The Romance of Steam

Events conspired to keep me from Toddington on Saturday, but I was at least able to sneak in for a while on Sunday to have a look and see what had happened.

One of the more butter fingered members of the steam loco dept managed to comprehensively destroy one of the mugs in the mess coach.  Protestations by the culprit that it had simply disintegrated when picked up by the handle were widely disbelieved.

An ex-mug

So it was just as well that a box of new mugs had arrived:

Tea breaks can continue, relief all round!

The workshop has been undergoing something of a revamp recently, much of the machinery has been relocated and new storage has been installed along one of the walls by Tim & Neil.

New storage in the work shop.

4270 has had a superheater element removed, I believe that the one taken out os to be used as a pattern for some replacements.

Superheater element missing, bottom centre...

...and the removed element itself.

2807 is not only back on its pony truck, but has also been moved forward on road 7 onto the indoor pit.

Left to right, 5542, 7820 & 2807.

The driver's side rocker, which was on the work bench last week has been reinstalled:

Back where it belongs

Curiously, although 2807's pony truck is now attached and looks complete, the following items were to be found soaking in oil in the oil store, purporting to be from 2807's pony truck.  Hopefully some kind soul will enlighten me as to why they are here rather than on the loco.

The mystery pony truck lubrication

Meanwhile, Dinmore Manor has shown signs of coming back together, all the coupling rods and connecting rods are now back in place:

Fireman's side...

...and driver's side.

Neither connecting rod has been attached to their cross heads though.

The leading axle boxes that I created the lubrication felts for last week have had their covers replaced.  The ones on the trailing axle have yet to be done.

Axle box cover, back in place.

I also noted that the cylinder cover on the driver's side that Tony and Sam were working on last week has been replaced too.

Cylinder cover back in place.

35006 has been split from her tender to allow the fitting of a new pair of boiler keys, the process wil involve lifting the cab floor.

Separated from its tender

The boiler keys themselves were receiving a bit of attention on Sunday prior to their fitting:

Boiler keys being attended to

 The brake beams on 35006's tender had been fitted for the last time, the actuating rods are away being machined.

Finally, yet more boiler tubes have been removed from 3850, with all of the large tubes now disconnected and the majority of the small ones too.

Weight saving measures in 3850's boiler.

We seem to have run out of room in the scrap metal skip for the removed tubes.

A skip full of old tubes

Few people were about on Sunday, presumably because it was Valentine's Day.  I can only assume that the members of the steam loco dept are all a bunch of diehard romantics at heart and were all treating their better halves to champagne, chocolates and flowers.  If your better half is a volunteer in the steam loco dept, and you didn't get champagne, chocolates & flowers, you may well want to ask some searching questions!