Happy New Year to all blog readers!

The Christmas period, whilst frozen and icy has seen progress on a number of projects, including various books, the ‘thinking’ phases of other work and, of course, Dave Young’s unstoppable effort in his own workshop!

Below: New patterns, made by Dave Young, for Lewin. At the back is the oil box (one of four the engine will have) with the core in front and the lid to the right. To the left is the pattern for the handrail stanchions and in the foreground a pattern for the boiler band crinolins. These will be at the foundry this week and Dave will machine and assemble the components once cast.

Dave and I also spent a chilly Thursday morning fitting the chimney damper to Coffee Pot. Here is Dave marking the holes that carry the damper axle.

Below: A view into the chimney of the damper in the closed position – note the holes, to let some gases escape and reduce the blow-back effect.

Below: And the damper partly closed. This better shows the construction of it.

Below: Externally here is the crank that enables the flap to be adjusted. A rod is fitted from this to enable its operation, and was trial fitted. Some mods are required though. Also note the need to repaint the chimney! This modification will hopefully ease the driver/fireman’s job of controlling Coffee Pot’s fire. One of those quiet moments in a meeting saw me make the sketches, then e-mailed to Dave who had the parts made within a week!