76077 news

Monday at Broadway

Quitre a nice day really, considering, allowing the continuation of work on the footbridge steps with both carpentry and wood conservation work going on.

Neal is now well into the carpentry process for making up the sides of the steps. All the timbers were cut, preserved and primered, and here he is under the roof (where we have stored them, to be out of the way) measuring up to select the next timber on which he plans to work.

Here he is with a short piece, for the intermediate landing.

Using two G clamps he has simulated the uprights left and right, and he's now marking out the cuts he needs to make to get each piece to fit round the steel hoops, and into the next piece.

Then it's back down to the ground floor to cut.

Each timber is different, there is no mass production possible, everything has to be measured, cut, trial fitted, cut a little bit more, and so on.

Neal started with the bottoms on the near side, and these are now ready. They are being preserved and painted by John, where cut wood has been exposed.

Next, Neal is doing the tops, and you can see him here offering up the next piece before marking it up.

The last pieces he will do will be the two vertical ones on each panel, as these are the simplest.

Elsewhere, benches received a repaint, or as in this case, a coat of topcoat it never had. It is certainly looking very shiny now.

We are looking for another all wooden bench like this one (a GWR one of course). Or even two, if we can find any. They would go under the canopy on P2 (early pictures show that there was one) or indeed inside one of the 2 rooms in the new building.

If you know of one that is available, even in poor condition (most are by now) do let us know.

We would also be interested in a similar bench, but upholstered for the interior (like the one currently in the booking office).

Outside the container on P2, John was painting a number of corrugated iron panels.

We would like to build a temporary roof over the bottom of the P1 steps, to protect them from the rain until the canopy extension is in place, in a year's time.

On top of the station roof primer was being applied to the two beams that support the corrugated iron sheets. These were not painted during installation. We think it's wise to protect them.

This is a long, slow job. Care has to be taken not to get white primer on the light stone roof sheets, and the back of this long timber is really awkward to paint, as it's too low to sit under, and just too high to paint lying down.

Mid afternoon Neal had fitted the two upper timbers, with a last one to go at the top. In the picture he's talking to Mike, with concerns as to how best to protect the bridge against the driving rain that we keep getting.

The two pieces he fitted in the morning can be seen here.

Of course everything has to come down again, to be painted with preserver and the primer.

The joinery on the two pieces he fitted earlier is lovely. The upright for the hoops goes right through the join, and then you need to consider the change of angle from level to, Neal said, 14.35 degrees.

This is where the giant school protractor comes in. Got one of those at home? Thought not....

This is the joint in the picture. Isn't it a great piece of work? All done in a morning.


Wednesday PWay work and Usketeers.

All went off to have a jolly Christmas dinner. You'll forgive them for that, won't you? So no work today.

This isn't going to help me eat my cheesecake?

Heritage bulletin - Toddington Yard lamps

The specialist manufacturer has completed the two yard lamp tops that we ordered.

 This is one of them, all wired up for the electrics, and with the frog fitted, ready to go on the post.

Chimney detail.

Canopy, with lighting.

The manufacturer was able to equip it with 6 gas light LED lookalikes, on the left, and achieved a superb detail on the chimney, all cut out of copper sheet. Didn't he do well!

The lamp tops are about to be delivered to the railway, and may even be fitted before Christmas, so keep an eye open for them. Next summer, on a sunny day or a moody evening, you should be able to take some very authentic photographs of our locomotives resting at the back of the loco shed.

Looking further forward, (the Toddington site redevelopment....) we could do with another couple of yard lamp posts, so if you know of any that are available, do let us know.






76077 update

News here is that the frames, shotblasted and painted at Toddington last year, have now been moved into the workshop of Locomotive Maintenance Services Ltd at Loughborough.

76077 frames arrive at Loughborough.

 Pitchford Hall has been outshopped, and now there is room in the shed for our locomotive frames.

76077 frames under cover at LMS.

In the workshops.

Heavy work on the frames will start in the new year, just waiting for the Christmas hols to be over.

Refurbished safety valves.

Andy, our engineering director, also let us have pictures of some individual items that are ready to go back on.

New snifting valves, marked 76077 L and R. Neat, or what?

These snifting valves are new. They are replicas cast by the sister 76074 group, who borrowed our originals (and quite a number of other items) to get their own loco up and running, and these items are now being returned, or replaced by new.

'Smiths Industrial Instruments, London NW2'.

Finally, we have acquired an original speedometer  (marked 'BR' of course) from the 80072 group at Llangollen. We are lucky that we have a Standard locomotive type, and many components can be sourced via other locomotive groups with similar designs. The biggest missing item is still the reverser gear box. If we can't find an original we know of groups that already have patterns made and new parts cast, so while a new gear box is do-able, it won't be cheap. We're also after an injector, which could cost around £4500. A new chimney is also being sourced at the time of writing.

As restorations go 76077 is quite straightforward.
We have enough funds to get the restoration up and running, but need more help to continue the good progress beyond the end of 2020.

If you'd like to help you could do that by becoming a £500 shareholder:
https://standard76077.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/190123-TSLL-share-application-form.pdf

Or in smaller bite sized chunks, say the cost of a meal per month, how about setting up a standing order of say £25 a month to buy shares in installments:
https://standard76077.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/180623-TSLL-BANKERS-ORDER-FORM.pdf

Yours truly bought a block of £500 shares last summer, and now that the Christmas presents have all been bought, has decided to continue with a £25 monthly standing order. A case of putting your money where your mouth is.