Great Train Disasters

The starting point for this week's blog is that Dinmore Manor has now come to the end of her hire period to the West Somerset Railway (WSR), appearing in their autumn gala and will be returning to Toddington in the very near future.

Dinmore Manor on a freight during the WSR gala (photo courtesy of Dan Wigg)

Saturday morning saw two locos running, Foremarke Hall and 35006.

Trainee driver Chris oils Foremarke Hall

 The coal supply appears to have stabilised and we are back to the Welsh again.  There will however still be some Scottish hanging on in the lower depths of tenders and the coal dock for a while.  Eleanor was pleased to discover Welsh coal in Foremarke Hall's tender:

Conflagration without contamination

James on the other hand had obviously struck a seam of Scottish coal in 35006's tender:

Sending signals to any nearby Red Indians

 With 4270 away until the new year at the East Lancs Railway, and Dinmore Manor not quite yet returned, we only have one more servicable loco on site, 2807. It had just had a washout and was due a boiler test in the week, and so was having an informal one on Saturday to make sure that all was well.  Unfortunately, one of the washout plugs turned out to leak under the pressure created by the warming fire from Friday.  Once the pressure had dropped and it was safe to do so, the offending washout plug was removed, cleaned, the seat recut and it was reinserted for the steam test to continue.

Washout plug removed, very hot water gushing out.

Later once the remedial work had been carried out, the fire was re-lit...

...and by the end of the day, all was well

 Dinmore Manor's old tender is now back on the lifting jacks and the temporarily refitted wheels have once again been removed.

Tender aloft, wheels in the foreground

 The draw gear has been removed from the drag box, my task for the day was to remove as much rust as possible with a view to starting painting in there.  Being three enclosed spaces, the dust generated stayed in situ and I asked for a vacuum cleaner to assist with removing it.   The first one that arrived looked a bit like a prop in a Star Wars film, but unfortunately despite the combined attentions of John, Stuart & David, failed to create enough suck to pull the skin off a rice pudding.

(L-r), John, Stuart & David trying to fix the vacuum cleaner

 Eventually they gave up on it and found another one that worked...

...but not before David had played a tune on the broken one.

 Tom meanwhile got on with removing the water valve handles, and the vacuum relief valve and various covers.

Water valve handles removed

Tom, re-tapping one of the threads for an inspection cover

 I was more than a little horrified to discover that whoever had fitted these covers in the first place had resorted to using metric fastenings. Post-Brexit, we'll have those out and replace them with proper Whitworth fastenings as Churchward intended!

The primary task was to wire brush back to bare metal the underside of the tender where the vacuum reservoir lives.  Once that area is cleaned and painted, the vacuum reservoir and the recently overhauled vacuum cylinder can be refitted and then it is ready for the tender to be re-wheeled.

David, wire brushing under the tender

 I was still away on holiday when the draw gear was removed from the drag box, but evidence of the fight put up by one of the nuts was still to be found in the DMLL container

Nothing to indicate scale here, but it's perhaps 6" across the flats

It was still just about warm enough to take lunch al fresco and watch the trains go by, Mike decided that the available facilities were a little too Spartan and borrowed a trolley to use as an occasional table.

Meals on wheels

 With their loco out running, you might have been forgiven for thinking that the 35006 group would have little to do, but that wasn't the case, several of them were to be found in the process of refurbishing some spare gauge frames which will be substituted for the ones on the loco which have minor leaks.

Steve pressing out a pin on one of the gauge frames

 Martin spent much of the day tidying up the Dinmore Manor container, putting things away and generally making it more presentable.

Much tidier than before

 The result of course is very much akin to when supermarkets reorganise their shelves and you can't find where things are for weeks afterwards.  Unlike supremarket reorganisations of course, this was done with the best of intentions and will make life easier in the long run when the wherabouts of everything has been established.

Nothing happened to 3850 as all available hands were directed onto the tender, however I couldn't help but notice that the number plates have been removed and some wag has re-numbered it several times.

3803, W55003, 6023 & 35006

 Why you would want to put any of those numbers there is beyond me. The fireman's side hasn't escaped this treatment either.

3863

 A curious choice, 3863 was a long since scrapped Taunton loco and once when 3850 was based at the WSR, she ran with 3863 plates during a gala.

Away from the locos, new wire mesh grilles are being made to protect the lights in the pits

Richard cuts the mesh to size...

...and Graham fits the grilles in the pits.

 You may recollect that the steps for Broadway's footbridge are being constructed in the David Page shed, a small team working on it 3 days a week.

The footbridge's strings

Neale with some of the supports

The progress made in the last few weeks is impressive to say the least, look forward to these being erected at Broadway in the near future.

People frequently leave surplus magazines or books (usually railway related) lying around for others to browse through in the mess coach.

Hopefully none of our crews have found their way into this publication

And finally, we have more good news, Tom has passed out as  a fireman yesterday:

Tom (L) with Inspector Irving

Congratulations Tom.