alexf
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Brakes and Sleepers
Wasn’t expecting to spend last weekend working on the railway but, as is often the case, plans changed. The Museum was closed on Saturday for a training day and several of my railway colleagues were participating, but myself and our head of steam excused ourselves and spent the day in the workshop instead, continuing our work to put the…
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Annett's Key
We’re seeing signs of spring around Tilford now, and I spotted a little rabbit sitting by a pile of sleepers in the Old Kiln yard when I arrived. The peace and quiet didn’t last long: I got a colleague to fire up the arc welder and weld together the pieces of the Annett’s key I made last weekend. After some cleaning up of the welds with an…
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Bits & Pieces
Much like the weather, my weekend at the Old Kiln was rather varied. To start with on Saturday, I joined our head of steam to take apart the left-hand steam injector valve on O&K 9998 Elouise which had been reported as not closing properly. I lapped in the valve with fine carborundum followed by Brasso, and inspected the resulting surfaces.…
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Alexandra you certainly have a wide variety of task to due, which must make it all the more interesting. Great article again, keep up the brilliant reporting.
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@James Adams I sure do! That’s something I love about volunteering on a small railway. Glad you’re enjoying my posts, and thank you.
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Back on track
Saturday started well; the museum with whom our railway shares the site held an open day to attract new volunteers so the place felt more alive than usual at this time of year with a good few people around. I managed to catch up with a couple of my colleagues who I’d not seen for a while. Then, fortified with a lovely mug of strong tea myself…
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A firebox from the inside
Had a day off from my usual narrow gauge work when I got invited to spend a day helping out at a standard gauge loco shed. In between a lot of grinding and drilling (and getting to see some stuff I unfortunately can’t share) I also got to climb inside the firebox of a loco being restored, a first for me and an amazing experience.
I was a…
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I’m quite sure that if the tube blower turned up to open the smokebox door and commence his operation that you would of shown just how athletic you could really be? So now you are ok for inner motion or the inner big end of likes of Clan Line Merchant navy? I too was once a ferret when I was fifteen/ sixteen?
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I knew all the mainline drivers in late 50s, The new ones would chuck down a rusty to kneel and peer under the boiler of likes of Clan line type while I looked for hand holds n stuff to oil them! Some of lesser ones would need squeezing up through its motion I called mincing machines! Quite scary on a very busy pit! If an engine had only…
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Repairs
Not a lot to report in this week’s update from the Old Kiln. With Emmet sitting ready for her boiler inspection our attention turned back to the brake blocks. Unfortunately we had a couple of hurdles to clear first: our elderly diesel generator blew a gasket in its oil cooler last week so the first order of the day was to unbolt the…
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Any completed task are achievements and something to show for your efforts.
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Getting Ready for Inspection
Saturday saw me climbing up on top of Emmet’s boiler to remove her whistle and the fibreglass dome cover before unscrewing the nuts securing the cover plate of her steam dome. After a little persuasion with a hammer and cold chisel the seal on the gasket came loose and I was able to lift the plate with its two safety valves clear, and got my…
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Another very interesting piece, brilliant with the photos too. It is great to hear and learn about the workings of the locomotive. Thank you.
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Concorde memories
I see Concorde got a mention again recently so I’ve dug out some of my photos of prototype aircraft 002 (G-BSST) at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, pre-production 101 (G-AXDN) at IWM Duxford, and production 202 (G-BBDG) at Brooklands Museum. Never got the opportunity to fly on one but have been on board all three of these.
Interesting…
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Washout and workshop
The weather cooperated this weekend, being mild and (mostly) dry so first thing Saturday I shunted Emmet out of the shed for her boiler washout. Because we were unable to run steam traction for several weeks last spring/summer due to the dry spell Emmet only had nine days in steam, so her boiler hadn’t accumulated too much scale and…
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Busy weekend again, so well explained and written. Looking forward to the next one.
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Steam Maintenance
After my brief spell with the P-way track gang last week, Saturday saw me returning to my apprenticeship with the steam department to work on O&K 9998 “Elouise”. The first task was to cut some angle iron and drill it to bolt underneath the running plate to reinforce the mounting for the Westinghouse air pump. Because Elouise is a well tank, we…
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