The Fenchurch Fund: Working Day last Saturday

There was a working day last Saturday (5th May) and following this Ben Dingley has sent us some notes for a short update. Photographs and a few more words will follow shortly.

Firstly we must welcome Matt to his lovely new house, which he moved into Saturday, and so was not present at the working day. However his contribution behind the scenes is legend!.Sean Smeeth and Jim Turtle were present working with Ben who was also doubling up as running foreman in the loco yard.

We are delighted to announce that we have begun to assemble the up stand on the rear drag box. This behaves as a frame stretcher and supports the bunker and cab floor.

Progress has been good on the erection of the rear buffer beam with only a few items left to make this a complete "sub-assembly".

The front buffer beam angle work is also progressing. All these angles and beams will be bolted up to ensure a good alignment and fit before riveting together can be carried out. Much of the machining of the angles that were delivered in October have been carried out and we are well on the way to completing this part of the restoration.Jim Turtle has been supporting Ben whilst he is recovering from an operation as he cannot do any lifting. Jim has assisted with measuring and drilling of drag box and buffer beam components as well as painting all of the parts in bonda primer before assembly.

Reuben and Sean have continued to support with the needle gunning and bead blasting of every item machined to remove mill scale to give a suitable surface for painting. They have also assisted with some fitting up of the parts and drilling through the angle work.

Matt has tested the vacuum cylinder following a complete rebuild and this has been successful. Matt is also continuing with bunker and tank drawings ready for then next stage of the rebuild. Considerable progress has been made with the marking out of the new frames. The marking out will be independently checked before any drilling takes place. The old adage of measure 3 times and cut once is truly applicable here! A few more days of this glorious sunshine are required to compete the marking and checking, then we can start to drill. Our next purchases are fitted rivets and white metal for the axleboxes. Quotes have been obtained for these and they will be ordered later in the year, funds permitting.

In his spare time (!) Matt is developing a website which will be launched later in the year. This will give information on the locos that the Little Engine Group will be supporting either directly or assisting and encouraging others who want to get involved in looking after the small locos.

We are also progressing with setting up a system where it will be possible to set up on line standing orders via PayPal. More information regarding this will be forthcoming shortly.
A Donation box has been placed on the platform adjacent to the ROD 27 tank. we are just awaiting for another information board to be completed and fitted to give up to date information on it.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in the project, we are now seeing some really tangible progress on the restoration thanks to you, our supporters.

Please remember that this work can only continue with the donations, support and interest that is forthcoming from all of our supporters.

If you would like to help us to continue this work with a donation, please go to our BT MyDonate page