WN06 - A somewhat shorter Flugel - by Kerry Young

15th September 2006

Somewhat shorter indeed. Didn't arrive till after lunch today as it's not been a good week one way and another. However, let's see what I can dredge up.

Firstly, because recently certain things have come to my notice, I feel it is time indeed that I said again, the aims and objects of the Flugel.............

Flugel began, not as Flugel, but simply as text only notes to a very good friend who had shifted with his family to Australia and we were so interested in the restoration being done at the Railway Society, that I wrote most weeks, telling him about what was happening. Not long after, I was gifted the digital camera. (You either know the story or you don't!) It was patently obvious that the camera was a gift from heaven for recording the restoration events for my friend. So began the weekly output of the events of the Thursday gang. For those who don't know, the main restoration work is carried out on a Thursday by a group of volunteers, most of whom have a trade background. Being Thursday, it follows that most are retired and therefore have a lifetimes experience behind them.

In my search for something novel to put in the Subject column, one day I used the Word Flugel to put with an alliteration to give it a subject and a little mystery. So as these things do, it stuck. Consequently, I am now addressed frequently as Mr Flugel.

Over time, it became known that it existed and again, as these things do, the mailing list grew. Nowadays, it has become amazingly international and has a very wide circulation. That is why it has come to the attention of others beyond our immediate environment and why I feel the time is opportune to restate...............

The Flugel is essentially a very unofficial record of the happenings of the Thursday gang involved in restoration of equipment belonging to the Canterbury Railway Society. The opinions are wholly those of the writer and in no way reflect the official line of the Society. I reserve the right to say what I think is appropriate and give some members pet names. The words and pictures are meant to be light hearted and never is there any intention of suggesting otherwise. If I think there is some comment that might not be well received I have it checked by someone else. From time to time, I am able to come down and record special events and running days, but it is not possible to do this on a regular basis.

I feel the above fairly states the case and should perhaps add, that there is no copyright on the text or pictures. If using them to benefit others, then that suits me just fine. I am happy to supply the pictures at a higher resolution should they be useful to anyone for other publications or whatever.

Having got that off my chest, let's look at today................

As I said, I was late arriving, so..............

I was greeted by the sight of our Jolly Roger dressing the gas cut edges of the right hand side running plate.

Graham and Keith were laying the foundation for the decking.

Having dressed the plate, Roger did the final trimming before drilling it for mounting.

I had to try to get enough pictures for the issue in less than the usual time, so managed to get Joe Pickering here, working on the track bonds. The picture is inside the Pie Cart.

Earlier today, I picked up my latest copy of 'Railfan to find a great story and pictures on the 'Ew' class and not to be outdone, I took this to show Railfan readers that we too have an example of the breed.

So what do you do with all those things which you have to store for later times? This is but a small portion of the stored gear that we have. Had this not been gathered by those with foresight, we would be in a bad way today.

Now let me introduce you to our very latest item of equipment. A magnetic based drill. My contribution for the time I was there, was to begin the drilling of the deck plate, matching the holes with the holes in the brackets underneath. I surprised myself with how well I aligned them!

The day progressed and I managed to get our Graham nailing down the T & G flooring.

What is it? It's one of the doors to the luggage compartment on a Vulcan Railcar. Upside down as it happens. There's things happening everywhere.

Now I must be off. Better luck next week. Cheers, 'K'.