Catching up with 4270

Time to 'fess up.... in the unlikely event that you'd believed it, Foremarke Hall is still in green rather than lined BR black that I said on April Fools Day.  In fact the joke was on me really, as I wound up getting out of bed an hour earlier than usual in order to get the story uploaded to the blog on the right date, before heading back off to Toddington again.  I nearly had to get up before I went to bed.  

The clocks of course had just gone forward an hour the day before, so it was back to starting off cleaning the locos in the dark.  As usual a merry throng of volunteers settled into prepping the rostered engines for the day and soon enough 8274 and Foremarke Hall were heading off shed to haul the 'Easter Eggspress' workings up and down the line.

8274 sets off from the yard

Soon followed by Foremarke Hall

Monday turned out to be a fairly quiet day at Toddington, so after I'd broken up the last of the stack of pallets and put them in the wood store I set off over to the signal box looking for a few photos of the trains departing down the line.

Neatly replenished wood store

Bill Tyndall in the signal box was most welcoming and even provided me with a nice hot cup of tea as we waited for the trains to depart.  Apparently the railway was very popular on Monday morning and Foremarke Hall was delayed by 15 minutes or so as a long queue of passengers progressed on their way through the booking office to the platform.

Chris Hayes collects the token from Bill Tyndall as Foremarke Hall sets off with the 'Easter Eggspress'

8274 returns from Cheltenham, Chris Bristow hands over the token to Bill.

Afterwards, a rummage around in the David Page shed turned up not the usual crowds of people working on the various engines, just Ian Carpenter making steady progress with 4270.

4270

Few Churchward locos survive with inside steam pipes, but 4270 is one of them.  The current aim is to get her ready for an in frames steam test.  To that end, since the boiler arrived back from Crewe, Ian has been working on the smoke box fittings.  I caught him working on the lubrication feed pipe for the regulator and the end of the ejector pipe that connects to the chimney.

Smoke box with the ejector pipe offered up rather than fitted

Ian manufacturing a nut for the regulator lubricator feed pipe

Regulator & cylinder lubricator splitter with part made regulator lubricator pipe

4270 left Barry Island scrapyard in a relatively complete condition, she still retains all her original coupling rods, but some items have one way or another found there way onto the loco from elsewhere. The driver's side piston valve front cover for instance is stamped '5227'

5227 stamped on piston valve front cover

5227 is now one of the 'donor' locos for the new build 4709 at Didcot Railway Centre and what is left will eventually end up as a static exhibit there.

Work has also taken place up at the other end of 4270.

The backhead is also taking shape

Not visible in this shot is the grate and brick arch which are both fitted.
In the hope of getting me to stop bugging him with questions and taking copious photos for the blog, Ian sent me off to turn up a couple of gaskets for the ejector pipe.  The last time I had to make gaskets rather than buy ready made ones was for my dear old BSA B33 when I was an impecunious student many years ago.... and I made them from old cornflakes packets.

The last victim of my gasket making... note no oil leaks underneath her!

Ian Meanwhile cracked on with the task of soldering up the regulator lubricator feed pipe and the ejector pipe.

Regulator feed pipe being finished off

Likewise with the ejector pipe

Quenching the new ejector pipe

Finally the completed ejector feed pipe and regulator lubricator feed pipe was offered up with the petticoat in place underneath the chimney to make sure that everything fitted ok.  The original petticoat from 4270 was rusted past the point of no return,  The one seen here came from 7200.  7200 at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre has been treated to a nice shiny new one.

Taking shape in the smoke box

The main steam pipes, cylinder lubrication pipes and superheater elements remain to be fitted, but it's all coming together.  Watch this space for future updates and hopefully for a bit of a history of the earlier stages of the restoration.