Concrete & Gold

The operating season is now at an end, and we're now in a bit of a limbo until the Santa season kicks off at the end of November.  True, there will be the race trains in the middle of the month, but that only covers two days.  For the various loco owning groups, this gives them the opportunity to tackle some of the smaller tasks on their winter maintenance programmes, but not to take on any of the larger ones which will have to wait until January.  To this end, a small team on Wednesday got on with the task of fettling Foremarke Halls cylinder drain cocks:

Drain cock fettling, photo courtesy of Martin Ryan

I am reliably informed that they were doing useful work, and not just lying down on the job.

For locos that are not currently in service, there is no limit to the jobs that can be done, and I note that 3845's boiler has lost a lot more tubes over the last couple of weeks.

Good progress!

Aside from the locos, the main focus has been on getting the shed floor finished in time for the winter, steam locos don't like being left out in the cold & wet, so it's important to get road 6 in the shed back in operation. To this end, the Wednesday gang got several more sections of concrete done, followed by further sections on Friday :

Ready to start on Wednesday (Photo courtesy of John Cruxon)

Concrete being poured (Photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

Levelling the playing field (Photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

Mark, with a dumper truck full of concrete (Photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

End of play on Wednesday

On Friday, in spite of the weather, more concrete was poured out on the apron in front of road 6, as well as in the four foot inside the shed

Levelling off the apron (Photo courtesy of Martin Ryan)

By the time that I turned up on Saturday, the excellent progress in all areas was obvious to see.

The pour on the apron, protected from the elements

Just one pour required now inside the shed

Luke was busying himself grinding off the shuttering that kept the concrete away from the inside of the rails

Luke, making sparks fly

By the end of Saturday, the steel reinforcing had been put in place for the final section in the shed, and for some of the apron too.

Ready for the next pour

 It's taken a while, but the light at the end of this particular tunnel is now looming large indeed.  One more pour of concrete and the shed floor will be finished, the apron will not be far behind.  Once all the concrete is down, after a month or so to cure, will come the task of etching and painting to finally finish it off.

Of the other jobs in hand on Saturday, finishing off the underside of Dinmore Manor's old tender which has been occupying the lifting jacks for a while has progressed, with large areas of the underside now cleaned and primed:

David cleaning more rust/grot from under the tender

Another David (you don't have to be called David to volunteer for DMLL, but it helps) got stuck in with the under coating.  Nigel was under there somewhere too, but he managed to elude my camera.

David using a roller brush to apply undercoat

Dinmore Manor itself had returned from the Churnet Valley Railway and needed a little bit of attention.

To start with, it was still in two parts...

...It also had a broken spring that needed changing

Added to that, the rear half of the grate was past it's sell by date and needed to come out, replacement fire bars being on order.

Life expired fire bars

Donna & Will removing the old spring

The replacement one waiting to be fitted

Mike manoeuvring the new spring into position

Other tasks completed on Dinmore Manor, included reseating a bogie support cup, removing/checking/refitting the draw bar clevis, adjusting the height of the drop grate and repairing the intermediate grate carrier.  The clocks having gone back a week ago, meant that even with a failry large team of people at work, it was completely dark by the time that Dinmore Manor had been coupled back up to her tender and shunted into the shed.

35006 on the other hand has just been separated from its tender, apparently access to the underkeeps for maintenance requires that it is raised up, so it is next in line for a place on the lifting jacks.

35006 waiting for a lift

And finally, it looks like 4270 may not be back with us in time for the start of the Santa season, so, subject to contract, we are hiring in small prairie 5526 from the South Devon Railway to help us through. 

5526 departing Buckfastleigh on the SDR

5526 reflected in the river Dart

Small prairies are remarkably useful engines, and many of our crews have fond memories of her sister loco, 5542 which was based on the GWSR until relatively recently. 5526 is currently expected to work on the Santa trains, on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, along with Dinmore Manor.  The Christmas Cracker mixed traction event should hopefully see Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor in steam.  NB, the Santa trains are pre-book only and selling fast.