Off to the Beach

On Saturday, Tony, Keith & David shifted the superheater elements out of 3845's boiler:

Tony applies some heat

David (l) & Keith apply some brute force

I had briefly tried last week using just brute force, as no heat was available, and gave it up as a bad job.  The added heat makes a world of difference.

The superheater elements are quite heavy items, and difficult to dislodge by hand.

Keith extracts one the hard way, John & George provide moral support

In the end, the telehandler was summoned to provide the brute force, which had the desired result and didn't involve anybody breaking into a sweat.

Perspiration free extraction

The elements themselves were beyond salvage, however the ends were deemed capable of being re-used.

The chances of this holding steam at 225 PSI seemed fairly remote.

Keith dismantling them for recycling.

Job done, all elements removed.

It's some little while now, since Dinmore Manor's old tender (T1761) was raised off its wheels.  At the time, five of the six axle boxes were cleaned up and stored in the DMLL container, but the sixth was still languishing unloved on the shed floor.

The Cinderella of axle boxes

Obviously not a job that anybody was particularly keen to grapple with, so I took pity on it, ferried it across to the oil store and gave it all a good going over in the cleaning bath.

In transit

Finally stashed away in the DMLL container.

Work on the tender itself continued, with Sam, Martin & Len all working hard at removing twenty years worth of grot & grime in order to establish what condition the tender frames were in.

Sam cleaning up under the tender

At least one weld was discovered that was showing signs of having cracked, if indeed it had ever been completely welded in the first place.

Some therapy required.

Having removed the rails from road six in the David Page shed last week, a small 360 degree digger was employed to clear out the old ballast.

Digging out the old ballast

Digging a drainage channel

On Sunday, yours truly was back again, this time for a firing turn on 2807, I was a little concerned to discover that there wasn't as much coal in the tender as I might have hoped for.

Won't get far on that!

It was enough for the cleaner (Luke) to turn up a jolly good breakfast for the crew though.

Breakfast on the shovel (photo courtesy of Luke Hudman)

It tasted as good as it looks too.

A cooked breakfast on the shovel is a rare though very welcome treat.  I know of at least one cleaner though who doesn't eat red meat who is seriously considering how to cook porridge on the shovel.  I suspect that experiment will be doomed to failure.

Turning to more serious matters, the coal shortage was rectified before we got onto the stock

Plenty for three round trips

2807, basking in the sunshine at Cheltenham Race Course station

You may remember from a few weeks ago that I bumped into Paul, one of our drivers whilst on the North York Moors Railway, where he is a fireman.  Paul also drives on the Swindon & Cricklade Railway, and the chap (I'm afraid I didn't catch his name) in the photo below was his fireman on Saturday.  He had come to the GWSR with a view to having a closer look at the regulator assembly of 2807 as he is in the process of machining one for Owsden Hall and wanted to compare an actual one with the drawing that he had.

Checking the regulator.

Neil making sure that the regulator still worked.

Luke having a go at firing... he did extremely well.

Crossing 35006 at Winchcombe

The narrow gauge railway was in operation, and one of their locos was running round its stock at the southern end of the line as we passed by

Narrow gauge line in operation

Something else that has caught my eye in recent weeks, but has hitherto remained unrecorded, is that a new sign has appeared at Gotherington, pointing out the direction to the beach.  The last time I checked on a map, Gotherington was some considerable distance from any beach, the nearest probably being at Weston-Super-Mare.  Unfortunately, Weston-Super-Mare is in the opposite direction to where the sign is pointing.

You'll be carrying your bucket & spade a very long way if you follow the sign

Sunday was particularly hot, and 2807 was the ideal loco to be out and about on, it's light airy cab allowing the crew to benefit from the passing breeze.

The sun cast strong shadows.

Once stopped of course, there was no benefit of any breeze to counteract the heat from the from the sun, compounded by the heat from the fire.  The crew sought shade wherever it could be found.

Luke (l) & Neil, hiding from the sun

A more welcome sight than even a cooked breakfast, is to arrive back on shed and find a disposal crew waiting to help ash out.   Many thanks indeed to Chris & Luke for covering that.

Chris, damping down the ash with a hose pipe

Luke & Chris emptying the ash pit.

I can now bring you an excellent selection of photos from 35006's recent excursion to the Mid Hants Railway's 50th anniversary of the end of southern steam gala.  This was of course the first time that 35006 had been anywhere off of our railway since she arrived around 30 years ago:

35006, being loaded onto a trailer at Toddington (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

On the trailer (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

Dan on the footplate at the Mid Hants (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

Eagle eyed readers of Steam Railway magazine may just have caught sight of a photo of the crews & owner's representatives at the Mid Hants, which included Dan.

Somehow an action shot of 34081, 92 Squadron sneaked in here (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

Morning loco prep at Ropley (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

35006 arrives at Ropley with the usual end of steam chalk markings (photo courtesy of Steve Parker)

And finally, as you may have heard, there will be an open day at Old Oak Common this coming Saturday (2nd Sept).  Having spent almost all of her working life shedded at Old Oak Common (81A), Foremarke Hall has been invited.  On Saturday, she was busy having a steam test after a washout, as well as receiving lots of tender loving care from the cleaners to get her looking her absolute best.

Cinderella or not, she's off to the ball at Old Oak Common.

Should you wish to attend the event yourself, please note that this is a ticketed event and tickets are not available on the day, they have to be purchased in advance.  More details can be found on the official website.  Hopefully I will be able to bring you pictures of Foremarke Hall at the Old Oak Common open day next week.