Back in the days when the station was working, you couldn't pop over to Plumb Centre or B&Q for bits and pieces. In most cases you made them yourself or ordered them from somewhere upcountry at great expense. Thus it was that when the new 'trainset' was tried out there was a problem with the couplings between the wagons: we didn't have enough of the correct ones and the attempt at using bits of steel bar for linkages was a failure. Cue Ian and Nick and an afternoon spent in the forge heating steel bar and bending it into coupling-shaped loops, once the coal had been persuaded to burn! Not only cheaper and quicker than having to order them from somewhere, but a useful demonstration to the visitors of how things used to be done.

You can tell that winter is on its way by the viscosity of the steam oil used on the engines: this changes from the usual 'thick treacle' to something approaching bitumen. The standard procedure is to have the can with the steam oil sitting somewhere hot to keep the stuff liquid enough that you don't have to wait an hour for it to drip out of the can and this is usually on top of the boiler feed pumps. The large green drum with the convenient tap on the bottom was empty so I decided to have a bit of a clear out: three partly empty drums of steam oil were found loitering in the engine house and workshop and poured into the green drum, or in other words I spent some thirty minutes watching green oil ooze from one can into another. Very therapeutic!

The Dening sawbench is now rail-mounted! A spare chassis has been pressed into service to carry the bench which can be moved up to the woodpiles by the car park, the timber cut in situ and loaded onto our wood train for transport to the boiler. The bench will now live in the traverser shed which is being cleared of various bits that have been lurking away from our gaze for some years. Amongst these is a rail-mounted 'post basher' formerly used by the rivers board. One thought is to have this on display in the new shed along with a 'rubber post' to show how it works.

Now the steaming season is over (until New Year), the boiler will be drained down and washed out then we have it inspected by a boiler company to arrange replacement of several firebox stays which were identified as being past their sell-by date, even with the lower pressure the boiler is now running at compared with when it was in service. This will involve drilling out the old stays, retapping the holes in the firebox and outer wrapper and screwing in new stays to replace them. More details and maybe some pictures in a few months!

Finally, large lumps of concrete are wanted, ideally concrete railway sleepers. The reason for this is to prevent our visitors messing up the rhyne by dropping their cars in it! The problem is that along the edge of the car park facing the rhyne there is nothing to stop the odd visitor who mistakes the brake for the accelerator or who puts their car into the wrong gear from driving into the water. To prevent this we intend to place a line of concrete sleepers among that side. These will be high enough to stop cars going over the edge but low enough to allow access by tractor to cut the undergrowth along the bank. Any donations of suitable items gratefully received.

Andy

Previous news for 2008 is available for reading via the Archive section in the navigation bar, left.

All newspages for 2007, including December's issue, can be downloaded (zipfile)here

All newspages for 2006 can be downloaded (zipfile)here

Photographs of machinery and buildings are © Westonzoyland Engine Trust 2008 Official Location Address: Westonzoyland Pumping Station, Hoopers Lane, Westonzoyland, nr. Bridgwater, Somerset TA7 0LS (Please do NOT send letters to this address, there is no letterbox!).
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