Valentine Special

 On Friday, a section of concrete was laid out by the ash pit.  I'm extremely grateful to Peter Gutteridge for the following three photos:

Mark pours the concrete

Work in progress

Neil smooths it out

The volunteers involved in this work were; Chris, Tim, Tim, John, Neil, Jamie, John, Mark and Mark's dad. Sorry if I missed anyone out.  This is a very useful bit of work, previously we could only coal up tender engines on the ash pit, tank engines having to be driven round onto the unloading road.  Now with this extra bit of concreted apron, we'll be able to coal up tank engines by the ash pit too.

I couldn't resist taking a shot of the finished job on Saturday.

Speaking of Peter Gutteridge, he was one of the people being trained how to drive the fork lift on Saturday, along with Ade and Cliff.

(L-R) Ade, Mike (instructor), Cliff and Peter (in the fork lift)

  The training process included letting them loose with the fork lift in the car park and negotiating their way around various cones.  Needless to say I hid my car as far away as possible from the scene of the crime when I found out that they were practicing in the car park.

I also received a number of photos of 2807 from Steve who was at Tyseley on Friday.  It looks like the work on the horn guides has commenced.  The following photos kindly provided by Steve Burnett:

On the wheel drop

Dropping two sets of wheels at once

Shunting 2807 out of the way

Lizzie watches as the wheels are raised again

Signs of wear

More signs of wear

Moving on to Saturday, once again, dismantling Foremarke Hall was the main job.  I got involved in removing all the bolts that hold the cab in place in readiness for the cab to be lifted off.

Inside the cab, note light coming through where bolts used to be

I took very few photos of the work in progress however Chris Chewter rather sneakily took a photo of me as I was pretending to do something hard at work:

No need to censor this one

Sean was on the outside clamping the rivet heads with mole grips while I undid the nuts on the inside.  They hadn't been disturbed in 10 years and in some cases weren't at all keen to be removed.

Next up was removing the hand rails, so that the boiler cladding could now be removed.  Once again, these were fittings that hadn't been disturbed in a very long time, they weren't at all keen to move either:

Dan removes the casting that supported the ejector pipe and hand rail

Jeff clouts one of the pin that secures the hand rail to its support, Jamie keeps an eye on his progress

Sean working on another ejector pipe/handrail support

Steve clouting another of the handrail retaining pins

The job was finally finished and the hand rails parted company with the boiler.  Nothing gave in without a fight though.

Meanwhile, extracting the tubes from the boiler continued:

John got to work on removing the last of the large tubes...

... and when he'd finished, he removed a section of tube plate to make access easier

Easier access to the remaining flue tubes

 A bit later on, the other John carried on with cutting out the flue tubes, I captured a photo or two from the firebox end as John worked in the smoke box:

John looking determined to get on with the job...

... and then making sparks fly!

 Early afternoon, and as forecast, the heavens opened.  We'd kept the shed door closed as much as possible to keep out the wind all day, now it was keeping out the rain too.  We opened the door long enough to let some brave soul out with a flue tube, then rapidly closed it again as soon as they returned.

Phil adding another flue tube to the pile and getting soaked in the process

Phil tried to dry himself off by getting close to the chimney, only to find somebody had nicked it:

Phil wondering where the chimney has gone.  Photo courtesy of Chris Chewter

Andy had managed to find something useful to do on 4270, her specially extended safety valve bonnet needed a bit of buffing up with Brasso:

Andy rubs the safety valve bonnet, sadly no genie appeared

Later he tried rubbing down the cylinder chest cover, still no sign of a genie.

5542 needed her bunker emptying of coal in readiness for the inside of the bunker to be painted on Wednesday.  As it was sunny in the morning, she was shunted out into the yard:

5542 blinks in the sunlight

Ian shoveled coal out of the bunker and onto the footplate...

... and Clive shovels it off of a footplate and into a wheelbarrow

And finally, I was engaged in conversation with a couple of the steam loco dept's more senior members at one point during the day and both let slip that they had recently bought shares in the Bridges to Broadway appeal and in Foremarke Hall, yet both had somehow managed to overlook informing their wives of this fact.  I know that many wives of the members of the steam loco dept read this blog just to find out what their husbands have been up to, so I will refrain from identifying the guilty parties, subject to receipt of the usual well stuffed plain brown envelopes of course.  Anyway, this set me thinking.  Gentlemen of the steam loco dept, why be boring and predictable by getting your loved ones roses, chocolates, and champagne followed by taking them out for a romantic candlelit dinner for two this Valentine's Day, when you could get them shares instead?  Just imagine how their faces will light up with joy when they find that you got them such a thoughtful and original gift.