Locomotive News

Black 5 No. 45379 passed its inspection today with flying colours!  Aching to stretch her legs, the Black 5 team were waiting on the pit road for the service engines to return to shed as she shimmered in the autumn sunshine.  The lighting really brought out the detail of the beautiful motion, as can be seen below.

As soon as the Std 5 and Wadebridge had returned to shed, the drain cocks were opened and she eased herself off the pit road for a light run to Alresford.  A few runs were made from Ropley to Alresford where the engine performed exceptionally well.  With around 40 miles put on the clock, only a few minor tweaks are required.  The ride on the footplate is reported to be like riding in a coach, it's that smooth!

45379 will continue to be run in prior to our S&D event on the 10-12 September.

Elsewhere, Tornado was preparing to leave the MHR after undertaking 6 running days hauling packed trains.  A photo shoot for the A1 Trust was underway, images of which could be used in their new book, available in November.

Today was a very proud moment for the Mid Hants Railway, all those that worked on Black 5 No. 45379 for the last 5 years and railway preservation as a whole.  For the first time since 1965, 45379 had a fire lit in its firebox and smoke could soon be seen coming from the chimney.  

For this milestone, the honour of lighting the fire was bestowed to Mr David Seal, without who's support, the project would not be complete today.  Smiles all round as the fire took hold.

A ceremony wouldn't be a ceremony without a cake, which had to be black of course with lashings of chocolate fudge!  The cutting of the cake fell to Martin Buckell, who has been intimately involved with the project since the railway acquired the locomotive, and for the past 5 years along with a core team of volunteers, has dedicated countless man hours to the restoration.  Unlike the time taken to restore the engine, the cake didn't hang around for long.  Thanks to Tim's partner, Nikki, for spending a Friday night slaving in the kitchen!

The locomotive now awaits the Inspector to formally sign her off later this week and will then be run in, light engine, prior to ...

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Wednesday 25th August, just 4 months to Xmas....
 
And it feels like it today; a cold, leaden sky with a promise of heavy rain greeted us on the Wednesday before August Bank Holiday weekend... What's all this nonsense we keep hearing about Global Warming??
 
Wadebridge and the 9F were the service locos today, Frank asked a couple of us to tweak Wadebridge's brakes before she went off shed at 09-30. Whilst Mark checked to see how much adjustment was left I went and fetched the Bulleid brake spanner; a wondrous thing (that I forgot to photograph..) A couple of the brake shoes were deemed to be close to their wear limits so were quickly changed before application of said spanner. My nice clean (new) gloves were quickly made to look like the ones I just binned as the adjusting mechanism is kept well greased.
 
Wadebridge was sent away and Frank said as we'd done so well, we might as well check and replace the Standard 5 tender brake shoes as she was having a boiler washout and going no-where today. It was over the ash-pit and for some reason today there was more than the usual amount of ash to clear; that together with the ...

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Arrived a few minutes earlier than usual this morning; Oh how I wish kids were always on Summer Holiday (from the point of view of no school runs clogging the morning traffic, anyway!) Best bit about being early is getting somewhere sensible to park; worst bit, first one in makes the Tea...
 
The usual Wednesday suspects welcomed another new man, Keith, today. He said he's going to come on a few different days of the week to see how he fitted in; we tried to warn him about the Thursday gang, but I guess he'll have to find out for himself...
(It's all just banter, folks, honest!)
 
Anyway, to work. Lots going on today on various locos including Lord Nelson, the U-Boat and the Standard 4. And Duncan was painting the Black 5 so the wheeldrop was festooned with notices warning us to enter at our peril. Duncan is a perfectionist so would notice any speck of dust stuck to his new paint if one was so foolish as to wander into the newly designated paint shop.
 
Have you ever wondered where our locos get their purified water from? I knew it wasn't just mains water we fed them and long realised that purified water means less scale in ...

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A fairly brief report this week as I forgot to charge camera battery.... It's an age thing I guess, though, I see from another part of the website that Trevor is 100 this year; my God, Trevor, you're wearing well, you don't look a day over 50; what's the secret??
 
Talking of camera's I though I'd include one shot of Thomas in Ropley Station that I took, framed with the "Ropley" on the signal-box as part of shot... (you see, I don't just throw all this together...) Unfortunately, I omitted to notice the brick chimney and the topiary growing from the top of Thomas cab.. Could have used paintbox to air brush it out, I guess, but I think it funnier as it is; Thomas days are FUN days after all??
 
Anyway, to work. Last week I was involved in helping get the rocking grate bits out from the U-boat for replacement with new items.  Naively I thought that job would have been completed by this Wednesday, but there it was, waiting for us to complete.
 
There was a problem though; with half the new bits in (the front half of the grate) the rocking grate wouldn't; wouldn't rock, that is. It seemed to be fouling something that was not clear to...

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Thursday? What am I doing here Thursday? As it happens, I didn't arrive until 10-00, tea-break and so, as I left early yesterday, was the subject of some (good natured?) pee-taking... Fair enough I suppose!
 
First task was a bit of a tidy up. It's Thomas week next week so we need to look our best for the great British public. A couple of us had a go at sorting and tidying the rack of steel stock outside the machine shop, just putting stuff on it's proper rack and putting big bits at the back, small bits at the front, nothing that involved to much brain power...
We just stepped back to admire our handiwork when Dave, a Thursday gang regular, came and pinched a bit and un-tidied the whole thing! Duly admonished, he slunk back into workshop...
 
Then to some more interesting stuff. Trevor who runs the machine shop was chatting about how busy they were when it struck me I'd never really taken many pictures in his empire; I'm not clever enough to use a lathe so only head down that end of workshop when I want something doing (I'm sure I'm not the only one, Trevor?) He took the opportunity to show me a Bronze manifold casting from Stan...

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