The Wednesday Gang

Readers of this blog could be forgiven for thinking that interesting things only happen on the GWSR at weekends.  This is of course far from the truth, it's just that being a humble wage slave, I can usually only get along to the railway at weekends.  This week, work had me more or less passing Toddington on Wednesday (well with only a minor detour) so I thought that I'd pop in for an hour or two and see what the Wednesday gang were up to. Besides, the Saturday crowd have been starting to complain that they seem to be the only ones who have to suffer the indignity of appearing on this blog and would like the misery spread further afield.  My apologies in advance, I didn't manage to catch everybody's names and there is a sporting chance I've got a few of those I did scribble down wrong too.

Things didn't get off to a good start, pretty much the first person that I bumped into when I got into the yard was Gilbert.  He was curious to find out what I was doing at Toddington midweek and when I told him that I was here to find out what the Wednesday gang got up to, his reply was "Very little".  Undeterred I ventured further into the yard, to be rewarded with the fine sight of 4270 basking out in the sunshine.

4270 catching some rays

I'm not sure which is rarer, 4270 appearing outside or the sun shining, either way I decided that I should investigate.  Ian Carpenter was keen to show me recent progress, not only were all the smokebox fittings now in place, but both injectors and associated pipework were now fitted too.  Access underneath to fit the injectors & pipes were why 4270 had been pulled out onto the pit.

Driver's side injector

There were still a few bolts to hold the smokebox in place that needed fitting, Ian machined up some new bolts whilst Bob removed several plates to gain access to the location where the bolts would need inserting.

Ian turning up the new smokebox securing bolts

Bob works on gaining access to where the bolts will be fitted

Later on, Paul turned up to fit a bracket to keep one of the injector pipes in place

Paul got slightly distracted and started chatting about camera lenses for a bit...

...but he soon got cracking on the job in hand.

Ian managed to get a bit side-tracked by several members of the 2807 group who needed a steam feed pipe to the condensing coil for the hydrostatic lubricator soldering up... apparently it had been leaking recently.

Ian gets distracted by Bruce & Geof with their steam feed pipe

In the background to the above shot, you'll notice the 8F.  She has been largely turned out in war dept guise in readiness for the Wartime in the Cotswolds event this weekend.  She now carries the WD smoke box number plate 348 and has had an air compressor & air tanks fitted above her running plate.  The LMS logo & number were still in place on Wednesday, but will have been replaced in time for the weekend with the appropriate WD items.  She will of course be reverting almost immediately back to her LMS guise after this coming weekend in anticipation of the Cotswold Steam Celebration 2013 at the end of May, so if you want to see her in her WD guise, then you'll have to be quick.  The weather forecast for the Wartime in the Cotswolds event is looking extremely good, so why not come along?

8F, with WD 348 smokebox number plate & air tanks

8F with air compressor

Outside I discovered Roger busy restocking the wood store.  I hadn't noticed that the wood store had opening doors at this end before.

Roger & friend replenishing the wood store

Meanwhile, over near platform one, Chris, Pete & Nigel are busy erecting some fence posts

Chris wields a sledge hammer, Pete looks apprehensive

Nigel turns out to be less trusting and employs a piece of wood

The new water tower stands next to this point and there are a few open manholes that needed covers manufacturing.

The new water tower

Two of the three exposed manholes

Neil, Tom & Tim in the process of fabricating the covers

The finished manhole covers in place

The weather being fine, more painting was taking place in various locations in the yard and even on the station:

Peter refreshes the white paint on the platform edges

Tim paints the coal dock gates

Chris & Peter measure up the mess coach for the cream part of the chocolate & cream primer

Chris applying cream primer

David also applying cream primer

In an act of selfless dedication to the task, Chris checked the chocolate primer against a large sample of chocolate biscuits just to make sure that the shade was correct.  You don't get such exacting standards on just any old railway you know.

Meanwhile sections of scrap rail were being cut up into suitable sizes to fit into the scrap skip.  Some of them would be temporarily pressed into service to weigh down some of the marquees which were being erected in the car park for the coming weekend.

John cuts up the rail

Peter, Mike, John & John working on breaking up the old rail

Ben is on holiday this week and is spending much of it working on the railway, here he is shifting the cut up rail

Finally, plenty of work was taking place on the restoration of the National Railway Museum's 4F, 44027. 

