The Trustees met last Tuesday evening at Over Kellett to sign the shed lease and consider David’s cash flow statement – as many of you will be aware, there has been a significant outflow of money in recent weeks in order to progress the Trust’s projects! Attendance at the meeting was reduced due to the poor weather forecast but was just sufficient to be quorate and to transact the business. With the weather in mind, Alison’s sandwiches were duly eaten during the meeting to save time and all was done and dusted before 9.30 -this must be some sort of record! Opening the front door revealed an unwelcome layer of snow that had arrived while the meeting was underway, and those heading back towards Furness had to endure a blizzard.
The cold weather put paid to any thoughts of undertaking a washout on FR 20’s boiler on Wednesday and so efforts were turned to removing Caliban‘s front buffers in readiness for the cylinders to be re-bored.
The new tubes for FR 20’s boiler arrived late in the day and can be seen in this artistic photo taken by Ade of Alan inspecting the tubes viewed through the fork lift’s mechanism. (Suspect he just couldn’t be bothered to get off the fork lift! Ed.)
Cumbria‘s dome cover and dome lid were removed on Friday morning in readiness for the regulator and ‘J’ pipe to be removed for machining. John Dixon is seen here replacing one of the studs.
Fred spent much of the day finishing the cleaning up of FR 20’s tender wheels…
… then John Dixon applied a coat of red oxide paint.
Roger continued Phil’s efforts at cleaning FR 20’s brasswork and can be seen here busy at his work.
Keith has been working on the new keeps for Wootton Hall’s tender, and is seen here fitting one to one of the axleboxes.
And there was yet more work carried out by John Davis and Howard on Fluff.
Firstly, as predicted, Cumbria arrived back at Preston last Monday and was tucked into the top of road three in the FRT shed ready for attention.
Work has continued on FR 20 with the first of the Indian Red gloss paint being applied to the engine’s wheelsets. This is literally a rolling programme as the engine will need to be rolled forwards or backwards for all areas of the wheels to be so decorated! All the copper pipework has been cleaned up ready for annealing to take place and further cleaning and polishing work has been carried out on the brass that fits to the front and back of the firebox. The steam cleaning of the tender wheelsets has been completed and they have been given a further hand clean in readiness for paint to be applied. Finally, new tubes have been ordered and a cheque despatched; the tubes should appear in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, with the all the old tubes now removed, a washout is planned for Wednesday, subject to a shunt being arranged and the pressure washer playing ball. With the formal NDT report now received, it should then be time to call in the boiler surveyor.
Progress has also been made on Wootton Hall where brass edging to the cab side can now be seen in place. A start has also been made on bringing together the components for the brake gear so that it can be assembled on the tender.
We start with the news that a milestone in the restoration of the FRT’s ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 locomotive No. 4979 Wootton Hall was reached on Thursday when the riveting gang fitted the last rivet to the re-built tender frames. The front of the tender frames had been severely wasted by years of water and coal dust which had cascaded down from the cab floor. As followers of this blog will know, the riveting team of Matt Jervis, Keith Brewer, John Dixon and Chris Rycroft have been meeting regularly on Thursdays over the last few months and have been responsible for completing the fitting of several hundred rivets which have locked together the new steelwork with the old. The final day saw 30 rivets fitted, which is quite an effort! Well done to all!
John is seen preparing the gas torch to heat up the rivets.
Keith is pictured holding the final hot rivet in place.
And Matt Jervis applies the force to finish the job.
Staying with the Hall’s tender, and Alan Middleton is seen on Wednesday with the newly arrived second hand 4,000 gallon Collett tender tank recently arrived from Tyseley.
As you will see here, it didn’t take long for Keith to set to with a cutting disc to remove the corroded shoveling plate. This will also enable scale to be removed from the tender tank.
Onto other projects, and the axleboxes have been removed from FR 20’s tender wheelsets and cleaned. The wheelsets have received some attention from scrapers to remove twenty years of grime and the first set is seen here being steam cleaned by Matt Bedford.
Andy Booth has completed the removal of the tubes from FR 20’s boiler and they were cut in half by John Davis before being placed in the scrap metal skip.
There was a visit to Embsay on Saturday by Keith, Fred and Mike. Fred and Mike cleaned below the running plate on 5643 whilst Keith attacked the inside motion. Both 5643 and Cumbria were drawn outside the shed to allow the water to be drained from the boilers and for Cumbria’s spare springs to be loaded. 
There was then time to polish up the bright work.
This marked the end of regular loco-hauled services along the Cumbrian Coast. The Class 37 diagrams are now covered by Class 156 diesel multiple units, themselves now around thirty years old.
Work has continued apace on the overhaul of FR 20, with Alan seen here prising off the front right hand cylinder cover. Both covers were removed with assistance from Ade and, at first sight, it looks as if new pistons rings will be required. Tim has since located the spare set that was ordered over twenty years ago.
Cleaning and painting of the engine’s wheels has also continued with a primer/undercoat of red oxide being visible here.
John Dixon has been cleaning up the toolbox that is usually located on the running board to the right of the smoke box.
The decision was taken to lift the tender to get the axle journals skimmed and polished as these had given some problems in times past. Ade is seen here moving the tender to the unloading road after a massive shunt on the 2nd January. Well done Ade!
Work has also continued on cleaning up Fluff‘s frames and bodywork over the Christmas period and John Davis is seen here at work with Mike Rigg.
Keith has, as ever, been working on Wootton Hall and the left hand ‘Collett style’ cab side is seen here mounted temporarily.
After eight days of playing Christmas songs on the RSR’s Santa Specials before Christmas you would have thought that Alan and Tim would have wanted a rest, but they are seen here with George and Pete performing a successful Live Steam gig at the Engine Inn at Cark-in-Cartmel on New Year’s Eve.
Friday, 4th January brought the good news that FR 20’s boiler and the three Hall tender wheelsets had passed Jim Kennedy’s NDT examination. Jim is seen here at work on the boiler.
The axleboxes were transferred over to the FRT shed so that the components can be cleaned up. This was an opportunity to use the previously untested parts washer that had been generously donated to the FRT some while ago. After studious reading of the instructions (that’s unusual!) Keith Brewer watches on as John Dixon cleans the axlebox covers.
Late afternoon the newly purchased Collett tender tank arrived from Tyseley.
After some time manoeuvring of the low loader and crane into position, the tank was successfully lifted on to pallets alongside the FRT shed. The photo below shows a winter’s evening scene at Preston as preparations are made for the lift.