Another very busy and productive week at the railway.
MK2 Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 5220 John has fitted the last piece of vinyl onto the carriage walls. Thanks to John, Nigel and Robyn who have done a great job with this and it looks amazing. Nigel and Dave were working on repairs to one of the carriage doors. If this fix works, they will be able to make repairs to the remaining doors across our entire fleet of TSOs. Miles and Ben continued to fit the seat carcasses, bolting in the seat supports and fitting cushions. This maintenance/restoration project is now almost complete. MK2 TSO No. 5221 Kev, Miles and Tracey have cleaned all the light covers in the coach MK2 Brake Standard Open (BSO) No. Mike and Sean fitted the cover pieces where the blinds will be placed and stained the replacement wood in the end vestibule. Trevor has been painting more bench ends for a new seat that will be placed on the platform extension at Spring Village. Work on the extension continues, with a lamp post being removed, and the ground levelled Paul and Grahame continue to work hard with the station gardens. The new recycling bins are being used correctly which is pleasing to see. On Thursday we welcomed Lucy Allan MP to the railway as part of the #LoveYourRailway campaign. Lucy was given a tour of Spring Village, seeing the planned nature walk, the platform extension and the carriage restorations and meeting the volunteers. At Horsehay and Dawley station Lucy saw the progress being made with the waiting room and signalbox before boarding the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) to Lawley. Here we were able to show her the work being done to improve the platform and the progress of the adjacent housing development. Lucy then drove the DMU (under supervision) back to Horsehay before having tea and biscuits in the cafe. This visit was a great success, and we look forward to welcoming Lucy back to the railway soon. AJ and Ian have continued to work on the Dumper and Road Railer vehicles, painting, repairing faults and replacing tyres So into the bank holiday weekend and three days of running. Saturdays motive power was switched to the DMU to conserve our stocks of coal, with Peckett & Sons W6 steam engine No. 1722 'Rocket' hauling trains on Sunday and Monday. Our visitors also enjoyed the Phoenix Miniature Railway, model railway, second hand bookstall and cafe in glorious weather all weekend. Other jobs took place though, with the fence being removed at Railway House and further lineside clearance by the old station masters house. Cutting back the vegetation is really opening up the railway again and the plan is that this will continue over the next few weeks. Thank you to Ben for providing the additional information in this update. Our next running day is Sunday 4th September when Peckett & Sons W6 steam engine No. 1722 'Rocket' will be hauling our trains. This first train departs Spring Village at 11am. No need to pre book, just turn up and pay to ride all day. Free car parking at Spring Village station (TF4 2NF). Our next event is the 'Horsehay Growler' on Saturday 10th September with all trains hauled by Class 37 diesel 37263. This is the last planned use of the class 37 for this season. First train leaves Spring Village at 11am. Usual fares and timetable applies. See website for details. All events, attractions and locomotives are subject to availability and Telford Steam Railway reserves the right to cancel, amend or substitute locomotives if required.
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This week's update from the railway, starting as usual with the coaches.
