Thunderbirds are go!

Operation Coltman swung into action on the 29th March. The forecast was not great, in fact the best bit was supposed to be in the morning with strong winds and rain due by the afternoon. John T, Bob Cox, Nigel, Ian and myself set to removing the roof over the boiler while Alan videoed the operation for the next DVD. By 1pm all was ready for the crane, though the wind had not dropped and occasional heavy rainshowers came over. The crane turned up at 2pm, a tight squeeze around the corner by the leaning loo, and the boiler was lifted out and deposited outside the boiler room within half an hour. There followed an adjournment for coffee while we waited for the West Coker team to arrive to collect the boiler at 3, however there was still no sign of them by 3.30 so the boiler was dropped on to Ian’s trailer and carried down to the car park near the entrance and left there ready for them to collect later. Another cuppa and then we closed up and left.

The next day, despite losing an hour’s sleep due to the clocks going forward, we started putting the roof back on the boiler house. Ian and Nick made new roof timbers from some of the large amount of firewood we had lying around (the old timbers had been replaced in the past with steel angle in several places due to the fire risk from the boiler) then began fitting roofing felt and battens for the tiles.

Now the Coltman is out of the way we can make a move on transferring the workshop over to the boiler room to make space for the Culverwell engine, which should make a vast difference to the main hall.

Elsewhere, the Crossley is out of action at the moment due to a hot bearing. After some studying of the bearings by John D it seems one of them requires adjustment and shimming to properly support the 2 ton weight of the flywheel. Keith was busy polishing the brass bits of the gasworks turbine and making a template of the outlet of the fan to make a damper plate. Harold was fabricating some new shutters for the window beside the Hemyock winch and Lee was painting the outside of the windows in the tea room having already painted them inside as well as the main door. The tea room now looks much better than it has done for some years.

A new set of display boards have appeared from Taunton Museum which is closing this month for a major rebuild and improvements. The four boards show a typical steam engine and general information about the development of steam power and stand nearly 9 feet high! One idea is to use them to screen off the (mess in the) workshop area until that is moved.

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

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