Lewin - Painting the frames

Lewin – Painting the frames

Below: Not Lewin but relevant as it is the same workshop – this is the crankshaft from the Ruston portable seen on a lathe at Vince Allen’s premises. It has been cleaned, painted and is now receiving attention prior to fitting of a new flywheel plus new eccentric straps (for which Dave Young has made the pattern and which were seen in an earlier posting).
Below: I’m trying to spend some time with Lewin at the moment. With the New Year likely to bring an influx of bits, including boiler, tank, bunkers and cab (so quite big bits!) I thought we ought to start painting the bottom end. After cleaning and de-greasing it has received a coat of grey primer (as seen here)…

Below … and is now receiving the undercoat layers for the final livery – the green will be much less lurid! The frames are a rich brown/plum/maroon shade beloved of north east industrial locomotive painters and follow evidence in colour photographs of Lewin that they were various shades of red at various times in its life. Work will continue over the holidays…