The rolling chassis of 44027 in the David Page shed.

Clive & Dave making up a lubrication pipe for 44027

Meanwhile, outside in the sunshine, work was taking place on the boiler of 44027:

The inverted boiler of 44027

Mike at work on the firebox tube plate

Kev at work on the lap seals

Enlarging some of the stay holes, once again I'm afraid that I don't know the names of the people involved

So if this really was Gilbert's idea of "Very little", I'd love to see Wednesday gang at work on a busy day.

Edit:  Subsequent to scribing this little lot yesterday, I've been informed (thanks John) that I managed to miss some of the most important events of the day.  Firstly, before I arrived, all the service locos had their grates/ashpans/smokeboxes thoroughly cleaned ready for the impending services on Friday/the weekend.  As somebody who has occasionally found themselves lighting up a loco at the weekend, it's always extremely nice to find that the grate is clear apart from the remains of a warming fire.  Secondly 2807 had been red-carded due to the defective steam feed pipe to the condensing coil for the hydrostatic lubricator, so the Wednesday gang had already stripped down the condensing coil pipework of 2807 in readiness for Ian Carpenter to re-solder the joint at one end.

Catching up with 4270

Time to 'fess up.... in the unlikely event that you'd believed it, Foremarke Hall is still in green rather than lined BR black that I said on April Fools Day.  In fact the joke was on me really, as I wound up getting out of bed an hour earlier than usual in order to get the story uploaded to the blog on the right date, before heading back off to Toddington again.  I nearly had to get up before I went to bed.  

The clocks of course had just gone forward an hour the day before, so it was back to starting off cleaning the locos in the dark.  As usual a merry throng of volunteers settled into prepping the rostered engines for the day and soon enough 8274 and Foremarke Hall were heading off shed to haul the 'Easter Eggspress' workings up and down the line.

8274 sets off from the yard

Soon followed by Foremarke Hall

Monday turned out to be a fairly quiet day at Toddington, so after I'd broken up the last of the stack of pallets and put them in the wood store I set off over to the signal box looking for a few photos of the trains departing down the line.

Neatly replenished wood store

Bill Tyndall in the signal box was most welcoming and even provided me with a nice hot cup of tea as we waited for the trains to depart.  Apparently the railway was very popular on Monday morning and Foremarke Hall was delayed by 15 minutes or so as a long queue of passengers progressed on their way through the booking office to the platform.

Chris Hayes collects the token from Bill Tyndall as Foremarke Hall sets off with the 'Easter Eggspress'

8274 returns from Cheltenham, Chris Bristow hands over the token to Bill.

Afterwards, a rummage around in the David Page shed turned up not the usual crowds of people working on the various engines, just Ian Carpenter making steady progress with 4270.

4270

Few Churchward locos survive with inside steam pipes, but 4270 is one of them.  The current aim is to get her ready for an in frames steam test.  To that end, since the boiler arrived back from Crewe, Ian has been working on the smoke box fittings.  I caught him working on the lubrication feed pipe for the regulator and the end of the ejector pipe that connects to the chimney.

Smoke box with the ejector pipe offered up rather than fitted

Ian manufacturing a nut for the regulator lubricator feed pipe

Regulator & cylinder lubricator splitter with part made regulator lubricator pipe

4270 left Barry Island scrapyard in a relatively complete condition, she still retains all her original coupling rods, but some items have one way or another found there way onto the loco from elsewhere. The driver's side piston valve front cover for instance is stamped '5227'

5227 stamped on piston valve front cover

5227 is now one of the 'donor' locos for the new build 4709 at Didcot Railway Centre and what is left will eventually end up as a static exhibit there.

Work has also taken place up at the other end of 4270.

The backhead is also taking shape

Not visible in this shot is the grate and brick arch which are both fitted.
In the hope of getting me to stop bugging him with questions and taking copious photos for the blog, Ian sent me off to turn up a couple of gaskets for the ejector pipe.  The last time I had to make gaskets rather than buy ready made ones was for my dear old BSA B33 when I was an impecunious student many years ago.... and I made them from old cornflakes packets.

The last victim of my gasket making... note no oil leaks underneath her!

Ian Meanwhile cracked on with the task of soldering up the regulator lubricator feed pipe and the ejector pipe.

