A short blog this week.
There has been further work on Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643. John Dixon is seen busy with the welder with one of 5643’s side tanks. Some of the water baffles for the bunker have also been fitted.
Keith has been fitting new footplate supports to the tender of Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No. 4979 Wootton Hall.
Work on refreshing the FRT’s mess room in on the last lap in between the rain showers with Sim applying undercoat yellow to the corner posts.
A first reminder that the Annual General Meeting will be held in the FRT shed at Preston at 7.30 pm on Wednesday, 18th September.
Finally, for those travelling to the Ribble Steam Railway by public transport, please note that Preston Bus No. 100 bus service from Preston station to McDonalds on Pedders Lane (every 15 minutes) has been replaced by the Nos. 19 and 20 which each operate every 20 minutes, so in theory a bus every ten minutes – plus of course Nos. 74 and 75 operated now by Archway Travel.
There has been more progress with the overhaul of Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 over the past couple of weeks. Ian Massey has now removed the second, right hand, cylinder liner, the gouging rods making a spectacular light display.
Once the top of the liner was cut it was necessary to apply brute force to remove it. John Dixon and Keith are seen hauling it out of the cylinder after Ian Massey had persuaded it to move!
Chris Rycroft has been reaming out stay holes in the side of the firebox, with assistance from John Dixon, using a borrowed air drill.
This piece of equipment proved to be very efficient and, with much more work of this nature required, a search was conducted for a suitable second-hand drill – new drills, if you can find them, are very expensive. Fortunately, Sam and Chris identified such a drill and a price agreed. The drill arrived last Wednesday with Sam seen cutting open the packaging.
This new yellow bit of kit was quickly tested and is now ready for action.
Outside, John Dixon and Ed Tatham have been beavering away on the bunker and tanks, removing rust and, in the case of the bunker water tank, applying fibreglass and two-part epoxy paint sealant. Also trying to avoid the seemingly persistent unsettled weather have been Jon, Sim and Tim during their mission to spruce up the exterior of the mess room. It is hoped to reduce the many shades of grey to one of gloss grey if the weather is fine this next week.
Finally, there was a test outing of Borrows 0-4-0 well tank No. 48 of 1906 on Saturday in readiness for its appearance at the RSR’s Gala on the 28th and 29th September. Judging by the smile on owner Phil Steer’s face, the test must have been successful.