UFO Lands At Westonzoyland!

Well, no actually. The large silver object in the yard is the Marshall boiler, now sporting a shiny new coat of silver paint thanks to Harold. The smokebox and wheels have been painted black and the whole boiler now looks very smart indeed.

Sitting in front of the boiler are two large Weir pumps that were found buried in the undergrowth in the field behind the tin shed. The field itself has been cleared of a lot of the scrap lineshafting and other metalwork which has been lurking in the brambles for several years and a start has been made on levelling the large hill of earth and rubble by Ian and Nick. The reason for the sudden interest in clearing the field was to recover a large galvanised water tank for use in the new pump room: Ian acquired the use of a mini digger and used it to haul the tank around to the former Coltman boiler room once the way had been cleared.

In the room, the floor is almost complete, bar the installation of the tank, and the former fuel store part of the room has been mostly cleared of the assorted junk and scrap ready for transforming into a new workshop. Up on the roof, Nigel has now bedded in the ridge tiles with lime mortar and an excellent job it looks too! The old pieces of chimney that were sitting by the gates to the EA pumping station have been tidied out of the way and will soon be heading for China together with the scrap from the field.

Various weekends spent fettling the railway wagons on site has now given us a train for the two diesels to pull: we now have four wagons filled with cut timber ready for the next steaming and the next operation will be to mount the sawbench on another wagon chassis. This will enable the bench to be moved to beside the piles of timber by the car park for cutting and the cut wood can then be loaded straight into the wagons and pushed down to the boiler, enabling the area outside the boiler cabin to be cleared of the unsightly piles of pallets.

The railway line has been extended some more and now curves past the double doors into the main hall and round in front of the generator shed. Future plans involve extending it further into the proposed new shed which will be erected in place of the tin shed and part of the field. On the subject of the new shed, a suitable building has been identified and is available. All we have to do is work out the logistics (and paperwork) of getting it to site and erected. This would allow us to have the two Burrowbridge pumps, the West Sedgemoor diesel and the Marshall boiler under cover as well as the existing tin shed exhibits. All that is needed are a host of willing volunteers and some money!

There are two more steamings due this year in October and November, after which the boiler will be drained so that the firebox stays can be inspected. We know that several have been marked down as needing to be replaced and intend to have this done after the New Years Day steamup when we have a couple of months without steam.

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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