Helping to preserve the Bluebell Railway's smaller engines
With the start of the new year and the frames sheeted over, to protect them from the elements, the team has started to move forwards on two fronts…
Following on from completing the final marking out of the frames earlier in the month a start was made at drilling out and reaming through each individual hole. Prior to this the the two frame plates where carefully position one on top of the other, so that we could assured that both frame plates match each other. The above photo shows Matt machining the first hole…
Talking of you’ve been framed (or at least Matt does) today Matt has also finished the task of painstakingly marking out all of the hole positions for the main frames! just over 400 holes in total and roughly 24 man hours spread over the last couple of months, weather dependent! Following verification and a quick double check, measure twice cut once as the old saying goes, we should be in a position to commence drilling…
The Cylinder block has been sent away to our friends at Statfold Engineering Ltd for machining. Undeterred by the English weather, on Friday, Matt and Ben popped up and delivered the cylinder block casting to Statfold Barn for machining. Another little milestone for Projecty 27…
A brief engineering update on the progress made on our monthly working day for February. The above picture shows the first holes drilled in the rear buffer beam! these have been tap’d and are now ready to have, at the time, the rear stowage hook for the coupling to be bolted on (Show’n painted up on the right)…
With the group together for our monthly working day, progress was made on making a start on riveting the rear drag-box up. After a successful day of riveting this plate is now ready for a coat of paint and machining to square this sub-assembly up to aid in the erection of the main frames. Also many thanks for the workshop staff allowing us to use there space and equipment for the day…
A brief works picture update of progress on 27 over the Christmas period and the beginning of the new year. The picture below show’s Ben busy machining true the brake cylinder support angle irons which will subsequently be riveted to the rear Dragbox & will suspend the main brake cylinder once fitted…
As a small group, we rely on fundraising to keep achieving our goal of seeing the Bluebell Railways smaller fleet of engines operational. So get on board with us today no matter how large or small the contribution.