All Change

We seem to struggle to get all of our home fleet together at the same time, days before Dinmore Manor returned from her summer holiday on the Dartmouth Steam Railway, 2807 headed off to the North York Moors Railway (NYMR) for an extended visit, which will include their Autumn Gala (30th Sept - 2nd October).  The crews at the NYMR were delighted at the way that 2807 appeared to flatten their steep gradients when she visited last year and invited her back again this year.

2807 on the unloading road, prior to departure

A few days later, Dinmore Manor returns (photo courtesy of Steve Oddy)

Now safely back in the David Page shed, Dinmore Manor will be undergoing an "A" exam, before she will re-enter traffic.  The opportunity has been taken to shunt her up to her new tender, but not yet attach it. 

Dinmore Manor, tantalisingly close to her new tender

The tender itself has been turned out in black by Dan, who has made an excellent job of it.

Back to black!

In the last blog post, I mentioned that 2874's boiler had been lifted.  Since then, the smoke box, which was wasted beyond repair has been removed, and the salvageable items recovered from it

2874's boiler, without its smoke box

A variety of salvaged smoke box attachments, including the chimney.

 A recent firing turn on 4270 has reminded me that the leather pipe from the water tower at Cheltenham (an original fitting) has enough holes to make you think that it has had a fight with a porcupine and come a very poor second:

Pete tries in vain to stay dry

 I couldn't help but notice that one of the wagons up at Winchcombe has some curious lettering on the side, it seems to be suffering from some sort of identity crisis.

Is it for fruit or a passenger?

 Either way, not too many passengers will weigh more than 10 tons, or at least I hope not.  Perhaps this is our answer to the recent problem highlighted on the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I won't be able to be around for the Thomas weekend (24th & 25th of Sept), I have commitments elsewhere.  I was reminded that it wasn't far off, by the presence of this nice little Hunslet called Jessie that had appeared in the yard.

Jessie

 Good progress has been made in the preparations for concreting the back half of the shed. 

The track is back in place and levelled

 I was tied up with the day job last Saturday, however I found time to pay a visit on Sunday.  One of those outstanding jobs that nobody fancied taking on, was the removal of the studs that secure the clack/safety valves to the top of 3850's boiler. 

Looks easy doesn't it!

 The problem is, that they haven't been disturbed in at least 10 years and have rusted in solid.  They are located in a fairly tricky to get at place and for the first few at least, it's hard to get enough room to get a stilson onto them and turn them any meaningful distance.

About to start on the first one

Extra leverage was always required to get them started at least

There's always going to be one that snaps off rather than come out

 In the end, I gave up on the last two, they really weren't going to play ball, and the stilson was coming off second best.

Oops... don't know my own strength!

 Ian will cut them off and drill out the parts that remains in place at a later date.

Sunday is the day that the DMU team spend working on their items of rolling stock.  I don't usually mention them in here, because normally if I'm around on a Sunday, it's because I have a footplate turn and miss out on seeing what they are up to.  Aside from that, I'd have thought that their activities would be more appropriate to be covered in the diesel blog, even though they are mostly if not all members of the steam loco dept.  Needless to say I was harangued by one of them for this glaring omission.  Anyway, although I missed out on taking photos of them in action, I did at least capture Brian and Tom at the end of the day.  I leave it to you to work out which one has yet to visit the washroom.

Brian (l) & Tom

I think it's fair to say that it's possible to get extremely mucky with diesels as well as steam.

And finally, congratulations to Paul who has passed out as a driver.  Paul is already passed as a DMU driver on the GWSR and can now add driving steam locos to his CV.  All photos courtesy of Judith Freeman.

Paul with his steed for the occasion, Foremarke Hall.

Paul (centre) with on the left, Elliot (cleaner) and James (fireman)

Paul with Inspector Irving.