.
It has been another week of steady progress on the overhaul of Great Western
John Dixon has continued his quest to clean up and paint those areas of the
Keith has now started to drill out stays on the left hand side of the firebox; his
More horse chestnut leaf patterned moquette for Great Eastern Railway royal
It has been a sad day for the FRT as a good number of members gathered at a very full Crosscrake Church near Kendal for the funeral of long-standing volunteer Fred Jones. His family arranged a display of photos charting his life at the wake, including one of Fred with his favourite wire cup brushes.
Work has continued with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 with Keith seen here scraping in the white metal on one of the axleboxes.
Jon Dixon continued the beautification of the driving wheels which, after significant effort, are now rapidly becoming very black and shiny.
Sam used the opportunity to fit the mudhole doors on FR 20 whilst it was over the pit.
GER No. 5 had been advertised for use on the Mother’s Day train service, being fully booked throughout the day for the occasion. John Dixon made some last-minute adjustments to the window of the guard’s door.
Phil and Anne Burton worked hard to put some temporary brown covers on the chairs to make them look uniform in appearance. Some more horse chestnut leaf moquette is on the way which will then enable the chairs to match the chaise longue in the east saloon.
Just before the departure of the first train on Sunday morning the flexible steam heat pipe on the east end of the saloon announced to all that it had come to end of its working life. Fortunately, it was possible to remedy this fairly quickly, the steam crew and John Dixon engineering a swap in a very efficient pit stop. This was just as well as there was a cool moderate breeze and rain that day.
GER No. 5 is seen leaving Riverside Station behind Courageous. After the furore yesterday over the editing of a Royal Family photo it was decided not to edit out the unsightly bucket from this photo!
Ade managed to take this photo of Alison during a short break from preparing GER No.5 for its next set of customers.
Work at Preston has again focussed on the heavy general overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. Jon and Sim Dixon have been working on sprucing up the appearance of the driving wheelsets.
Paul Balshaw has been cleaning one of the pistons.
Ed has been working inside the frames, viewed here through the left hand cylinder.
Ian Massey has completed his welding work on 5643’s boiler.
Allen looks on as Keith drills out another of the 300 stays to be replaced.
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, work has also been taking place to de-winterise Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 so that it can be used on the 10th March. Anne Burton has been busy cleaning the upholstery and carpet.
John Dixon is seen here cleaning a steam heat pipe brass coupling prior to moving it to a rather better pipe. This will then be fitted to GER5 which, for some reason, was missing a steam heat pipe at one end.
Finally, Caliban’s new piston head is seen here being machined in one of the lathes in the Ribble Steam Railway workshop.
Fred loved railways and thoroughly enjoyed working both at Haverthwaite and at Preston, taking on board the many less glamourous jobs, particularly of cleaning and painting components. He is pictured above after having worn out yet another cup wire brush. He will be very much missed by us all. Our thoughts are with daughter, Helen, son Andrew and family.
Work on the overhaul of 5643 has continued this last week with Ian Massey paying us another visit on Wednesday when he completed his work on the tubeplate of 5643’s boiler. Ian is seen making sparks fly as he grinds off excess weld.
Jimmy Dutton has re-metalled 5643’s front right axlebox and is seen here with Keith ready for the axlebox to be machined.
Elsewhere on 5643, Dave Reynolds has been inspecting the radial horn guides for wear.
John Dixon has produced a baffle for the hot water boiler in the kitchen of Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 to prevent scalding hot water overtopping the urn. The coach is due to be in service for Mother’s Day so a number of winter jobs are now being completed for the occasion.
Following last week’s photo of the first coat of green undercoat on the left-hand tender side of Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall, Tim has been inspecting the surface closely to identify and fill any imperfections.
John Davies has been cleaning the copper cap for Fluff’s chimney.
Work has continued on the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. John Dixon has been giving the spring hanger bolts a good clean and several coats of paint.
Sim (left) and Jon Dixon are seen here giving the exterior of the steam chest and smokebox saddle a coat of high temperature black paint.
We now have a first blog photo of the new chimney casting for Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 that was recently supplied by the Severn Valley Railway. The casting will need to be machined and the familiar GWR copper top fitted.
Meanwhile Tim, after much filling and sanding, has been giving the left-hand side of Wootton Hall’s tender tank a coat of green undercoat paint. There is still more work to do though before the former ’ploughed field’ surface is ready to receive a top coat of paint.
Work on Great Eastern Railway royal saloon No. 5 continues with Phil Burton cleaning up the two bronze royal picture frames that will be fitted to the coach.
The top and left-hand side of the frame can be seen gleaming here.
Finally, it has been a bumper week for cake in the mess room this week with both Keith and Alan celebrating birthdays. John Dixon is seen here tucking in to a portion of cake…
… while Alan had a small birthday celebration at Preston on Saturday and is seen here with some of his own cake.