MK2 Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 5220. Work continues to get the coach ready for the Polar Express. Dave and Nigel have completed the flooring, and the carpet has been put back down. John was busy putting up more vinyl and fitting seat brackets with Tracey and Miles giving him a helping hand. With the carpet and brackets back in place, Ben and Josh fixed all the seat carcasses into one side of the coach. The re-upholstered cushions are now being refitted together with the armrests. On Saturday, Ben, Ian and Brian were resealing more of the windows. MK2 Brake Standard Open (BSO) No. 9046 Sean and Mike have continued to cut, paint and fit wooden panelling and have carried on with the preparation of the vestibule areas so they can start fitting the internal doors. Wood for the doors have now been received, meaning we now have enough for all the passenger doors for the BSO, and make all the necessary repairs across our fleet of TSO's. Paul and Trevor started to build a GWR bench in the Cosford Shed before Paul was back painting the floor of the Horsehay and Dawley waiting room, and Trevor went to paint the Furnaces Tearoom and start to repair the front of the serving counter. Martin and AJ continue to move spoil from the platform extension. Chris has been bricklaying along the new platform edge. Kev has repaired the wiring on the road/rail dumper. This has been tested and is now working fine Lineside clearance has continued with Antony, Miles and AJ strimming and cutting back vegetation close to 'The Old Station Masters' house. This has improved visibility for passengers and crew. Improved recycling bins have been installed around the site. In the works update no. 2 Ruston & Hornsby 20 Diesel 2-foot gauge. Brakes have been freed, dismantled and are now ready for painting. Brake lever has also been freed with the help of oxyacetylene. The gear selector mechanism has been taken to Billcar Engineering as the horizontal rod was seized solid, and there were concerns that the casting could become fractured. Work is currently ongoing to remove the matrices from the radiator for rebuilding. Any help or advice would be appreciated for the restoration/welding of the (very heavy) radiator enclosure. North British 0-4-0 diesel hydraulic No. 27414 'Tom' No further work has taken place as manpower has been diverted to work on repairing and maintaining plant machinery. British Railways Class 37 No. 37263 Driver and Secondman seats have been replaced. The turbo oil has been replaced, the blower motor repaired at the No. 1 end and the wipers repaired and now working at the No. 2 end. This loco is operational and will be hauling public trains on Saturday 10th September. Ruston & Hornsby 0-4-0 diesel mechanical No. 382824 'Hector' Over the past month there has been plenty of work on Hector. After the successful start up the first job was to tackle an air leak and stuck drain valve on the brake air tanks. This has now been rectified and is ready for testing. The rear buffers have been removed, cleaned up and repainted. They have now been refitted securely with new matching bolts. In addition, there has been some touch up painting on the doors, front cab panel and bonnet nose as the old paint was either damaged or faded. The gearbox has had some attention, with a new set of mounting bolts fitted front and back as the originals had worn badly due to some bolts being loose. On the chassis, the front spring spacers have been removed to have 2 new ones made for the rear (which are currently missing) which, when all fitted, will allow the loco to sit level. Finally, the damaged front buffer plate has had its bolts loosened off ready for removed in the near future. This has been damaged in the past and there is a severe build-up of corrosion between the plates. There's been plenty of work being undertaken on Hector this past month, and just as much planned for September. British Railways Class 144 'Pacer' No. 144013. A thorough internal clean has taken place. This vehicle will be in use for the guard and driver training taking place over the weekend of 17th & 18th September. The next running day is the Bank Holiday Weekend (Sat, Sun and Mon). Peckett & Sons W6 steam engine No. 1722 'Rocket' will be hauling trains on all three days. The next event is the 'Horsehay Growler' on Saturday September 10th. Class 37 diesel No. 37263 will be hauling all trains on that date. Please note that the railway will not be open over the weekend of 17th and 18th September. This is to allow 'Pacer' guard and driver training. First train leaves Spring Village station at 11am. Pay once and ride all day. No need to prebook. Free car parking at our Spring Village (TF4 2NF). Thank you for Ben, Sean and AJ for the additional information used in this update. Another week of hot weather here at Horsehay, but lots of progress continues by our fantastic volunteers.
