Reduced shade!

I was hot at the Rocks By Rail Museum yesterday. It was so hot that Thomas's paint app told him it was too hot for paint to be applied to metal so he decided that a day helping me with some vegetational butchery in the shade was the thing to do. Alex thought so too. Now, despite the heat waves and general lack of rain, bushes and shrubs still appear to have grown at a rapid rate so some heavy pruning was required. Thomas had brought in his mini chain saw which he gave his mother for her birthday but then decided to test at the Museum. To be fair it was a great aid and soon destructed vegetation was piling up to the point that something had to be done.

Cue the builders bag which allowed the vegetational debris to be bulked up and transported to the composting area.

There was another issue with this mass vegetational destruction. That being that the shade that had been there was no longer there as we stripped back the vegetation! Being a bit crafty, I made my excuses and took the strimmer along the quarry tracks where it was still shady and cool and my strimming did nothing to reduce that! Cool! More to do on the cutting back side of the shrubs but that can wait for another day - hopefully when it is cooler!

Whilst talking about vegetation, one of my bike rides took me pass the local canal which over the last few weeks has become a stream. This is how it looked a few weeks ago.

And now....

Maybe I should take the strimmer down there!

New mower!

It was the day that the boiler inspector inspected the boiler of 1931. From what I am told, things have gone OK! Hopefully that means that the rebuild can start which means that, again hopefully, the Museum will have steam traction next year!

Meanwhile, on the more mundane matters of site maintenance, someone has taken pity on my battles with keeping the old mower going and I have a new one! It won't stay looking shiny like that for long and I did give it a whirl in the afternoon with a couple of trouble free and relaxing hours of mowing!

The morning was a concentration on vegetational butchery with the strimmer out bringing near six foot weeds down to ground level!

Despite the dry weather the weeds keep growing!

BBC - Brakedowns, Brakes and Couplings!

 Sunday was a Quarry day at the Rocks by Rail Museum which meant I was shunting assisted by Dan and with John driving Mr. D. Unfortunately Mr. D decided that it was time to breakdown with a lack of air to release the brakes being the problem. There was an additional problem in that the other quarry train was now trapped behind Mr. D!

Despite John's best endeavours at sorting the issue eventually we had to call in assistance in the form of Betty! 

Betty, being the Sentinel loco, driven up by Andy who released Mr. D's brakes and used Betty to shunt both Mr. D and eight wagons out of the way of the quarry train and allow that to escape before hauling Mr. D off to be repaired!

So that was the brakedown and before that we were actually shunting so it was brakes on and off the wagons - this is the brake off....

and this is it off!

To release or put on the brakes this wooden bat is used to lever the brake handle.

And finally, the couplings!

So that was the BBC day at the Museum and I did enjot it!

Hush, hush!

I had to be hush, hush at the Rocks b Rail Museum so no noisy mowers or strimmers! The reason? A film crew. Cant say what the programme is but it will be on main stream TV probably the back end of next year or in 2027! However it was great to watch it being made.

Mr. D in his brand new paint job is a major part of the programme and John and Thomas have made a fantastic job in less than a week.

John  ain the cab awaiting his time to drive.

Meanwhile things did carry on away from the filming with work on steam loco Barrington involving taking off the non-original coal bunker and replacing it with a normal cab back.

A view into the cab that you would not normally get!

Outside work on 1931 carries on with the boiler being washed out ready for inspection.

Richard was under the loco with a hose pipe.

Whilst Hazel was at the side pulling the debris that had washed out through the drain hole.

A great job to do on a hot day!

A room with a view!

Lots of things going on at the Rocks By Rail Museum for an important but, at the moment, hush hush event!

The Sundew cab is looking superb and once inside it really is a room with a view! A credit to Pete, Pam and Rob who have done so much work on it as well as the surrounding area which is of course enhanced by my mowing skills!

The drag line is slowly being repainted by Martyn and looks posed to do some work at our next quarry event at the end of June.

Even the face shovel looks 'attractive' in the sun!

Looking up to the quarry area from the newly constructed viewing platform I think all is ready!

There are however other things going on as well such as the continuing work on 1931 and its retube. The last of the taking apart work involved removing the insulation over the boiler - and no, it is not asbestos otherwise Hazel would be kitted up with appropriate PPE!

Nor would Richard be so happy!

With the insulation removed, John, Richard and Hazel rub down any rusty areas and then the Boiler Inspector will need to examine the boiler to see if it is fit to be retubed which, hopefully, it will. Then its just a case of putting it back together which I am told is far easier said than done!

