The routine of cleaning and light maintenance continues with the locos, with one of our younger and one returning volunteer enjoying the work. Zambezi was out of traffic for replacement of a main steam pipe gasket and fitting of a new top of the chimney. A local college took on the fabrication work for the […]

Progress in the workshop has changed direction with a couple of unplanned jobs. The first one is to replace the exhaust pipes on Lady Joan, as we found some extensive corrosion on one in the base of the smokebox just above the concrete seal. Luckily we had some spares in stock which required some machining […]

Work has started on the restoration of a second coach bogie, this one is cobbled together from parts we had is store in the quarry. Many of the parts are in a very poor condition which will require quite a lot of work, such as the cross shafts having new ends made, these carry the […]

Most of the work over the last few weeks in the workshop has been preparing three locos for the official steam testing, this will be completed in the next few weeks with Eigiau, Victory and Zambezi rejoining the fleet. We have done our own steam testing to ensure all is well with the various door […]

The last few weeks in the workshop have been quite busy with a private hire for a group from Swanley, boiler testing, Fire engine work and coach lighting. The private hire which was a driver experience for quite a large group of model engineers using Katie and Victory, it was a very enjoyable day for […]

Although it has been a quiet start to the year, things in the workshop are progressing. The gold tractor is in for some TLC, as you can see with bits all over the workshop it is a big job. Helga had another steam test which was successful this time. Before Christmas we did steam her, […]

After the fun of the weekend which we all enjoyed we started planning the winter work, first was washing out and cleaning the two locos we used over the weekend. We  also had a reshuffle of the shed to get Zambezi to front, as she will have a hydraulic test soon. Coach 7 was also […]

This week we reattached the cab on Helga, it was retrieved from the field which has been its home for the last couple of months. It has not been finally fixed down as we had a list of jobs that needed to be completed in readiness for the Santa weekend, which is approaching very quickly. […]

Things are progressing nicely in the workshop. Starting with coach number 6, the second lighting strip is in and the wiring to the battery installed. The painting department has started on the newly prepared floor. Helga was steamed to check the various pipes, fittings and set the safety valves, other than a few leaks it […]

Today we had a number of tasks to do, replace sleepers, replace some signal wire support guide posts and clear some fallen trees. In the base of one of the fallen trees was a nice little village of fungi. The biggest job was the replacing of two large point switch sleepers.