A short update this week.
Phil Bell and John Davis made further progress with Fluff by re-fitting the rods, which went back on with little bother once the wheels had been lined up. We still await the new cab roof and there are no doubt many other jobs to complete.
Should John and Phil ever run out of work, we can surely point them towards the roof of GER No.5 where, having removed the lamp housings, vents, conduit and canvas, there is now the tedious task of removing the canvas bonding compound, some of which is resolutely stuck fast to the wooden roof planks. Ed and John Dixon have made a start but it seems that heat guns are the solution to the problem.
With the fire pump now in operational order, we are now looking towards what we need to do to use it to conduct a high pressure boiler wash out. In advance of a gathering this next Wednesday to progress the project, Alan has come up with a modified hose branch which should manage to aim the water to all the required nooks and crannies on FR 20’s boiler. With the right hand piston rod cotter adjustments now completed we will be able to move the loco outside the shed with the first job being to drop the existing water in the boiler.