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Wednesday 1st September.
 
September? Crickey, where did the Summer go; having said that, it's a beautiful warm day at Ropley today; someone must have heard me moaning about the cold and wet last week....
 
Earlier in the week, I'd popped down to Ropley on the bike with my camera to witness the warming  fire burning away in the Black 5, prior to its valves being set the following day. On Tuesday evening it made it's maiden voyage to Alresford and back several times covering 24 anxious but incident free miles. This is the first time it's run since 1964, remember so it was a special moment to all the team that restored it; they assured us it will be run-in in time for the Gala in a couple of weeks so come and see it in all it's glory!
 
An excellent turnout of volunteers today including a couple of defectors from the Thursday gang coming to check up on us...
As usual Frank was handing out tasks for us all; at one point before we all got stuck in it looked like a union meeting with everyone gathered in centre of workshop waiting for work, (or were we discussing our next round of pay talks;) whatever it was, I was a bit slow in getting camera so I missed that particular shot....
 
Steve and I were asked to re-assemble the hydraulic tool that is used to break the taper joint on the Standard locomotive cross heads. Our old adversary, the Standard 4 which has constantly given all of us a hard time trying to dismantle it, managed to break the tool at the last attempt to split the left side cross head from the piston rod, despite loads of heat, large hammers and bad language by all and sundry. The tool had burst a hydraulic seal, giving an indication of the colossal pressures built up within it when in use.
 
By tea-time we had repaired the thing and offered it up to the Standard 4. No-one was really confident that today would be any different to previous attempts but a can-do attitude towards it after the mid-morning cuppa was encouraging.
 
And would you believe it, with a large bang and several cheers from us the thing parted, just like it said it would in the Haynes "How to mend a BR Standard" manual!
 
After that, getting the piston out was childs play and we even set ourselves the target of removing the piston end cover by the end of the day; this involved more heavyweights swinging on long levers at the end of big spanners, more application with the rattler and more application with my favourite tool, the gas-axe. We are lucky with the Wednesday gang that there is an abundance of collective weight to render even the most obstinate nuts putty in our hands... (What am I saying? Removing every sodding nut is a struggle!)
 
A chance conversation with Tim, who we'd not met before and was "detailed" by Frank to give us a hand revealed surely the most travelled volunteer at Ropley today (and for quite a while I'd guess) He lives and works in Chicago! A native of Portsmouth, he was on a family visit when he was overcome by the urge to come and work at Ropley; our reputation is worldwide it seems!
 
Outside in the Sun the rest of the guys were busy cleaning the bits as we removed them and before we knew it it was time to pack away the tools until next week, when I'll bring you more ramblings from the shed...
 
Until then, from Your Ropley Scribe.
 
Dave.