Behind the scenes there is much planning taking place in anticipation of the winter maintenance period, which as ever will see a focus on the fairground and gallopers amongst other things.  In the workshops, projects continue to progress, along with repairs to routine breakdowns!

Below: I delivered Samson’s frames to Statfold Barn on Wednesday.  The presence of these in their workshop will enable the manufacture of the wheelsets using the blank wheel centre castings we had done some time back.  Here are what the frames look like in the back of a van – I’m not sure the completed frames will fit for the return journey north…!!!

Below: Back at Beamish, Dave is progressing the various fittings for Samson – the firehole door is seen here, complete with latch and baffle (hidden).

Below: Dave is also machining the steam fountain, from which steam for the injector, pressure gauge and whistle is taken.  It includes various blanks to enable both ease of machining but also flexibility for future additions or movement of fittings.

Below: A routine job – the Morris Commercial was reported failed with a seized gear selector.  After recovery to the workshop, the cab was soon stripped out so a start could be made on the repair, which was rapidly completed.

Narrow Gauge

Below: On Friday we hosted a group from the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG), the first trip for many since they came in 1984 to see the J21’s last steaming.  We had No.18 and Edward Sholto in steam and giving footplate rides plus photographic run pasts.

Below: With Edward Sholto in steam, we shunted the newly arrived waggons from the FR/WHR.  Some are ok to shunt, others are missing couplings (at the moment) which means hand shunting!

Below: Four of the five granite waggons line up for a photograph.  We will strip the timber for these shortly to enable work on their restoration to commence.  A dedicated group has been established to carry out work on these and the rest of the narrow gauge collection, which should enable us to run some decent rakes of waggons in coming years, as well as benefit the heritage collection on the FR/WHR in due course, with these becoming available for operation on their home railway too.

Waggonway

We are probably well overdue a report from the Waggonway, so Matt sent me some mobile phone photos and an update on what is happening over there this week…

Below: On Wednesday Locomotion No.1 arrived back from its trip to the Netherlands.  Whilst having a fitness to run inspection the opportunity to patch some corrosion in the chimney is being taken before the engine is recommissioned shortly for service during the rest of the high season.

Below: This sequence of views was taken by Matt during the dismantling of Steam Elephant to extract the piston rods.  Now some 15 years old, the performance was beginning to indicate occasional trouble starting smoothly, and with a valve and piston exam due, the decision was taken to carry out the work before its winter sojourn on the Christmas season trains.

With the piston removed, one of the old piston rings is positioned to show the gap…

Below: … a new piston ring inserted – note the closure of the gap.  Wear over a decade and a half has only reduced the ring by 1/16th inch so we can’t complain at the longevity of these ‘consumables’!

Below: The crossbars (which run in the vertical slide bars), piston rods, pistons and cylinder covers as removed (there are two sets of these – one for each cylinder).  The rings have been removed from the pistons.

Below: The valve chest covers, valve spindles, buckle and lubricator.  Note the brass channel on the upper cover underside, to direct oil onto the valve faces.  This seems to have worked very well.

Below: To put everything into context, here are the bits in situ on/in the engine.

Below: The valves are in pretty good condition, requiring only polishing against glass to restore a truly flat surface.  The brown areas to each side of each valve indicate where they are beginning to wear.

Below: Like rather more illustrious steam locomotives of GW and LMS origin, Steam Elephant has four connecting rods, albeit only two cylinders!  Here they are laid out on the shed floor.

Footnote: Apologies if this post appears in an odd format – we’ve changed computer at home and are now struggling with the dreaded Windows 8 – it is the least user friendly software I’ve encountered and I am still looking for easy ways around its foibles so in the meantime I hope this appears both readable and vaguely well organised…!!!