Bluebell Railway Atlantic Group
2006 progress
The roof girders went up on the atlantic shed in late January (photo from David Chappell), and the remaining components for the shed have now been delivered. It is on course for completion within the £60,000 budgeted, and will, in addition to being essential for the furtherance of this project, be a great investment for the future.
The castings of the final pair of driving wheels have been delivered. This means that we now have all the wheels, although putting them onto axles and fitting tyres and crank pins will be an expensive business.
Below, by Sunday 9th April, the scafolding was down and the exterior was almost finished, although there is one more roller shutter door to fit. The loco components are at least now protected from the elements, although it still has to be lined with insulation and plywood to make it less susceptible to condensation, so that machined components can be stored in it with less risk of corrosion.
Since the opening of the building, things have been moving forward. As is already known, Keith Sturt is employed by the group on a two day a week basis. As from June, Fred Bailey has joined him on a similar arrangement. Even so the task is quite daunting, but with two of us now concentrating our efforts progress will improve.
An important new addition to the project are apprentices from Thames Water. We will be using them for a range of jobs in the near future. It is part of the project brief to encourage the aquisition of skills by apprentices. The photo right shows them opening up holes for the new horn cheeks on the tender chassis.
Above: Drilling the reinforcing plates that are rivetted to the mainframes behind the rear driving wheels.
General view down the shop.
Above: Rear outer mainframes drilled ready to go into the main workshops for the milling of the sides of the horn openings.
One driving hornstay (solid) and one leading coupled hornstay (with hole). These are steel castings; we have 2 of each!
Two views of the new steel bogie centre casting.
Left: The first hole going through the mainframes! The first of a great many.
In addition to the above, the tender horns are rivetted and the tender steps are nearing completion. There is a new stretcher in the tender that supports the air brake cylinder. The patterns for the cylinders have just gone to the foundry - 3 off are required - 1 for the tender and 2 for the locomotive. Steel is being cut in preparation for the fabricating of the many frame stretchers.
A fund raising appeal for the cash required to complete the project was launched in 2000, and a combination of gifts made via the Bluebell Railway Trust, and standing orders set up to provide a steady income to the project have now made over a third of the total available. Whilst this has provided funding for the present work, more is going to be needed to complete the project, and the best way in which you can help is by setting up a small, regular, standing order to the Bluebell Railway Trust under Gift Aid, since this enables the Trust to reclaim the basic rate tax you have paid, and (if you are a higher rate tax-payer) enables you to reclaim some tax as well.
A combined Donation, GiftAid and Standing Order form is available as a pdf document.
For further details contact David Jones.
A donation is made to this project when you buy Historical Transport Film videos from Beulah.
Photos © Copyright David Chappell and Fred Bailey