July 2022 Update

Tony has penned the July update. The big news this month is right at the end of the report. Next month is going to be very busy. Please remember that the fund AGM is on the 10th September, at 1400hrs at Kidderminster railway museum. Hope to see there. Now over to Tony:

Saturday 2nd July
Kevin S, Simon B, Steve M, Tony H.
Kevin bought the vacuum flange that we had ordered a couple of weeks ago. We intended to weld it on the vacuum pipe that goes through the cab floor and to the vacuum brake. Unfortunately we could not get it to line up properly, so left it for another day. We did seem weld the collar on the steam heat pipe. Steve got more green undercoat paint on the lamp brackets that had been welded on last week. The bolts that had been ordered for fitting the water valves were delivered. We checked to see if we had enough brass flanges for the water delivery pipes from the bunker to the water valves and from the water valves to the injector. We were one missing. Good to find this out now rather when we were about to fit them.

Monday 4th July
Charles L, Peter D, Peter M, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
The water valves were fitted along with the controls that bolt to the bunker. More bolt heads were modified for the steam heat cut off valves. Arrangements were made for machining the drip valve casting. More work was done on the boiler.

Saturday 9th July
No report today. People on holiday.
Gave me a chance to watch my Grandson play football for his under 12's team.

Saturday 15th July
No work at Bridgnorth today as we have not a lot that we can do. So a few of us went to Bewdley to do a clean up of the site we vacated 14 month's ago, also to see what was left in the container that we now needed at Bridgnorth and more importantly what had'nt got. Dave Peter Si and Tony had a discussion on the next phase of work now we will soon be able to start work re tubing the boiler.

Monday 17th
No work due to high temperatures.

Saturday 23rd July
Kevin S, Peter M, Tony H.
Peter bought the 8mm injector and the pipework that we sorted out last week.
Unfortunately the pipe we thought was the one for the water valve to the 8 mm injector was'nt. Well it was , but not for a large Prairie. Back to the drawing board for this one. The two pipes we have for the water feed from the bunker to the water valves were trial fitted and luckily they were too long , they marked up ready for cutting to length.

Monday 25th July
Bob L, Dave Mc, Peter D, Peter M, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
Peter D and Dave Mc were working on the boiler grinding the welding flat and preparing for the next visit of the coded welder. Tony, Bob and Steve were fitting the 8mm injector and the outlet pipe. The flange on the outlet pipe was not quite square to the injector so the pipe will need a tweak to line it up.
We were asked if we had all the fittings to fit onto the boiler when it goes for its steam test. This is not happening for a few months yet. We found most of the items needed. The others are in the process of being made.
There has more secure storage been made available so we have moved a lot of brass and copper items into it.
There is a strong possibility that work can start on Linishing the 218 boiler tubes next week.

Thursday 28th July
Dave Mc, Peter D.
The boiler tubes were bought out of secure storage to the boiler shop and Dave and Peter started to Linish the ends.

Saturday 30th July
Bob L, Dave Mc, Kevin S, Peter D, Peter M, Simon B, Tony H.
An excellent days work with all 218 boiler tubes linished both ends. They are now ready to be cut to length and fitted to the boiler. A big thank you to everyone.