7903 Foremarke Hall & 2807 stand on shed at Toddington - 23rd August 2024
As some of you know by now, I recently started a new job on the 'big railway' working in ticket offices at various mainline stations in the Worcestershire area. If I had to come up with an acronym for my job, seen as the railway is rather partial to such things, it would have to be HTVM, otherwise known as a 'Human Ticket Vending Machine'. To say that there is a lot to learn would be a bit of an understatement, and it's slightly more involved than simply 'pressing a few buttons' as one or two impatient passengers seem to think. Sadly, I've yet to receive any enquires for Cheltenham Racecourse or Toddington, although the elephant in the proverbial room is of course the missing track work. Mind you, as we're all very much aware, this is a rather sensitive subject and well beyond the scope of this particular blog. We can but dream!
I have to say, though, that my new employment certainly isn't boring... and speaking of boring, we must talk about 7903. Now I must stress that Foremarke Hall is far from boring, quite the opposite, but the reason for the aforementioned word will shortly become very clear when you read on further (before there are any comments of concern).
7903 Foremarke Hall & 2807 stand on shed at Toddington - 23rd August 2024
Time to hand over to John for an update.
You may have noticed the absence at Toddington of Foremarke Hall recently. She has also been reported on social media as sitting at Bridgnorth on the SVR. The reason for this is the SVR Engineering team are boring out the two cylinders as they have become badly worn and she kept breaking piston rings. As I write this on the 11th, the left hand side has already been completed and the boring bar was being set up first thing today, so the right hand side will soon be underway.
Our thanks go to Will Marsh and his team for their prompt assistance on this project.
Sat
at Toddington with piston’s removed - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
Ready for the short journey to the Severn Valley Railway,
Bridgnorth - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
Bogie dropped on the wheel drop to allow
clearance for the cylinder boring bar - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
Boring complete on the first cylinder at Bridgnorth (note the swarf in the bottom) - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
As of the 15thOctober, the work had been completed and 7903 was awaiting transport back to Toddington.
New fall plate - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
Meanwhile at Toddington, work has been taking place on preparing the new fall plate ready for reinstallation back on the engine. Note the fall plate is the hampered piece of flooring that covers the gap between the engine and tender.
The Wednesday
gang testing the first of two new safety Valve castings - Photo courtesy of John Cruxon
7903 safely back at Toddington - 21st October 2024 - Photo courtesy of Mark Wilson
A very important date for your diary folks! There's less than three days to go until our last hurrah of the year!
Autumn Showcase 2024 - 26th & 27th October
This will be the last opportunity to see 7820 in service at a gala and the first for 3850.
3850 & 7820 arrive at Toddington from Broadway - 18th October 2024 - Photo courtesy of Andy Fisher
35006 undergoing maintenance at Toddington - 18th October 2024
One
of the drawbacks about the new day job is the lack of free time (which,
of course, affects us all to varying degrees). Thus, for the
foreseeable future, opportunities for me to get on shed to help at Toddington will
be few and far between. Luckily, however, I was able to make it down
last Friday which was the first time in around two months, and the sun was shining. I did receive a few questions asking 'Are you new here?' from the usual suspects! I still can't believe it's October.
3850 stabled behind the old good shed at Toddington, 7820 is to the left - 18th October 2024
For those of you who use Facebook, here are a number of GWSR related groups which are worth following:
Anyway, until next time folks, I'm back to ticket vending! Stay tuned for a review of the year in due course.
Alex (the sooty one!).
All published photographs and videos are my own unless otherwise stated/credited.
