After Easter

A busy day today putting right some of the problems which occurred during our running over the Easter weekend when we had a very cold wind, very few locomotives from members and a reasonable number of passengers. 

The platform entry signals failed Sunday afternoon and this was tracked down to a failed microswitch in the treadle just before the main gate.  This was replaced today with some difficulty, because the soldering iron wouldn’t heat up in the cold wind, and is now working OK.

The signal men complained of cold feet so Andy Harding was busy laying carpet tiles in the signal box whilst Arthur Clark continued on repointing the brickwork.

The new section of ground level track had settled with all the use and required some attention by the track gang.  It is surprising how quickly people can work when there is a biting cold wind and they were soon back in the hut drinking coffee.

We had a number of derailments on the ground level track and Phil Bridgeway and Ron James removed the bogies for examination from carriage 202 which seemed to be the main offender.  Examination of the wheels showed that they are badly worn on the flanges and whilst an attempt will be made to reprofile them there is insufficient metal left for them to be turned to meet our specification.    It seems that we will have to bring forward our plans to fit all the “old” carriages with new bogies complete with the calliper brakes we have been experimenting with.  Work is now going ahead to produce a specification and drawings for the new bogies.

Maurice Weakley came along to work on the Raised Track Carriages and removed a faulty bogie from No7 carriage which has taken away to refurbish.  We still have quite a bit of work to do on these carriages – any volunteers would be most welcome.

Frank Buffham aided by David Ward (2) lit an enormous bonfire to burn all the rubbish.  We were very concerned about the exhibition shed going up in flames but happily all is well.

We have taken delivery of a dynamometer module from Station Road Steam and Bernard North found time between boiler tests to spend some time examining our dynamometer car to see how it could be fitted.  I will bring you more information on the interesting experimental project as it proceeds.

Finally, I did not have time to take any photos so you will have to make do with one of my Dock Tank with which a spent a very happy afternoon on Tuesday doing quite a few laps of the tracks.  Happiness is driving a steam loco in the sunshine, which has plenty of water a good fire and never runs out of steam.  Incidentally the new lift made things a lot easier.