17 November 05 - Tour News
Some provisonal tour dates for next year have been added. These are not confirmed as yet and are subject to acceptance. As soon as they are I'll add the promoter details and add them to the confirmed list.
Latest News...
26 November 05 - Tyseley
Another cold day in hell, sorry Birmingham. Thankfully the list of jobs is getting shorter, a sign of this being that the loco was lit up to check everything prior to its inspection by the VAB. The rods that were removed from the left-hand side having had their bearings remetalled as you can see in this picture (click here) were put back onto the loco (click here). In this picture (click here) Dave Fuszard puts some graphite grease onto the nut threads and here Colin Henderson trys to hit Steve Underhill with a sledge hammer (click here) while they tighten one of the locking nuts. Roger Fox worked on some pipework from the mechanical lubrication system and Keith Clarke spent time rubbing down the front buffer beam ready for re-painting. Another job was the draining and refilling of the main axle boxes. The front & rear driving wheel sets have had their axle boxes modified as the original filler/drain mechanism has broken off a few times. You can see the modifications in this picture (click here) with a bleed screw/drain fitted to the bottom of the axle box and a new filler pipe to the right. It's only a matter of weeks now until the loco is back out on the mainline. Wednesday 14th December should see the engine under it's own power in a light engine move from Tyseley to Old Oak Common in London. This move should be with the water wagon in tow for the first time.
19 November 05 - Tyseley
A bitterly cold day in the Midlands with freezing temperatures outside and about -5 inside the coach.! Needless to say the first task of the day was to fix the heaters. It was then onto the jobs with the loco including removing the left-hand side rods to examine the bearings. There were two suspected problems and both were found with cracks in the white metal. In this picture (click here) Keith Lines takes his time removing the slide bar straps, holding up the rest of us. We then removed the rods in turn for inspection. Here you can see the small crack in the rear bearing side wall (click here) and the large section that came away from the centre bearing when it was removed (click here). They will be re-metalled this week and put back onto the engine. Next weekend should see the loco in steam prior to it's second examination by the VAB. Dave & Don got the tender stocked up with enough coal to get things going. Colin did some remedial work on the fireman's side window frame (click here) and Graham gave some of the paintwork that needed touching up another layer of undercoat.
05 November 05 - Tyseley
Thanks to Colin Henderson for a report of this weekends work. All the valve covers have been re-fitted to the loco, the timing having been checked and set. A lot of work has been done at the smokebox end of the loco. After making sure all the saddle bolts are tight, the concrete seal has been re-laid in the smokebox floor (click here for picture). The exterior has been rubbed down and given a new base coat of paint, it was then rubbed down again in readiness for a second coat. All four pistons were checked out, the rings being in good shape aswell as the lubrication feed to the pistons. As I'm writing this from Detroit, USA, a big "Hello" to all our members around the world (including Martyn who's in Australia at the moment).
04 November 05 - Tour News
Another confirmed date for next year, this time "The Red Dragon" from Bristol to Carmarthen and return on the 4th March 2006. Past Time Rail is the promoter, check with their website as to when tickets go on sale.