Wheely good Progress!

Lots of noise and dust!

At the weekend, Matt and his merry band of mainly willing volunteers spent a few happy hours working on the wheel sets.  The first thing to do was to needle gun the years of paint and surface corrosion from all the nooks and crannies.  This is a very noisy and not particularly pleasant job, but vital to the looks of the finished product! The needle gun consists of a series of rods which are fired back and forth by compressed air in a similar way to a chipping hammer or cold chisel would if doing it by hand.  It is much quicker, more fun and definitely more interesting!

Matt and Georgie needle gunning the backs of the wheels on the driving axle (Photo Rueben Smith)

Following the needle gunning the surfaces were cleaned and degreased before a coat of red oxide paint was applied.  The aim is to get the wheels up to a top coat before the Flying Scotsman Event so that we can show the loco will look like when it is finally painted in the Maunsell Lined Southern Green livery.

Jam still on overtime!

The jam still was on overtime last week producing Strawberry Jam, Redcurrant and Rhubarb Jam and Cherry Jam.  The fruit for these was donated to the fund by a friend and supporter in Belgium who was clearing her deep freeze!  The fruit was all grown on a small holding near Hasselt and no chemicals were used in their production.  The jars were supplied by Gardener & Scardifield of Lancing who let us have the jars for a good price, we thank them for this.


We will be selling the jams and other items at the Diesel weekend and the Flying Scotsman event before packing up ready for the Wealden Railways Group model railway exhibition in Steyning on the 22nd of April.

What we need to do!

We are initially looking for a rolling chassis to be well on the way before we turn our attention to the thorny question of the boiler! It is likely to cost us in the region of £27,000 to complete the rolling chassis at current estimates.  This is broken down into the two frame plates, wheel turning, new cast and machined cylinders plus two buffer beams, side valances, rear drag box and a few other bits. 




We will need to find the money to pay for this work through the generosity of our supporters that regularly donate, spend money on our stalls and any other methods we can think of to raise funds!




Thank you for reading this far and for your continued support.




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/

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