Early Spring Update

 

 

Having successfully completed the final riveting up of the rear drag box in the latter part of 2019, a daunting task with over 80 riveted joints, work has concentrated on moving forwards riveting up the various running plate support angles located along the frame.

 

 

All 12 frame datum buttons have now been installed and a start has been made at setting up the spring hanger brackets in readiness for riveting these into position. Carrying on from earlier in the previous year and with the arrival of the repair plates a start has been made at welding the leading horns guides ready for machining.

 

With the 60th anniversary approaching this summer the group aims to hopefully progress the new frames with the fitting of the new cylinder block, completion of the frame front end & valence plate work and painted up of the frames into the relevant top coats.

The rear of the frames in early March with the rear drag box completed and with the

majority of the angles riveted in along the length of the frame plates.

 

Some of the running plate irons now riveted in place

 

Another view on the angles.  They are some of the original parts retained for reuse

 

Re bushed spring hanger brackets bolted up into position,

these will need to be correctly aligned using the datum buttons recently installed,

and then reamed through and riveted into place.

The front counterweight and sandboxes temporarily bolted up into position.

This is to help aid positioning the two front pieces of re-used angle irons on the new frames

and making sure that everything will line up later on!

The RHS driving axle horn guide casting with the new repair plate tack welded into position.

A couple of hours later and the repair plate has now been fully welded on and ground back to a rough shape.
The horn guide casting is now ready to be temporarily set in position on the frames.
This is so we can mark out the volume of material that needs to be machined from the running faces
and thus enable the necessary 15 thou running clearances to be mach8ined accurately.
From here we can mill the working faces true and to size ready for final fitment.

 

The LHS driving horn guide casting tacked up and ready for the same treatment
 with the RHS next to it as an example of before and after.

Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project. Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far. Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.

We are also looking at expanding our team of sales stand volunteers, so if you would like to join us, please drop Clive an email at the address below.
One off Donations

A donation of £27 (or any amount) would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

Standing Order Donations

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form).

The Rivet Club

You will soon be able to join the Rivet Club and make the difference! at £3 a month you could help us see SECR loco No 27 return to steam within the next 5 years! Once signed up you’ll also receive a copy of our quarterly E-newsletter as a way of saying thank you as well as keeping you up to date with our current progress! More details will follow shortly!

Please donate if you are able, it will make  a great difference to the restoration programme.

Thank you for reading this far!  and thank you for the help you have so far given.

 

Winter Engineering Update

A short picture report of work carried out by the engineering team over the winter. 

 Cylinders

Cylinder block strapped up and ready to be split once the final bolts have been removed

 

After the completion of the back face seats, each bolt and its location were numbered

ready for removal and the block to be split. 

 

The Valve faces revealed ready for machining the top and bottom relieving groves

 

 

the two halves of the cylinder block safely stowed on a pallet awaiting final machining work.

 

A tool made by Ian Fergusson for machining the faces ready for the final fitting of the bolts

which hold the cylinders together

 

The square machined back face seting

 Pistons

The new and old piston rods note the much larger new RHS rod compared

to the life expired LHS rod behind! 

 

The piston rod packing glands in the process of being re-bushed by Ian Ferguson

 

A new pair of piston rod nuts again machined by Ian Ferguson,

with one of the old ones in the background

  Brakes

Brake bow beams with freshly machined ends, they are now round!



  

Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project. Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far. Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.

We are also looking at expanding our team of sales stand volunteers, so if you would like to join us, please drop Clive an email at the address below.

One off Donations

A donation of £27 (or any amount) would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

Standing Order Donations

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form)

The Rivet Club

You will soon be able to join the Rivet Club and make the difference! at £3 a month you could help us see SECR loco No 27 return to steam within the next 5 years! Once signed up you’ll also receive a copy of our quarterly E-newsletter as a way of saying thank you as well as keeping you up to date with our current progress! More details will follow shortly!

Please donate if you are able, it will make  a great difference to the restoration programme.

