Model Railway Weekend (2)

The Marmalade Still has been working overtime!

A fresh batch of Marmalade has been produced and will be delivered to Sheffield Park in time for the second day of the Modellers Weekend.  Also produced during the unusual Saturday evening working is a batch of "Firebox Strength" Chilli Jam!  plenty to go round, so no need for panic buying!

There has also been a restock of model railway items on  the PROJECT 27 stand in the Birch Grove Suite, so come along and have a browse.  No reasonable offer refused for the donated items, so there is a chance to snap up a bargain.

We look forward to seeing you there tomorrow!

Bluebell Modellers Weekend

Come and see us in the Birch Grove Suite

Project 27 will be attending the model weekend at the Bluebell this weekend.  We will be selling plenty of model railway bits from small spares to locos and rolling stock.  We will also have the usual range of items for sale.

We will also have the scale models of the cylinders on display plus the O gauge model of the loco on display.

The O gauge model of 1027 in the mid SR livery of plain black with Maunsell lettering built by Stuart Bardouleau

The cylinder display (which will be slightly different following the rain at the Atlantic House weekend!

Please come and have a chat and if you are able support us in our quest to buy a new set of cylinders for the loco.  We need to fund this ourselves so we are working hard at running our information and sales stands!  Remember this loco belongs to your railway!

Thanks for your continued support and interest in the project, it is much appreciated.

Clive D. Emsley
Chairman - The Fenchurch Fund

Project Manager - PROJECT 27
A Sub-Committee of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society
www.bluebell-railway.co.uk

http://wainrightsfinestsecr27.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Why not support us by making a donation at

http://www.justgiving.com/Project27
Or for Text donations Simply text "FENC72 £10" to 70070 to donate £10
    - you can donate £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10;
    - you can also elect to Gift Aid your donation;
    - your operator's standard text charge applies.

The front balance weights come off!

A picture report from Matt Holloway on the removal of the front balance weight

Matt Holloway has been busy with the cutting torch again!  This time he has been removing the last remaining parts from the front of the frames, consisting of the balance weights and framework that holds both the weights and front buffer beams in place.

A shot showing the molten slag which has been blown through the remains of the rivet from the 

previously drilled blow through hole which thus weakened the rivet allowing it to be driven out

The picture above shows the results of Matts labours. Initially a hole was drilled through the rivet (see earlier post) and then the rivet was burned out with the slag running through the drilled hole.  The example above shows the solidified slag which had been blown through during the operation.

The counter weight removed, well, half of it!

The balance weights were removed with the aid of a small portable hand powered platform. the second weight was removed by the same method.

The LHS counter weight ready to be removed with all rivets drilled, Gas cut and driven out! two 

temporary bolts only remain which are holding it in place!

Having taken the weights off, the damage caused by a shunting incident where one of the locos in the raft was not at all keen on moving!  The angle steel in the picture below shows the bending caused during the shunt.

More rivets to be removed to allow the front end to be dismantled!

The rivets and angles in the above picture were removed allowing the angles and plates to be removed from the frames. The picture shows the left hand side of the loco.

A pic of the front end showing both counterweights removed.

This is how the loco looked after the weights were removed, and before the plates and angles were removed. The next stage was to remove the remaining ironwork.

And the front end dismantled complete!

The front end of the loco is now devoid of all of the headstock/drag box assembly.

The kit of bits marked up for the dismantled front end

From a future works point of view we will next be removing the footsteps so that they can be restored to their former glory. Following this the side valances will be removed and stored.  This will then enable us to start marking up of the frames at the rear for cutting.  This will be carried out once the two frame cracks that are located adjacent to the centre driver axle boxes have been dealt with. This should be the last bit of cutting.  We should then hopefully get to the restoration tipping point of now repairing and starting to rebuild our little 27!  



Our main thrust for fundraising at present is to fund a set of cylinders for 27.  The total cost of which is expected to be in the region of £15,000 for a fully machined set of castings.

If you would like to donate towards the cost of restoring this pretty little loco, there are a few ways to do so. For further details please go to the restoration page for the loco on the Bluebell Railway web site at the following address:

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/loco_news/oh_27.html

or for an instant donation you can use the just giving page at the address below:

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Project27

Thank you for your continued support and with your help we will have the loco working in a few years, resplendent in Southern Railway green.

Clive Emsley

Latest Update - 11th June 20156

A few updates from Sheffield Park

We had a sales stand at |Sheffield Park today, well, at least until the rain came! After setting up the stand to show some of the work we have carried out, and some of the ongoing work, we set up our small sales stand.

The sales stand at the Atlantic House Open Day 11-06-2016

We also had a small exhibition of some of the parts that are being worked on.  These included the steam reverse cylinder covers, the handbrake screw protector and the tank water gauge deflector.

A selection of the restored parts on display

Other items on display were one of the guard irons and a brake hanger, both of which are in a protective coat of paint and are not yet fully restored. These are the sort of easy jobs which can be carried out when time permits and many of the larger jobs cannot be carried out.

The high quality finish on the hand brake screw protector

Matt has produced worked hard on the parts so far tackled, and the finish produced is of an extremely high quality.

The main thrust of our fund raising effort at present is majoring on the production of a set of cylinders and we had the 1/10th and 1/8th scale models of the cylinders on display, which created plenty of interest.

The display of Cylinder models

Other work

Other works that are being carried out at the present time include the wheel turning which is being done at South Devon Railway Engineering for us.  There is not real rush to get these turned and returned but there was a series of wheel sets being sent so it made sense to use an empty lorry movement to take them down to Devon and reduce the transport cost slightly.

Preparations are being made to weld in the patch to replace the previously repaired weld in the frames, the patch is just about ready to be installed in the near future. This repair was required as the previous welded repair resembled an aero chocolate bar when it was inspected!

Preparations are also in hand to cut the rear portion from the frames in preparation for the renewal of the rear plates and drag box.  This will not be done until the other weld repairs have taken place on the frames, and the new plates have been produced and are ready for installation.

The restoration of the steam reverser is nearing completion and it is hopped that it will be returned to the railway in the not too distant future and be tested using compressed air rather than steam.  This will then be stored in readiness for installation on the loco once the appropriate time arrives.  It is hoped that a more comprehensive report and some pictures will be available shortly.

The bunker sides are currently being measured so that drawings can be produced in CAD. this will allow a laser or water cutting process can take place to produce new plate work for the bunker.

The Right hand bunker side on the bench in the Villa being measured for new drawings

The beading is also being removed from the old bunker to allow them to be repaired and restored or remade as required.

Future events

We will next be at the Railway for the model railway weekend in two weeks time. we will be situated in the Birch Grove Suite at Sheffield Park.  We will be selling a selection of model railway items (old and older!) as well as a few of the usual items. If space allows we will be exhibiting a small N Gauge model of the Lancing Military Railway (LMR - fortunately Graham Farish produce a train pack depicting this!). Please come and have a chat, we will be pleased to see you.

Thanks for reading this far, it is much appreciated.