After a break of a week for holidays (and what good weather!) we are back with another short update.
The main event this week at Preston was the removal of the first of the two cylinder liners from Great Western Railway 0-6-2T No. 5643 by Ian Massey. Ian has promised to reappear in a couple of weeks to remove the second cylinder liner.
More progress has been made by Jon and Sim on the seemingly never-ending job of cleaning and painting the mess room roof. It is to be hoped that the weather stays fair this week for more work on this project.
Furness Railway No. 20 has featured in the latest edition of Heritage Railway magazine with some photographs taken during its recent stay at Minehead. A lovely letter has been received from Andy Palk, the Running Foreman at Minehead, thanking everyone from the FRT who assisted at Minehead for their help. In Andy’s words, “FR 20 did the West Somerset Railway proud for their 150 event.” 
We couldn’t resist this extra photo of our own from the event – two Manchester built locos, but D7017 is a mere 99 years younger than FR20!
FR20 is due to arrive back at Preston on Wednesday or Thursday this week and is scheduled to operate the Ribble Steam Railway service this Saturday.
Finally, the latest edition of the FRT magazine, The Iron Horse, is in the process of being distributed to members along with the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for 2023 and an invitation to the Annual General Meeting which is to be held at 7.30 pm om Wednesday, 18th September in the FRT shed at Preston.