Evening all. Today was another pleasant volunteer Saturday at Tyseley Loco Works in Birmingham. In beautiful sunshine and under bright blue skies I arrived at the former 84E at just after 10am. There was already much activity in the yard near the turntable and the focal point was a brief Eastern visitor: the K1. 62005 "Lord of the Isles" is the sole survivor of the Thompson/Peppercorn K1 Class moguls which were principally a two-cylinder version of Nigel Gresley's earlier three-cylinder K4 Class. Only six K4's were built whereas the K1's eventually numbered seventy locomotives. A boiler pressed to 225psi feeding 20" cylinders driving 5ft 2" wheels gave the class a considerable tractive effort and they were versatile machines which, like the K4's, were mostly associated with the West Highland line. 62005 is owned by NELPG and spends a lot of time on the West Highland route between Fort William and Mallaig working the "Jacobite" excursions made famous by the route's inclusion in the Harry Potter movies. This morning, with rods dropped, 62005 was being collected by the Class 08 shunter from the main line depot next door for tyre turning on their floor mounted lathe. I believe the K1 is the biggest wheel they can do...
"K1 'Lord of the Isles' Alongside 7812"
Slowly disappearing from view, "Lord of the Isles" left us in the sunshine. What a nice old thing and I'm sure a very useful tool. In the works today we were continuing with maintenance on the beautiful Castle Class No5043. The "Earl" is a pleasure to work on and it's always nice to be amongst the various steeds which make up the Tyseley fleet. Behind "Edgcumbe" stands the equally lovely 4965 "Rood Ashton Hall". Hopefully we'll see her in steam again at the upcoming June open weekend...
I left Tyseley at around 5pm after another very enjoyable day with the lads. I have a busy few weeks coming up now as the ever looming "Giant Miniature Weekend" draws nearer - can't wait. Thank you all for reading, cheers, Sam...
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