The main job for Saturday was to oil and inspect all of the wagons required for both the Deltic driving course and the Tornado photo charter.

With a good turnout we all set about pulling axle boxes apart and checking pads, journals, and oil reservoirs. Splitting into teams of two made the job a lot smoother with a team opening boxes, one inspecting and oiling, and the final team reassembling.

Meanwhile, Tim headed into the shed and with the assistance of the engineering team managed to free a stuck screw coupling from the Conflat….just another little job ticked off the list.

Phil also found himself spare from oiling duties, so he got to work painting the chassis of the Medfit. Once Tim was done he joined Phil to paint the tricky bits.

During oiling duties, Tim took a phone call and decided to sit on a bag of gravel, not realising there was a dip in the middle. This caused a rather casual posture. He is sticking with the story ‘he fell’, but others are not so sure!

On Tuesday there was shunting to be done to get the wagons in the correct order for our events, so Tim and Mark were on site moving things around. They were assisted by Paul Roe driving DL83 and Ian Watson in the Signalbox. Everything was in the wrong order, but thanks to Tim’s carefully worked out plan, what could’ve taken several hours was achieved in no time.

Then, midway through the afternoon something very shiny and blue arrived in the form of Deltic 55013 ‘The Black Watch’. The loco is looking fantastic and will be impressive with the wagons next Friday.

There are still places available on our photographic charter with Tornado. For more info and to book visit our events page….we need your support to continue our good work!

Events