Meanwhile, taking vegetational destruction to a higher level than I ever have, John pilots Mr. D which is hauling the weed killing train.

John seems quite happy to be in the safety of the cab though!

Soimething is missing!

Something is missing I though to myself as I viewed the interior of the restoration shed at the Rocks by Rail Museum.

Yes, it certainly looked somewhat empty compared to normal but there was an explanation.

Most of the rolling stock had moved outside and this is the first time I have seen Ketton No.1 in natural light.

This was to allow for the water tank on steam loco 1931 to be lifted clear of the rest of the loco. The gantry crane that had appeared a couple of weeks ago was a key piece of equipment in this operation along with the CAT which provided stability.

This really is big engineering and you get some interesting views of the various parts that make up a steam loco.

The front of the water tank complete with the funnel.

The rear of the tank.

The front of the boiler with the boiler plate where the tubes pass through.

Some good progress which will go a long way to getting this loco back in steam.

Progress to, with Thomas the ride in childrens amusement. He works! Plugged into the electrical supply and fed a £1 coin he did his thing all to the accompaniment of the Thomas theme music - lovely! I dared Pam, as a petite lady, to get in the cab but she would not!

After last weeks mower capers I had to put some real work in to catch up and the recent rain did not help in that it had encouraged the grass to grow!

It all looks a lot more manicured now ready for Sunday with the Fathers Day Driver 4 a Fiver event.

A new steam engine at the Museum!

A new steam engine at the Museum! Now that was something I had not been expecting. However, the reality of the news was a little different to my imagined scene especially as I went into the cafe to be greeted by this smiling face!

Yes, Thomas the Tank Engine has now become part of the Museum!

A very kind donation to the Museum, he is, at the moment, ironically, our only working steam loco! Feed a £1 coin into the slot in the cab and he will take you off on a ride to nowhere whilst playing the Thomas theme which should delight the cafe volunteers after the tenth time they hear that in an hour!

Walking out of the cafe to the restoration shed I was also shocked to see that things had been moved!

Steam loco Barrington has now been moved into the shed for a cosmetic repaint. Elizabeth, the next in line, is still much as she was five years ago.  After that, 1931 is still being worked on for its boiler retube.  The Southern brake van is more or less where it was before the move and Ketton No.1 is now at the back of the line or is that the front of the shed? Anyway, it is at the opposite end to where it was last week!

Things are certainly, well, tight in the shed with just enough room at each end to get round. It was noted by one volunteer that every time that you needed to get to the other side of a piece of rolling stock you had to walk round the whole shed rather than cut through between the items which was the case before they all became buffered up. My suggestion for a limbo dancing competition under the buffers did not go down well! Note to self, keep quiet in the future!

With little room left in the shed I found a group of volunteers trying to make sense of the gantry crane that was erected last week for the impending lift of the tank from 1931. Either that, or they were trying to work out how to string me up after the limbo dancing idea!

At this point I thought I had better retreat to the safety of grass cutting duties but the mower had othr ideas as it continues to taunt me! This time the linkage to the airflap in the carburetor  decided to come undone! It took a while to figure out what the issue was but a quick fix once discovered. The mower however got little use as I took action on some overhanging vegetation near the entrance with my usual vegetational butchery!

That should make it easier for any double decker buses to get in like the one at the Bank Holiday event!

Brakes oiff on the brake van retsoration!

This rather natty gantry crane has appeared outside the restoration shed at the Rocks by Rail Museum,

It is going to come in very handy when the tank over the boiler of 1931, the steam engine in for retubing, has to be lifted clear and John says we are close to that point now as he uses yet another hammer to loosen some parts!

Meanwhile, following the completion of the trackwork over the Winter its brakes off for the restoration of the Southern brake van. John, Hazel, Richard and Thomas were busy with whatever is needed to make this a thing of beauty again! I think it may take a while though!

My mowing duties were plagued by yet more mower issues with a crack in the deck of the mower. To stop that spreading I drilled a hole in the end of the crack which hopefully will stop it spreading any further!

After that, it was full on vegetational butchery with both mower and hedge trimmer to try to bring back some order to nature! I think nature will eventually win though!

The before.

The after.

Whilst I was at the quarry end of the site I tried taking this photo of the drag line. I don't think it will win any prizes but I like it!

Finally, on the way home up the A1 road, there was a backlog of traffic which I thought was down to a tractor. I was wrong! Never seen one of these in the UK, but this guy was being somewhat brave in traveling along a 70mph road in a tuc tuc! Just hope he didn'y have far to go!