Regulator feed pipe being finished off

Likewise with the ejector pipe

Quenching the new ejector pipe

Finally the completed ejector feed pipe and regulator lubricator feed pipe was offered up with the petticoat in place underneath the chimney to make sure that everything fitted ok.  The original petticoat from 4270 was rusted past the point of no return,  The one seen here came from 7200.  7200 at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre has been treated to a nice shiny new one.

Taking shape in the smoke box

The main steam pipes, cylinder lubrication pipes and superheater elements remain to be fitted, but it's all coming together.  Watch this space for future updates and hopefully for a bit of a history of the earlier stages of the restoration.

Things that go bang

The last few weeks at the GWSR kicked off with something of a bang.  Now there are good sorts of bangs and there are bad sorts of bangs.  Fireworks on bonfire night for instance would come under the heading of good bangs.  Connecting rods in air compressors busting out through crank cases however would definitely come under the heading of bad bangs.  Given that it is February rather than November, guess which type of bang that I'm referring to. Mercifully the GWSR has more than one air compressor, but this particular one has probably compressed its last.

Little end gone big, big end gone bigger, con rods gone bang!

Norwegian blue air compressor, pining for the fjords

"It's not pining, it's passed on. This air compressor is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late air compressor. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-air compressor."


The winter maintenance programme on Foremarke Hall took a step forward on Saturday as numerous members of the steam loco dept busied themselves on the outstanding tasks.  Adrian refitted the injector cones and Clive refitted the firebars into the grate.  2807 has now been fitted out with Chrome alloy firebars which should, if they do what they say on the tin last the rest of her 10 year boiler ticket.  This of course means that there were now plenty of firebars available for Foremarke Hall.

Spotlight on Clive, centre stage in Foremarke Hall's firebox

Clive refitting firebars

Meanwhile up at the pointy end of Foremarke Hall, more people than were strictly necessary were busy refitting the valve covers.  I'll confess to have lost the plot a bit as to the exact sequence of events now however the left hand one went on, came back off and then went back on again.  

Phil keeps a close eye on the valve cover's nuts and washers

Paul Greasing the valve cover gasket

Ben fitting the valve cover and the fingers of  the otherwise camera shy Sean

Rumbled

Having removed it again, replacing one of the bushes

Steve refitting the valve cover again

Foremarke Hall being taken to the water tower... you can lead a Hall to water but you can't make it drink

Elsewhere, 8F, 8274 has had her valve gear refitted and Nick was to be found cleaning up the connecting rods prior to them being varnished and refitted.

Nick cleaning 8274's connecting rods

Sometime during the preceding week, work has been done on the coal dock with works to add an ash pit to the end of it.

Coal dock & ash pit taking shape

Yours truly found gainful employment on the external refurbishment of the mess coach.  Over the years, the mess coach has become.... well messy.  The clue is in the name really.  The task in hand now is to turn it out in a tasteful chocolate & cream livery in time for the Cotswold Steam Celebration gala  in May. It was far too cold to permit any painting to take place (snow flakes fell but failed to settle for most of the day) however there was nothing to stop a concerted effort in sanding down the coach's exterior in readiness for painting when warmer weather arrives.

Jamie rather noisily sanding what is allegedly a quiet coach

Tina applying rust inhibitor.

Dan applying rust inhibitor too, though for some bits it's a bit like closing the stable doors after the horse has bolted.  I find the 'No Brakes' notice a little disconcerting

Andy Beale taking a break with some 'thirst inhibitor'

Speaking of Andy, he was collared a little later in the day whilst walking past our resident Merchant Navy.  In his own words, this is what transpired:

"I made the mistake of walking past SR 35006 just as one of their team was trying to manhandle a long irregular pipe into the cab. Was I doing anything for a few minutes.... 2 hours later we had satisfactorily installed that and many of the steam pipes from the boiler manifold to the injectors? These had been bent to shape a couple of years back and some were finally going on for their final fit. Unfortunately a certain 25 mm odd conduit pipe which houses the whistle actuating rod now fouled two of the injector steam delivery pipes so some more tweaking is required. It's now coming on week by week with the painters doing their bit as well, with the main driving wheels now receiving attention."

Andy also noticed something which had eluded me.  Ex GWR, 2-8-0T, 4270 now has a chimney attached.  He even kindly took a photo to prove it:-

4270, now with chimney. Photo courtesy of Andy Beale