MK2 Brake Standard Open (BSO) No. 9406. Mike and Sean have continued to cut and paint wooden panels for the vestibule areas. They have also trial fitted some panels in the area designated for use by our less able visitors, so that they can see what needs to be cut. Nigel and Dave have been busy replacing the floor. This has gone very well, and there is only a small section left to do. Some of the more specialist parts for the BSO have been made for us this week by our friends at Alliance Joinery in Wellington MK2 Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 5220. We have received a delivery of some more re-upholstered seat cushions. We have only one more batch of cushions to go before all of them have been refurbished. MK2 TSO No. 5193 Tracey has given the coach a thorough clean in preparation for some work to be done on decorations for THE POLAR EXPRESS™ Train Ride. Speaking of THE POLAR EXPRESS™ Train Ride, Allan, John and Ben have been busy sorting and clearing space for the delivery of this year's Polar Express mugs One of the Santa's reindeer has been brought back from Lawley to receive some TLC. With the hot weather, Paul and Grahame have been busy all week keeping the station gardens watered and tidy On Saturday the Class 108 was hauling the service trains. Despite (or because of) the very hot temperatures, we had lots of families join us for the day. AJ, Miles and Nathan painted the 2-ton dumper in primer (under the cover of the gazebo). We can't wait until it is finish but I think AJ is keeping its final colour a secret for the time being! Pete and Alex were busy as usual. Their tractors were on show for the kids to play on, and they were also preparing the ground behind the tearoom for a new fence and gate. Some advance notice of events happening in August and September (all subject to availability. Telford Steam Railway reserves the right to amend, alter and cancel services if required). The Bank Holiday weekend, 27th-29th August, will see Peckett & Sons W6 steam engine No 1722 'Rocket' in action on all three days hauling trains. On Saturday 10th September the railway will be open to the public with Class 37 diesel 37263 hauling the trains. This is the last time it is planned to use the 37 for this season, so it you want the opportunity to ride behind it, please put the date in your calendar. Normal timetable and fares will be in operation. Lookout for further information on our website and Facebook pages over the next few weeks. There will be NO public service over the weekend of the 17th and 18th September. This is to allow driver and guard training to take place with our class 142 and 144 Pacer units. Once this training has been successfully completed, these units will come into service to be used on public trains as and when required. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for further updates. With thanks to Ben and Pete for the additional information provided for this update. Our next running day will be Sunday 21 August with the Class 108 diesel multiple unit (DMU) due to be in use. First departure is from Spring Village at 11am. No need to pre book, just turn up and pay once to ride all day. Our next event is the 'Horsehay Growler' on Saturday 10th September with trains being hauled by Class 37 diesel 37263. The theme running through this week's update is gaining new volunteers, following on from our fantastic open day😁
On Tuesday we welcomed 3 new volunteers, Mike, David and Tracey. They got stuck in helping with the ongoing restoration and maintenance in the Brake Standard Open (BSO) No. 9406 and Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 5220. A deep clean of the running coach TSO No. 5148 also took place. Ben was busy painting seat carcasses ready for when they are needed to be refitted. Paul and Grahame were busy watering and maintaining the gardens at our stations and Trevor was back painting in the cafe and working on some new benches (the one at the cafe appears to have gone missing). In the evening, Dave J, Andrew and Martin used Ruston & Hornsby diesel mechanical No. 313394 'Jammo' and the crane wagon to move the stacked and bound packs of concrete posts from Spring Village yard to the headshunt. We collected a number of photographs that have been kindly loaned to us by the Railway Photographic Society (formerly Rail Camera Club) for an exhibition to be displayed at Railway House. Look out for further information on this exciting new attraction and thank you to John Hillier and members of the Railway Photographic Society for their generous help and support in making this happen. On Wednesday John was adding more wood vinyl to the TSO No. 5220 and Ben was sorting out Polar Express items in our containers (it is really just over 3 months before it all starts😳). On Thursday Nigel, Dave, Sean, Martin, Allan and Tracey were all working in the coaches. New youth volunteer Miles joined us later to help with some painting. We have made rapid progress over the last few months in our BSO and TSO, and now having more volunteers will allow that progress to become even quicker. Kev replaced some of the driver and secondman seats in the Class 37 and then began the rewiring the road/rail dumper. On Saturday we welcomed another new volunteer, Brian, into our happy ranks. His first job was to help Kev, Ian, Allan, Nathan and Ben to take out the windows from TSO No. 5220 and re-seal them to make them watertight again