Hard of Hearing?

Research carried out by members of Dinmore Manor Locomotive Limited (DMLL) has established that the last Manor to work the Cambrian Coast Express was none other than their loco, 7820, Dinmore Manor.  To celebrate this fact, it is intended to run Dinmore Manor with an original Cambrian Coast Express headboard on at least one day over the gala period.

Dinmore Manor with a Cambrian Coast Express headboard, photo courtesy of Phil Grange

Speaking of the gala, the public timetable, including loco allocations is now available on the main GWSR website to download and print.  All three visiting locos, 34092, Wells, 34007, Wadebridge and 6960, Raveningham Hall. will be facing north (smoke box towards Laverton) and all four home fleet locos will be facing south (smoke box towards Cheltenham Race Course station).  Full details of the gala can be found by clicking on this link.  I've been stitched up with being gala coordinator on the Saturday (if anything isn't going according to the plan, I'll be the one who gets the hassle).  My plan is to get at least as far down the line as Gotherington where the pump trolley will be in use and refreshments available. All in all, a superb spot to relax and watch the trains go by. The fact that I will get no mobile phone coverage and that I'll also be out of range of the walkie talkie that I will be issued with has absolutely nothing to do with it.

When I turned up on Saturday, I was a little surprised to discover that Dinmore Manor and 2807 were the locos in steam.  I had received word that there was to be a working party on Dinmore Manor however 4270 had a broken spring which needed changing and so Dinmore Manor was pressed into service in 4270's place.

2807 shortly prior to working the day's trains

 Before we started on changing the spring on 4270, John did a spot of cleaning up parts of Foremarke Hall's bogie which is off to be grit blasted shortly.

John with parts of Foremarke Hall's bogie.

You may remember from some while back that I helped out with changing a spring on 4270 sometime last year.  It turns out that it was the same one that had gone again, (driver's side intermediate).  The same process had to be gone through once more.  The first thing that needed to be done was to gain access to the spring by removing a section of the vacuum brake pipe.

Cliff unbolting the vac pipe.

A number of the dreaded split pins needed to be removed:

Tim and Jonathan on split pin removal duty.

One of the brackets the spring connects to is riveted in place, the other bolted.  The bolted one needed removing and the centre pin needed knocking out.

John removing the centre pin

I understand that John has kindly volunteered to lead a team on Wednesday to swap the bogie spring of one of our visiting locos, Raveningham Hall which has apparently broken one at its West Somerset Railway home.  This is good news indeed, because as Foremarke Hall's manager, he knows more than most about what needs to be done and how to go about doing it.  Any members of the steam loco dept who can be around to assist will be more than welcome.

The adjusting nuts are substantial items.  A one and a half inch Whitworth spanner was required along with a length of scaffolding pipe to gain extra leverage. Dan & George provided the muscle power.

Dan (l) and George, putting their backs into it.

It's far cheaper than joining a gym.

The pin holding the end by the ash pan had seized solid and we couldn't coax the broken spring out.  The solution was to break it even more.  George gave it a bit of therapy with the gas axe:

George making sparks fly

Neatly severed spring leaf.

The replacement spring required a little work before the adjuster links would fit correctly in place.

George started with a grinding wheel....

... and then with a drill attachment

No more photos from here on, but you'll be pleased to know that 4270 was restored to working order by the close of play on Saturday.  It's fair to say that we had to fight it every step of the way, nothing was easy.  4270 is now stopped for a quick washout prior to the gala.

Meanwhile, over in the David Page shed, more work was taking place on the tender frames of Dinmore Manor, the area where the intermediate buffers will be housed was receiving some attention from Mike.

Mike at work

 The following photo courtesy of DMLL shows the tender body and wheels at DMLL's private site.  The wheels will be coming to Toddington in the fairly near future.

Tender body and wheels.

My appeal for more cleaning rags last week didn't fall on deaf ears, the cleaning rag bin was full to overflowing when I arrived.

Cleaning rag collection point

 As I appear to be the only person passed out on wheel barrows, I shifted them into the oil store.

I took care not to pass any weigh bridges with this lot

There was even a note from one of the donors.  

Thank you to everybody who has donated rags for us.

For future reference, notes are always welcome, especially £20 notes.  

The steam loco dept requires more than just rags to clean and light up locos with, we get through a huge number of old wooden pallets too.  One of our newest recruits, Donna, knows of a source of wooden pallets and arranged for a lorry load of them to be delivered on Saturday. 

Steve shifting pallets from the car park to the wood store area.

She managed to elude my camera, but thank you anyway Donna.  I'm sure that Roger and his merry team of pallet breakers will be glad of anybody from the steam loco dept who can be around on Wednesday to give them a hand.

Work is progressing on the water tower for the yard, Trevor was giving it a coat of paint.

Trevor painting the water tower.

The decision has been taken to move 35006 down to Winchcombe for the gala.  She will reside on the bay platform behind platform 2, next to the recently refurbished TPO carriage that houses the model railway.    The thunderbird loco that usually occupies that location during galas will now be in the yard of the Carriage and Wagon dept at Winchcombe which will be open to the public and the footplate will be accessible to our visitors.

As a bit of a bonus, the 35006 group spent a while on Saturday attaching the name plates.  Although the name plates were made some while ago (the originals of course were sold on before she was sent to Barry Island scrap yard), they have never been fitted before.

Fireman's side name plate getting a buff up before fitting.

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb fit a name plate?

Also worthy of note is that the lining out has been finished too, she is looking gorgeous now.

Fireman's side nameplate finally fitted

 Next stop of course was the driver's side name plate

Yet more polishing.

 Slightly fewer people required to fit this one:

On it goes

 Something of a historical moment really.  I can't help but think that we should arrange for some celebrity to do the honours at some sort of official naming ceremony.

Driver's side name plate in place.

Unless they did it very late on and I missed it, they hadn't fitted the smoke box number plate however it is to hand and will be done so shortly if it hasn't been already.

35006 smoke box number plate awaiting fitting

Looking fabulous, 35006 in the sunshine.

More good news; we have another fireman.  Steve Foster passed his firing exam on Sunday.  Congratulations Steve.    I wasn't there to record the event for posterity (Time off for good behaviour... well ok then, time off anyway) and as far as I can ascertain, nobody else was either.  We'll have to make do with a shot of Steve on the shovel from last year:

Steve, our newest fireman.

 And finally, last week B.B. King passed away, so I thought that it would be fitting to sign off with something appropriate from him.