This week there has been two full sessions and a bit of homework.

On Saturday there was a team effort to get two jobs achieved. The first of these was stripping and cleaning three vacuum cylinders. Paul, Mark, Alan, Colin, Stu and Josh focused on this and in no time the cylinders were taken apart. One cylinder, which had been stored for a while had been greased inside and so this had to be cleaned off. The casings were then cleaned and painted black.

The second job involved fitting new vacuum pipes to the two Ministry of Defence (MOD) open wagons. These wagons had been converted to air brakes in MOD service and the original vacuum pipes had been removed. As part of our current project we didn’t want two wagons in the train with no continuous vacuum pipe, so we decided to through-pipe these wagons. After plenty of deliberation, we chose to do this in plastic welded pipe for ease of fitting. This pipe is suitably pressure rated for the job. Tim was joined by his brother James for the day to get this achieved.

On Tuesday there was another session which involved finishing off the MOD wagons with vacuum hoses and assembling the cylinders that were overhauled on Saturday. Whilst Tim and Mark finished the MODs, Phil, Paul and Alan carried on with the cylinders and then everyone made a start fitting the cylinder to the Conflat wagon still in the yard. Unfortunately, the cylinder fitting wasn’t completed, but after hours Tim and Mark took a walk to the running rake and fitted vacuum hoses to the Hoppers. This means all running wagons now have hoses, with the MOD wagons now through-piped.

As a bit of homework, Tim spent some time on Friday making some blanking pipes that will be used on the Hoppers. For the time being the Hoppers will be through-piped, so these pipes are needed to blank of the branch that normally goes to the cylinder.

Don’t forget we still have places available to drive Thomas this coming Saturday, as well as places available on our photographic charter with Tornado on Friday 24th May. We would really appreciate any support you can give by attending these events and providing us with the funds to continue our good work.

For further information and to book, visit our events page on our website.