Pink Blues

 Last Saturday saw a reasonable sized gang get on with getting 2874 off of its wheels.   The wheel sets are to be sent to the South Devon Railway to have a new set of tyres fitted, the frames are about to be shot blasted to get them back to bare metal.

The process started with stripping off some of the running plate...

...once rivet heads had been ground off, gentle persuasion tactics were employed...

...then 2874 was gently raised above her pony truck...

...which was wheeled out and lifted off of the pony wheels...

...a bit more lifting and all the driving wheels were rolled out.

At the close of play, all the driving wheels had been rolled out and most of the axle boxes had been removed.  This coming weekend there will be a bit of a blitz to get the last 3 axle boxes off and to insert accommodation bogies under the frames.  The lifting jacks are due an exam soon and they have to have had any load removed before that happens.

3850 wasn't entirely overlooked, Tracy got on with cleaning out some of the grot that adhered to what remains of its front end.

Tracy at work on 3850

3850's tender was also getting a little TLC, the water cocks have been painted into top coat.

Tender water cocks

There was still a need for removal of rust and old paint to be removed from inside the coal space of the tender, I started needle gunning that in the morning before being roped in to help lift 2874 off its wheels.

3850's tender.

The tender was largely painted whilst on the lifting jacks, the rear drag box was resting on the lifting beam between two of the jacks whilst it was being painted, so that will need to get some attention soon.

Bereft of paint.

Foremarke Hall has been the subject of conversation in the steam dept recently.  It has been noted that the initials ID have appeared on the frames just behind the front buffer beam.  For GWR locos before they acquired BR liveries, this is where the shed location would be painted, but there was no shed code of ID that anyone could think of.  Several younger members of the department suggested that it might be something to do with a well known boy band, perhaps they were going to use Foremarke Hall in a video for their next single?  Others thought that getting hold of some tippex and appending the number ten and the letter "T" would be a good thing idea.  The truth as it turns out is that it stands for "Improved Draughting".

Improved Draughting

This all came about because of a photo discovered by the Foremarke Hall group showing their loco at Crew with the letters ID just behind the front buffer beam

If you squint through a large magnifying glass, you can just about make it out

6023 King Edward II was out in the sun receiving some TLC from the owning group and being prepared for a boiler exam.

6023 enjoying some TLC

She has done her last steamings with us for this summer and will be off to the North York Moors Railway for their gala in the near future.

The topic of laundry is not at first sight one that you would have thought that the steam loco dept would be particularly interested in.  You'd be wrong.  The inspectors like to see crews turned out in clean, crisply ironed blues, with tie (drivers) or neckerchiefs (firemen).  Boots need to have been shined to within an inch of their lives. The crew training reports and assessments all have a section for "appearance".   This is all well and good, however operating a steam locomotive is not exactly conducive to maintaining the standards of sartorial elegance that would gain you entry to the royal enclosure at Ascot.  A full day of working in the hot, oily, greasy and coal dust laden environment of a steam loco will soon have you looking like a soap shy dishevelled chimney sweep.  Overalls used during the loco preparation of oiling up, emptying ash pans and smoke boxes and lighting the fire end up looking even worse.  Getting your blues or overalls back to an acceptable level of cleanliness is not simply a case of bunging them in the domestic washing machine on a long hot washing cycle, many of our better halves don't want to be washing their whites or delicates in a washing machine that has just been used for railway laundry thank you very much.  Most of us are relegated to hand washing them in a bucket in the back garden using suitably hot water and industrial strength detergent.  I have long since given up on this as being too much like hard work, and simply bought a second cheap washing machine which inhabits one corner of the garage.  It is plumbed in to the outside tap via a length of garden hose. It works very nicely, blues come out as clean as can be expected (which isn't very clean to be honest) and no whites or delicates are harmed in the process.  Older readers may remember soap powder adverts involving a "doorstep challenge", a film crew ostensibly turning up unannounced and challenging housewives to find their grubbiest items of laundry so that the soap powder manufacturer could demonstrate how wonderful their product was.  I dream that the advert campaign will be resurrected and that they'll turn up on my doorstep... they'll definitely be sorry if they do.  Why am I telling you all this?  Mrs Blogger has a once white fleece jacket that on cold days she wears under her overalls, it has been kicking around in the garage waiting to be washed since the last cold season.  As temperatures are starting to dip, she wanted it washing again in anticipation of the cold weather to come.  Mrs Blogger has some form when it comes to leaving tissues in pockets of items for washing, so I now go through all of her pockets to make sure that they're empty.  It's just as well that I did, because on this occasion she had left a red biro in a pocket of the fleece.  It was a near miss, I might well have turned up wearing pink blues... and I know that I'd never have heard the end of it if I had.

Moving swiftly along to Tuesday, I was back again, this time for a firing turn on 35006.

The day didn't get off to a good start, pulling coal forward is best done with a rake, unfortunately whenever it was coaled up last, the rake had been overlooked and left in the tender.  It was now buried under several tons of coal.

I had to do a fair bit of excavating to have even this much of the rake visible.

Harry (cleaner) finished digging out the rake from here on.
 
 Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary since the foundation of the Merchant Navy.  This auspicious occasion was deemed to be reason enough to turn out 35006 with a commemorative headboard, and suitable flags (union flags & red ensigns) displayed on the front running plate and on the smoke deflectors.  A team of people had been out cleaning her the day before, so she was looking rather smart by the time she was attached to her train.

35006 just before departing shed

 Needless to say, various members of the press had been alerted and various people in hi-viz were being escorted around by Ian, the GWSR press officer.

Harry continues cleaning 35006 for a few of the paparazzi

 Normally, we'd attach to the stock at around 09:30 for a brake test before the first departure at 10:00.  On this occasion they wanted us there at 09:00 for a bit of a photo session beforehand.   The crew & guard were also reluctantly lined up in front of the loco for a photo call, don't worry, I'll spare you that.

Waiting to depart

Even video footage was taken

Many photos of the day have emerged and made their way onto various social media outlets etc.   The following three photos were all very kindly sent to me courtesy of Steve Parker:

On the pits along with 2807

Setting off from the yard

Departing Toddington with the first train of the day

We were requested to slow down through Dixton cutting, then apply a bit of chuff to get us back up to line speed as we approached Three Arch Bridge where some of the photographers would be waiting.  After that, the day returned to being just a normal day out at the GWSR... well mostly

This gentleman was dressed up in togs that predated the founding of the Merchant Navy by some considerable margin

And finally, more work took place on the welfare building foundations, note the blue bricks layer on the outside. 

Starting to take shape

There should have been a concrete pour yesterday to fill in the foundations.  I wasn't there to take pictures, I must have been allowed time off for good behaviour... well OK, time off anyway.