Monday 27 February 2012

1 Week Left Until Steam Returns to the Battle of Bosworth...

Hi all. Only a very short one from today. This morning I arrived at Shackerstone at 9:30am for a day working in the loco shed. Next week, trains begin running to the famous Battle of Bosworth fields again. We will providing the service (our department will anyway) on Sunday, in the form of GWR 2-8-0 No3803, with the Saturday being a Railcar service I believe. I am booked on next Sunday, with Driver John Brittain so it should be good. I hope the weather is as nice as today was anyway...but I doubt it! There were various jobs going on today, including work on "Blue Circle", "Sir Gomer" and 3803. Furthermore, the Drewy 04 (seen on test in last weeks post) was moved into the shed today for painting (into BR Green with Wasp Stripes). After some shunting around to let the 04 in, she was duly shut-down and painting began. "Sir Gomer" on the other hand was having her eccentrics shimmed and refitted. Myself and Eddie meanwhile were straining to get the cumbersome grate back into the 38'. The bars are quite warped so you need to get them into some sort of order, otherwise the grate looks like a mountain range. But, after 20 minutes or so of struggling, we were done. Outside the shed today was this rather unusual load...You tell me, I do not know!...
Later in the day, with "Sir Gomer" 'mended', the little 02 was drafted in to pull her about a bit. I rode on the footplate of the Peckett whilst Carl drove the 02. Back and forth we went, down into the platform, back up into the shed, down again - simply trying to force the shim out of the eccentrics. Thankfully, all seemed well and the loco was declared fit to run (bottom-end wise anyway). The boiler is still awaiting washout and re-boxing. The 38' meanwhile is now ready apart from needing a steam test; which will be done this week. After another interesting day in the shed, I left at 4:30pm. Cheers all. Sam...

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