As we head towards the end of yet another year, members at Preston have
continued to catch up with a number of jobs, mainly on the small side this
week.
The cast frame for Great Western Railway 0-6-2T 5643’s radial truck
has been cleaned and painted. Both axleboxes are marked with 66XX
numbers whilst the casting was clearly manufactured by Armstrong
Whitworth of Newcastle upon Tyne, who built the last 50 of the 56/66XX
classes, 6650 to 6699.
The Trust has been donated a number of chairs for Great Eastern Railway
royal saloon No. 5 which Phil Burton has been sanding down.
This next Friday is an important date in the calendar as our boiler surveyor is
coming to Preston at 8am to inspect the boilers of 5643 and Peckett 0-4-0ST
Caliban. There will be discussions as to the extent of the work required during
the overhaul of each of the boilers. 15 members are then due to sit down that evening for the annual FRT Christmas dinner.
Talking of Christmas, the Ribble Steam Railway’s Santa Specials have been
running fully booked and a further five trains are due to operate next Saturday
and Sunday. Alan and Tim, who have previously provided all the Christmas
music on board the trains, have this year been joined by Graham and
Bernadette Dixon, which has lightened the load considerably.