We arrived at Preston on Wednesday to hear the distant sound of a steam chime whistle and later found out that it was none other than 70000 Britannia on a northbound run through Preston to Carlisle. Just for the record, here is a photo of the loco heading back south through Lancaster at speed with The Lakelander just after 5 pm.
Tim and John Dixon virtually completed the painting of FR 20’s frames, motion and wheels on Wednesday. John is seen here painting some of the motion.
The fresh gloss paint on the frames and motion now gives it a smart appearance.
Finally a painted and lined out wheel.
Roger came in on Friday and started the task of cleaning and painting the internal surface of the boiler cladding sheets.
John has been preparing some new wood to be inserted on top of the front buffer beam where previous area of oak had perished.
Fred has continued to work on cleaning up the smokebox and we have a rare photo here of him having a ten minute breather.
Andy Booth is expected to have started today the task of expending the tubes and beading over the ends in the smokebox.
Work continues apace on Fluff with John Davis drilling holes in the newly inserted steel stretcher plate between the frames.
Phil Bell has continued the task of drilling holes in one of the new cab sides.
Ade has been testing the fit of the first of his newly fabricated axlebox covers for Caliban. 
First of all he hoisted a test axlebox into position before heading off to the bench with a file to start the process of modification!
We are glad to be able to report that Bill Norcross is back from sick leave and he is seen here setting up to drill some holes in a brass flange for Wootton Hall.
Paul Newton came in on Friday to continue his work on the L&NWR seat from Preston station.
Finally, we have news from Charles Adams at Embsay that the machining of Cumbria‘s main and pilot valves is almost complete along with the lapping in of the ‘J’ pipe face.