Below: Vince Allen has been busy fitting Lewin’s boiler into the frame and setting it up correctly on the various brackets which support and locate it.  He has also lagged the barrel and made the cladding sheets, which are now off for painting.  This view also shows the brass firebox surround which was so carefully restored by Dave Young temporarily located in place.

Below: A view from the front of the engine – note the bolt heads securing the smokebox to the brackets which in turn protrude above the frames.

Below: A shot inside the smokebox.  The main steam pipe, shown here, is to be amended as the 1990s replacement really is not suitable, obscuring as it does a number of the tubes.  A solution has been devised to create a new steam pipe which will sit behind the blastpipe.  The latter has survived (we think!) but all of the steam pipework is to be replaced and will also alleviate several disadvantages of the original (or 1970s at least) set up, the installation of which had so critically weakened the frames.  I have also seen some new film, taken in 1967, showing Lewin leaking steam heavily in this area, so once again it is a case of carrying out much more extensive work than was anticipated originally, but again work which will hopefully save problems further along the line…

We also carried out some further painting today, with a number of areas reaching the current extent of what we can do with them.