and taking some panels off the inside walls. Miles was cleaning down the walls to get them ready for re-vinyling later in the week. An area of body work that was beyond repair was cut out and a new section welded in. With the windows out, the opportunity was taken to replace the timber in the frames where required. Chris and Martin were busy working on the platform extension at Spring Village, levelling the site and clearing as much of the spoil as possible as the huge pile in the car park was being taken away by contractors (we have started another spoil pile already). There was a lot of painting going on, the tables for the BSO and TSO ready for fitting, and in the cafe, together with some preparation of the front of the cafe counter ready for re-cladding. Pete and Alex were clearing the vegetation and rubbish behind the Cafe and Railway House to make this a usable area for us and our visitors. All of this progress, and we hadn't even run any public services yet. This happened on Sunday when Peckett & Sons W6 No. 1722 'Rocket' was in steam and hauling trains. Ian and Martin were the loco crew this week, with Allan guard and John the travelling ticket inspector (TTI) We welcomed two further new volunteers, Andy and Sean who enjoyed coaling 'Rocket', sanding the outside of the BSO and with Antony, Miles and me, we had enough for a gang to go and start lineside clearing of vegetation. So, a fantastic week's progress, with 7 new volunteers joining us to go with the 2 that started last Sunday. Most of them have now volunteered more than once and they are already making a positive contribution to the railway. It is great having them on board. Will there be any more?! Thanks as always to Ben, Shaun and Allan for the additional information provided in this update. Our next public service day will be on Sunday 14 August when the Class 108 Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) will be running. First train leaves Spring Village at 11am. No need to pre book, just pay once to ride all day. The next planned event is a 'mixed traffic' weekend on 24th and 26th September. However, this will be dependent on the effect of ongoing disruption and road closures due to the major sewage works being undertaken around our site by Severn Trent Water. This week at the railway
Ben and Nigel continued working on MK2 Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 5220. The remainder of the floor was lifted and will now be replaced. Thankfully, there were no major surprises waiting to be uncovered, just one small area that had rusted through. Painting of the metal floor continues. Sean and Martin continue to put up new wooden panels in the Brake Standard Open (BSO). One side of the coach is now completed. Trevor has finished painting the signal post in Spring Village. The last couple of months has seen a lot of hard work taking place to repaint the fences and gates around our stations. We have received a lot of positive comments and feedback from residents though, saying how much brighter and tidier the place looks, so this has been a really worthwhile exercise. Ruston 0-4-0 diesel mechanical No. 313394 'Jammo' needed a few running repairs this week so Andrew has been busy making sure she would be ready for use on Saturday Dave and Marian were cleaning up the Pacer and coaches ready for the weekend and Chris, Martin and Ian were replacing one of the tracks on the mini digger. Saturday was our open day for prospective new volunteers and members. This was a fantastic success, with two tours of the site filled with visitors. They were shown demonstrations of coach restoration, permanent way, steam and diesel loco operation, guard duties, gardening, signalling, tearoom, and model railway operation. The Pacer was also open for people to view. It was great to be able to talk to our visitors, show them all the brilliant things we are doing, and share our plans for the future. Feedback has been excellent; membership of the railway has increased and so has our number of working volunteers. Trevor was also back on site, having a break from painting......by varnishing the waiting room floor at Horsehay and Dawley station! The first two new volunteers, Antony and Nathan, were back at the railway bright and early on Sunday morning. They began by coaling Peckett and Sons W6 0-4-0 steam engine No 1722 'Rocket', which was being prepared for the day's services, before giving the Pacer a good clean on the outside. Work also continued on the platform extension at Spring Village over the weekend. Martin, Chris, Josh and Ian broke up and cleared the concrete pad (which the miniature railway's tunnel originally sat on), and the top of the retaining wall was removed down to the level of the existing platform. Thank you to Ben and Andrew for the additional information used in the update. Our next service will be on Sunday 7th August when trains will be again hauled by Peckett & Sons W6 0-4-0 steam engine No. 1722 'Rocket'. First train leaves Spring Village at 11am. No need to pre book, just pay once and ride all day. The next planned event is a 'mixed traffic' weekend on 24th and 26th September. However, this will be dependent on the effect of ongoing disruption and road closures due to the major sewage works being undertaken around our site by Severn Trent Water. |
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September 2024
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