The Fenchurch Fund: Preparitory work for the Network Rail Volunteer Days

Cab works

Many if not all of the small fittings, including the "sun roof" were taken off the cab structure this weekend in preparation for the Network Rail Volunteering days which are happening this week. A team of up to 6 volunteers per day will be on site to carry out preservation work on the cab. This is not a restoration but work to arrest the deterioration of the cab prior to a full restoration when it is required in a couple of years. The reasoning behind this work is to maintain the plate work as patterns so that drawings can be checked and where required, modified to suit where required.

In the pictures below we see Sean Smeath beavering away on the removal of the sun roof runners by grinding off the rivets from below and then levering the runner away from the roof using a cold chisel.

Sean removing the sun roof runners

Hopefully the cab will look somewhat better by the time we have finished, we are hoping to get a coat of bonder primer and under coat on followed by a gloss coat. Well, if Nick Knowles can rebuild a house in 9 days, I am sure we can make a P class cab look presentable!

Other works

Now that the holes have been cut and, where required, tapped Matt has taken the opportunity to start removing the mill scale from the frame sheets. This is done using an angle grinder gently applied to the surface.

Matt removing the mill scale from the frame plates

Fundraising

We had a sales stand on Saturday just gone, this was at the Steaming through the Ages event. Unfortunately we could not run a stand on Sunday due partly to the weather and partly due to a shortage of people to run it. We did have a good day, and together with the donations left at the railway it made it financially worthwhile too! The following are a couple of pictures to give a flavour of the day.