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29 January 10 - Railtour News
The 6024 Preservation Society is pleased announce some of the events & tours the loco will be attending and hauling in this 175th anniversary year of the Great Western Railway.
The loco makes its first appearance this year at the West Somerset Railway's Spring Steam Gala before heading out onto the mainline with the "Royal Duchy" in May for a run to Par in Cornwall and back. The loco then heads to Didcot, home of the Great Western Society for their main event before heading back to Bristol at the end of the month for a series of Torbay Express workings down to Kingswear.
At the end of June, the loco travels again to Cornwall, this time from Paddington with Steam Dream's "Cornish Riviera", double heading over the Devon banks with 5029 Nunney Castle. The outward run is via the Berk's & Hant's while the return run is via Bristol. In July, the loco is once again on another classic King route with a run from Paddington to Birmingham over Saunderton before returning via Worcester and the Golden Valley.
23 January 10 - Minehead, West Somerset Railway
The left hand outside piston valve was refitted to the engine this weekend after looking into the lubrication to it. We're going to have a check of the inside left hand valve next. Also, all the superheater elements have been removed for a good check over. On the coach, the batteries have been removed so we can take a good look at the battery box and made sure it's all nice and solid.
16 January 10 - Minehead, West Somerset Railway
It's that time of year once again where we go through our annual re-certification for the mainline, the annual boiler inspections and also any planned maintenance. The loco & coach are based at Minehead this winter and we made a start on the planned work over the weekend with the main focus on the boiler washout.
We don't have a big list of maintenance jobs this year, but still enough to keep us busy. This weekend we removed the whistles & valves from the engine for an overhaul. The large whistle valve was blowing by at the end of last year so that needs looking at. We also removed the outside left hand piston valve as we wanted to check if there was lubrication problem. We also took the chance to give the frames a bit of a steam clean as quite a bit of muck builds up in all sorts of awkward places.
23 December 09 - West Somerset Railway
December 12th was the final mainline run for 6024 with the Bristolian from Bristol to London Paddington and return. There was some excellent running in both directions and on completion of the run, the loco and support coach moved to Minehead on the West Somerset Railway.
The loco will appear at the West Somerset's Winter Steam Festival on Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th December. The loco will haul the 10:15 departure from Minehead, 14:10 from Bishops Lydeard on the 29th. On the 30th the loco will haul the 12:20 departure from Minehead, 14:10 from Bishops Lydeard.
15 November 09 - Severn Valley Railway
On Sunday 15th November the Society held its annual members day with a dining train on the Severn Valley Railway. The loco hauled the Kidderminster - Bridgnorth - Kidderminster round trip with a capacity load with everyone enjoying the day. One member, Clive Hanley has made an excellent photo diary of the day which can been seen from the link below.
http://clive-hanley.fotopic.net/c1781507.html
The loco is now back at Bewdley for a short time before departing for Bristol and its final railtour of the year from Bristol to Paddington and return.
24 October 09 - Williton
With the locomotive currently on static display at Kidderminster Station on the Severn Valley Railway, the working party has taken the opportunity to begin overhauling the spare air compressor acquired during the Summer.
The compressor has been kept in our store at Williton and so on Saturday it was taken out and stripped down to examine the condition of all parts, make an inventory of what repairs might be required and being the clean-up process ready for re-assembly. On Initial inspection, the compressor looks to be in good condition and is currently soaking in a de-carbonising solution. All being well, it's planned to swap this compressor for the one currently on the loco during the annual maintenance period so the current one can be overhauled.
