RN 245 - Another day at the glue factory Flugel.

14th September 2006

Hmmmm! I'm running out of ideas for the introductory line. (Shows, doesn't it?) Anyway, again we were lucky with the weather. When you consider the wretched southerlies that have come through this year, we have been spared the worst on many of our Thursdays. So what happened today? Well, the major news by far, was the arrival of the boiler for 'F13'. So early in fact, that the truck that delivered it was leaving as I arrived. Seems Sir Colin and our Jolly Roger were up and about early today and had breakfasted and arrived in the small hours to receive it. So it was stood on stands in the workshop when I arrived. Well done, Colin and Roger!
Now let's see.........................

O.K. So what's the denture brush look at the back then?

It's the outer ends of the screwed stays, which have to be trimmed back to a given protrusion from the outer firebox shell and rivetted over. These stays are now carrying that inner firebox you saw in earlier pics. There are also the ends inside the firebox to do of course. So where are all the volunteers then? Gert and Lukas, this will be all too familiar to you!

Remember the Vulcan railcar that was stored in the carriage shed to have a tidy up and a new coat of paint?

Seems the person (not a 'regular' Thursday guy) has given up after trying his hand with an angle grinder and a coarse disc. This we will have to fix. Additionally, in the front, a panel had rusted through very badly. This needed to be renewed and with no resident panelbeater in the crew, I asked my son Blair (who also does all that work with Branchlines) for help and he turned up to cut out the old and weld in the new.

Seen here, cleaning out the worst of the rust behind the removed panel, prior to applying rustproof paint. Then welding in the new panel. This work has become urgent with the advent of the new operating season. You haven't seen much of Sir Colin lately? He's been in here wearing away at the endless job of sanding the bodywork.

Coal delivery day today. Seen here, the truck with an elevator unloading into an 'La' wagon. 'La'? you say? So is that a later version of the 'L' we are restoring? Simple answer...............

It's the all steel, new generation, successor. This is quite a late model (comparatively speaking) because it is on roller axle bearings.

The 'W' had to be pulled out to get the 'La' wagon out from behind. An interesting picture I thought. Shows a weather beaten gangers hut and the good looking 'W'. Sharp eyed readers will notice the wagon is an all steel flat, on plain bearing bogies, classified 'Ub'.

Something different? Try this shot in the library. Webmaster Ian McDonald (seeing quite a bit of him lately aren't we?) is in the drivers seat, with John Robb our resident librarian, historian and what have you on the far side and Keith Brown, founding member, carriage restorer and fountain of information on the early days, nearer the camera. I have had the great pleasure to work alongside Keith on occasion and have been wholly delighted with what he has been able to tell me about the early days.

Our Bob has removed the flooring from the 'L' wagon and I have taken a number of pictures to assist with the reassembly. Why not share some of these with our readers? Why not indeed? Here's a longitudinal shot, to illustrate the unusual angle of some of the longitudinal beams.

This shows the way the drawgear meets in the middle, transferring the drawgear loads directly from one end to the other without loading the framework. Beneath this is the brake cylinder. Note the poor condition of the two longitudinals on either side. Let's face it, this is why you strip them right down.

This shows the drawgear at the far end in detail. Very handy to have during reassembly.

Lastly, here's a look at the new panel in place on the railcar. Thanks Blair!

That'll do till next week. Cheers, 'K'.