Work has continued to further the ten year overhaul of Furness Railway No. 20. With the boiler now back in the frames, John Dixon has been fettling up the crinolines and making one or two useful modifications to them. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we start putting on the boiler insulation.
Fred returned to the fray on Friday after the end of the lockdown. He is seen here rubbing down the first of the boiler cladding sheets.
This was then primed to cover bare metal. Only another seven sheets to go!
Tim has been sprucing up the smokebox ready for painting.
Meanwhile Alan has been removing blanks from the boiler which were put in place for the hydraulic and out-of-frames steam tests.
Ade has spent some time painting Caliban‘s axles.
John Davis has been preparing more steelwork for Fluff.
Paul Newton has been painting some more components for Fluff.
Keith has been busy doing further work on Wootton Hall‘s tender frames in readiness for the time when it can be placed on its wheels.
Finally, there has been disappointing news from both the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway and the East Lancashire Railway which have Cumbria and 5643 on hire to them respectively to haul Santa Specials. Unfortunately, both railways have been asked to modify their methods of operations as a result of Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions so were unable to operate this last weekend.