Water Catastrophe

There are some things in life that you just take for granted, you don't realise how important they are until they are gone.  One such thing is water.  We're used to just turning on a tap, and out comes either hot water for washing in, or cold water for drinking.  Saturday was the day that it was gone, and suddenly we were all reminded of just how important it is.  For those of you who may have somehow avoided the national news since Friday, there was a 36" water main burst in a flooded field somewhere in the vicinity of Tewkesbury, which normally supplied water to places as far afield as Toddington.  Mercifully, it didn't supply Winchcombe or Cheltenham as well, so there was no effect on the steam hauled Santa specials, however at Toddington where the DMU hauled Santa trains were scheduled to run, it was a different matter.  No water meant no working toilets, or facilities to wash hands, and the prospect of yet more cancellations was a serious possibility.  I know not how, but emergency arrangements were put in hand and the DMU Santa services were able to run as advertised.  Thank you to all involved in allowing this to happen.

In the steam loco dept, the lack of water caused some issues:

Water for the kettle had to be dispensed from plastic bottles...

...bereft of H2O

 There was little dismay though from those who should have washed up their cups and were unable to do so.  I'm led to believe that Tim ended up washing the lot later.

A morning's worth of mucky cups.

 Back up at the main station, there were several water bowsers in evidence... the snow man in the background was more than a little concerned that he might be melted down and put in the bowser.

No idea where it came from

 Back in the David Page shed, there was an element of reorganising going on, there was now thanks to the welding skills of Luke & John, a lamp stand, which had just been given a coat of primer by Stuart. Not the sort of lamp stand that you might have in the corner of your living room, but one for accommodating the lamps that we put on our locos. The lamps are currently squirrelled away in lockers, which can lead to them being damaged when inserted/removed, this arrangement will hopefully mitigate that.  They will be arranged in sets, so it will be easier to spot if any have gone astray, and of course, it will be easier to spot if one has inadvertently been left alight.

Lamp stand, should be ready for use soon.

 The cold, and lack of water had an effect on volunteer turnout, but the intrepid team that are working on 35006's axle boxes are made of sterner stuff.  35006 had been moved into the area between the jacks and was being prepared to be lifted.  With a steam loco, nothing is easy and in the case of 35006, one of the harder things to do is get at the driving axle box, lifting the loco up being required.

35006, between the jacks

 I said that the 35006 team are "made of sterner stuff", but on this occasion, I believe that I can include the 2807 group in that.  They have got bored without their own loco around to fettle, so some of them were to be found under 35006 as well.  There were a fair number of disembodied voices to be heard under there.

Under 35006, they could just have been hiding from the cold of course

 Dinmore Manor's old tender had moved back into the shed

Back in the shed...

...and some rotted plate work has been removed.

 The directors of DMLL had wisely in my opinion decided to hold a bored board meeting in the nicely heated board room... at least one had brought a flask of coffee with him.  One item of note, is that the polystyrene patterns for 3850's cylinder blocks have now been made and soon the cylinder blocks themselves will be cast.  This is very much a cutting edge project for steam loco restoration, few other groups have done this.

Polystyrene pattern, photo courtesy of Premier Patterns LTD

Polystyrene pattern, photo courtesy of Premier Patterns LTD

 Non-destructive testing of both 3845's and 2874's boiler are both due to occur in the very near future, and hopefully 3845's boiler will be sent away for refurbishment very early in the new year.

The evening saw the steam loco dept's Christmas dinner, organised as usual by Tina.  The quiz this year had a festive theme, a team called "No hopers", in spite of their name managed to win.   

As usual there was a festive jumper competition

Festering Festive Jumper competition entrants

 Of note is the PLC's finance director who has combined a festive jumper with a piratical eye patch, and Mark, who turned up in a festive onesie!  Mark was disqualified as it was more of a jump suit than a jumper, so the judges finally awarded the first prize chocolates to Peter who had flashing lights on his jumper.

Peter & his prize.

Congratulations Peter, and many thanks indeed to Tina for organising the event once again.

And finally, trying to survive without clean water is not an easy thing, and it caused many issues for us just by not being there for a day or two at one of our stations.  Imagine if that situation was a permanent one.  You may wish to make a contribution to Wateraid who are trying to remedy that situation in places where fresh drinking water isn't simply available by turning on a tap.