Thank you for reading this far!  and thank you for the help you have so far given.A close up view of one of the machined ends

 

Covid 19 News

 

It is with regret we have to announce that we are unable to run any sales stands until further notice.  This is in accordance with the Bluebell Railway's advice based on the government guidelines.

 

We are still able to take donations via the Virgin Giving page and the usual methods.

 

We wish all our supporters the best during this difficult period.

 

One off Donations

 

A donation of £27 (or any amount) would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

Standing Order Donations

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form).

The Rivet Club

You will soon be able to join the Rivet Club and make the difference! at £3 a month you could help us see SECR loco No 27 return to steam within the next 5 years! Once signed up you’ll also receive a copy of our quarterly E-newsletter as a way of saying thank you as well as keeping you up to date with our current progress! More details will follow shortly!

 

Please donate if you are able, it will make  a great difference to the restoration programme.

 

Thank you for reading this far!  and thank you for the help you have so far given.

Regards

Clive D. Emsley

Chairman of the Fenchurch Fund

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

A January update

These are a few pictures of work being carried out and some work that has been carried out over the Christmas period.


Ben and Jim giving the wheels a good coat of filler



Not the most comfortable of jobs!



Angles riveted onto the frames over the Christmas and New Year period



The rear drag box is now complete



Looking along the frames from front to back



The new blast pipe now fully machined and treated

There will be a "New Year" engineering report to follow in the not too distant future which will give a bit more detail on what has been happening.


Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project. Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far. Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.

We are also looking at expanding our team of sales stand volunteers, so if you would like to join us, please drop Clive an email at the address below.

One off Donations

A donation of £27 (or any amount) would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

Standing Order Donations

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form) or regular payments via Virgin Money Giving.

The Rivet Club

You will soon be able to join the Rivet Club and make the difference! at £3 a month you could help us see SECR loco No 27 return to steam within the next 5 years! Once signed up you’ll also receive a copy of our quarterly E-newsletter as a way of saying thank you as well as keeping you up to date with our current progress! More details will follow shortly!

Please donate if you are able, it will make  a great difference to the restoration programme.

Thank you for reading this far!  and thank you for the help you have so far given.

Regards

Clive D. Emsley

Chairman of the Fenchurch Fund

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

The Chairmans Birthday working day

The Fenchurch Fund Chairman spent the day on Saturday working with the engineering team of the Little Loco Group.  Here are a few pictures from the day.


We start off with a couple of pictures of the components that have recently been returned from Statfold Barn where they were metal sprayed and ground round.  The photos do not really do them justice, a great job was carried out on them.

The left hand valve rod

 

The right hand valve rod

The chairman was tasked with cleaning up parts of the brake rigging with powered wire brushes and sanders. a couple of pictures below including after painting by Jim Turtle our painter in residence.

One of the items of brake rigging

Jim busy with a paint brush!

 

The main job for the day was more drilling, reaming and riveting on the drag box, around 10 rivets were installed by the gang, it would have been more, but owing to rain and loss of light we needed to stop earlier than originally planned.

Setting the angles onto the rear buffer beam true and square

 

Ben cutting holes in the angles, through the holes in the frames

 

A closer view of the business end of the cutter

Rivets gently warming to a cherry red before being transferred to the holes and riveted over

 

 

Sean carrying the rivets from the forge to the correct hole in the frames

The hot rivet located in one of the holes between the drag box and stretcher

 

Matt riveting over the protruding head



six domed and two countersunk rivets completed

Finally a picture showing the joys of working in the open air!

Sean, Ben and Matt inspecting the work carried out in the rain before calling it a day.

From the last two pictures you can see that the working conditions are not ideal.  We are currently looking at options to improve this including temporary, interim and permanent solutions.  This will cost a fair amount of money to sort out, but to improve the working conditions, leading to a more efficient use of time it might well be worth it.  We are in the early stages of thinking about this at the moment, so watch this space!

Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project.
Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far.
Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.
A donation of £27 would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form) or regular payments via Virgin Money Giving.

We are a completely self funded group of Bluebell Railway Volunteers working hard to look after and promote the small locomotive fleet on the Bluebell Railway.



The chairmans Birthday address and appeal

Well, another birthday is upon me!  A time to have a quick look back at what we have achieved since the last one, and that is a huge amount!
I attended the Working day on the 10th of November 2018, together with 6 others.  At this stage the frames were flat on trestles and requiring the mill scale to be removed.   By the end of the day the frames were not only cleaned of mill scale but painted in bonder primmer. yet more holes were drilled in the frames and some tapped to take bolts.  This was done by mid afternoon, so it was decided to "erect" the frames using temporary stretchers. So, the frames have now been "vertical" for just about a year. 

However, the story does not end there as during the year the frames were set to level and square and checked many times.  This required the stretchers to be located using temporary bolts to hold everything in the right place. By April all of the stretchers had been bolted in place and thoughts were turning to when the riveting could begin.  Other work carried out at the same time included cleaning of the cylinder covers and crossheads. 

various checks and measuring was also taking place and it was at this time we found that the piston rods and valve guide rods would need to be metal sprayed and re turned to the correct dimensions.

At the beginning of July groups of Network Rail volunteers spent a week doing odd jobs on the loco and also on Fenchurch.  These jobs included cleaning and painting of components and starting a deep clean on Fenchurch ready for the forthcoming overhaul.

   

The riveting of the frames continued throughout the year and by September most of it had been done.

Also during the summer the pistons have been machined to make them suitable for many more years of service.  The brake hangers ware also overhauled and re-bushed during the summer.

  

Of course the cylinders have been away at Statfold Barn for the majority of the machining to be carried out and these were returned to Sheffield Park in the early part of the year.  there was still a small amount of machining to be carried out on the castings once they were returned due to needing to test fit as the machining took place.  This has now been completed and the cylinders are being stored until they are required.

  



There have been many, many hours of work carried out on the loco, much of which seem to be virtually invisible, but are vital for the rebuilding of the loco!

We are a totally self funded group within the Bluebell railway and every penny we spend needs to be raised by ourselves.  There are a few ways this happens, We run sales stands at many of the Bluebell Railway events through the year, together with a few model railway exhibitions. Another way is through donations, either one off or standing orders via the Bluebell Railway Trust, with or without Gift Aid.  For details please see below.  We also accept items of memorabilia or railway models suitable for auction or to sell on our sales stand.  Finally we have recently launched the "RIVET CLUB". This enables you to donate a regular monthly amount, for which in return you will receive a periodical news letter, advance notice of any special events organised by the Fenchurch Fund or The Little Loco Group and other benefits to be confirmed.  Details for the Rivet Club can be found below.

Remember, all of this has been possible with the generosity of people like you that are interested in the project. Without your support we cannot carry on at the same rate experienced so far. Please donate anything you can afford if you would like to see our efforts and passion come to a successful end.

We are also looking at expanding our team of sales stand volunteers, so if you would like to join us, please drop Clive an email at the address below.

One off Donations

A donation of £27 (or any amount) would go a long way towards our aim.
(with gift aid that becomes £33.75)

If you can help us, please make your donation on line at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/27

Standing Order Donations

You can also give via standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust (please contact us for a form) or regular payments via Virgin Money Giving.

The Rivet Club

You will soon be able to join the Rivet Club and make the difference! at £3 a month you could help us see SECR loco No 27 return to steam within the next 5 years! Once signed up you’ll also receive a copy of our quarterly E-newsletter as a way of saying thank you as well as keeping you up to date with our current progress! More details will follow shortly!

Please donate if you are able, it will make  a great difference to the restoration programme.

Thank you for reading this far!  and thank you for the help you have so far given.

Regards

Clive D. Emsley

Chairman of the Fenchurch Fund

thefenchurchfund@gmail.com