Rag Time Blues

The Cotswold Festival of Steam "Northern Soul" gala is now less than a month away, and as has become something of an annual tradition, the stock of cleaning rags is now perilously low again.  If you have any suitable old and otherwise unwanted items of clothing/curtains/towels or the like, please send it our way.  There is a green bin situated at the entrance of the yard at Toddington, please make your donations there. 

Last weekend, your humble scribe was out and about on the footplate of 2807 all day, which isn't particularly conducive to finding out what has been going on in the steam loco dept. I am therefore very thankful to Martin who provided me with the following photos, but alas no description of what was going on

Dinmore Manor covered in scaffolding, hopefully no Notre Dame repeat to come (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

3850's sandbox has moved from being primed to grey undercoat (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

Tony(R) instructing Jeremy on the use of a lathe (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

3850's tender being prepared for painting by David (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

Newly cast brass window frames and fittings for 2874 (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

Mike lifts out one of 3850's extension frames (photo courtesy of Martin Ginger)

Meanwhile, whilst Martin was keeping up to speed with the activities within the steam loco dept, I was out and about on 2807.   The photo below isn't perhaps the clearest, but ahead on the track towards Hunting Butts tunnel, a couple of young lads are playing.  This is not a safe place for them to be. If you are the parent or guardian of a child or children living in the area, please ensure that they know that the railway is not a playground and that they should stay outside of the fence.

Not a playground!

I noticed that shuttering has been put in place for foundations for the mark II wood store.  Hopefully that will be installed in the near future.

Wood store to be installed here.

Foremarke Hall arrives at Toddington

It was a driver training day for Chris...

...his instructor, Ian was pleased to see adequate pressure on the gauge...

...and it was a delightful day to be out on 2807.

Moving on to this weekend, we set our calendars back to the1940's.

OK, not a real Spitfire, but jolly impressive nonetheless

 Many of the people who turned up, including our volunteers took the trouble to don 1940's attire (I don't think my own personal wardrobe contains anything quite so contemporary).  Mike looked the part, however, being on first aid duty, he carted around a modern backpack of medical supplies.  To be fair, if there had been an accident, nobody would have wanted to be tended to by a first aider with 1940's bandages.

Mike, modern first aid in 1940's clothing

 Of course, there were other devices to be seen that weren't quite in keeping with the wartime event.

I don't think he was checking up on the football results from 1944 somehow

The trains ran to time, in spite of the best efforts of the Luftwaffe

4270 has entered traffic for the first time since she returned to us from the ELR.  Amongst the many things that have happened, is a spring change.  2807 has also managed to break a spring, which was changed on Friday.  The 2 broken springs were being cleaned and strapped to a wooden pallet ready to be sent off for refurbishment.

Eleanor resorts to reading the instruction manual, Peter grapples with the strap binding machine

 The floor of the shed has become rather filthy over the winter, Mike decided that it would be a good idea to scrape off the worst of the gunge and follow it up with some therapy with the steam cleaner.

We have some firemen who struggle to make this much steam

 Mike got a little bit bored after a while and managed to betray his allegiances:

Clearly a fan of brass safety valve bonnets and copper capped chimneys

Nigel brought chocolate cake, and it wasn't even his birthday.  It was at this point that we discovered that the mess coach didn't possess a single knife, a plastic one procured from somewhere else was eventually pressed into service.

You can never have too much cake!

 A small team of people were to be found excavating a trench for the electric cables to feed the new yard lamps that will shortly be put in place.

A trench being dug...

...John applying paint to one of the ladders to go with the lamps

 With her thermic syphon washout plugs now sorted, 35006 needed a steam test before she could be signed off as fit for traffic

Hard to tell against the cloudy background, but a safety valve has lifted

You will be pleased to know that 35006 passed with flying colours and is now ready for service again.

I spent much of the day cleaning many years accumulation of grime from the extension frame liberated from 3850.  This is now loaded onto a trailer and will shortly be heading off for use as a pattern for new ones... hopefully they won't faithfully replicate the slight bend put into it by a certain less than careful previous owner. 

Frame extension, loaded onto a trailer.

Ed, one of our firemen and a Home Guard member gave some of his platoon a guided tour of the yard.

"Oh no, I've been blogged"

 You'll be pleased to know that they followed Corporal Jones' advice and didn't panic when my camera appeared.

 A recent arrival in the yard, is a GWR boiler wagon, used to move boilers between the various shops of Swindon works.  It will become the temporary mobile home for 2874's boiler whilst work takes place on its rolling chassis.  Before that, the plan is to refurbish the trolley.

The first of its wheels has been painted

The boiler trolley in the yard

 The boiler barrel would rest on the upright part on the right of the photo above, and the front of the foundation ring on the back of the trolley on the left.  Clearly the boiler would not rest directly on metal, and there must have been some sort of wooden structure mounted at the back for the boiler foundation ring to rest on.  Should you have or know the whereabouts of any photos of these in service at Swindon, or even any original drawings, then we would be very pleased to hear from you.

What should go here?

 The frame that the new cab for 2874 will be temporarily erected on has been cut, mark was to be found "gluing" it all together with the MIG (Mark Inserts Glue) welder.

Mark, sticking the frame together.

During the week, I received this rather nice photo of Bill, one of our signalmen, who moonlights as a driver on the Talyllyn Railway.

Bill on 0-4-2ST, "Sir Haydn" at Quarry Sidings (photo courtesy of Phil Mason)

 2' 3" gauge Sir Haydn (No 3) was built in 1878 in Loughborough by Hughes' Loco and Tramway Engineering LTD according to wikipedia, but Falcon Engine & Carriage Works according to the worksplate that she carries.  She was originally built as an 0-4-0ST and worked on the Corris Railway, which in 1929 was absorbed into the Great Western Railway.  Although she spent nearly 20 years as a GWR loco, she didn't receive any of the usual GWR modifications such as a belpaire firebox, safety valve bonnet or pannier tanks.  Bill claims to have been built somewhat later than 1878 and has not had any obvious GWR modifications.

And finally, the 2874 Trust is keen to obtain more money to assist with the restoration of 2874 from the Ecclesiastical insurance Company.  The following is a quote from David Foster, a trustee of the 2874 Trust.

"In December 2017, the 2874 Trust was fortunate to receive a grant of £1000 from the Ecclesiastical Insurance Company in their “12 days of giving” – this company donates significant sums to charities every year by distributing all their profits. This year they are undertaking a “Movement for Good” programme to give £1000 to each of 500 charities and a further £50,000 to each of 10 charities.

We want to try again! The process is through people nominating their chosen charity. The more nominations we get, the better the chance of success – the initial round started on 23rd April – the details of how to nominate the 2874 Trust are below – the information you need to complete the nomination is the Charity Number - 1166258 (we have confirmed we are eligible under their rules). The second round starts later in year and we will try for that one as well.

Obviously we will be in competition with many other worthy causes but we would be delighted if you could help

Log on to www.ecclesiastical.com/movementforgood

Right hand side of page “Nominate Now”

Details needed – Charity Number 1166258 our name The 2874 Trust should show up on screen

Charity Type – select Education Skills

Who you are – “Other”

Why you are nominating – suggest something along the lines of “ the organisation is helping the preservation of heritage engineering skills by training and developing volunteers through restoration of a historic steam locomotive”"

Hopefully your help here will see more funds donated to this extremely worthy project.