Welcome to the March Chairman’s report. Unfortunately, a skiing accident has precluded me from doing much real work this month. I’m on the mend now and it was great to get back to Loughborough last week.
Not much progress on needle gunning the frames this month but the needle gun has still seen some serious use.
The brake gear on the tender continues to be removed. After the brake cylinder was removed attention turned to the brake beam support brackets. These took some serious hard work to remove, as did the tender front steps. I’m assured there was some heat and a significant amount of swearing involved. Once removed the steps and brackets were needle gunned and finished.
The good news from the boiler inspector in January work was quickly underway to start the stay removal. This involves drilling out each stay starting with a very small drill and gradually using bigger drills until the drill touches the sides of the platework. This must be done on the outside and inside of each stay. We need to drill out 70 stays!
In the locomotives’ cab the floor has been removed. The cab “Fall Plate”, which bridges the gap between the engine and the tender, has been removed and needle gunned. All the electrical gear associated with the TPWS system has been disconnected to enable access to the rotten back boards.
As all the components are being removed and cleaned up the next stage is several coats of paint. The area round the tender is the main painting area. There is a range of parts in various stages of painting drying off.

We have our initial materials shopping list. A growing concern is the rise in inflation and how that will impact our material costs. So, although it will be a year before we need things, like tubes, we will be placing orders in the next few months. Fund raising continues. Over the first three months of this year, we have raised over £1500 through the sales stand and shed shop. Anyone who can help us source or pay for these materials please get in touch (Comms@5305la.org.uk)
Current material requirements
New valve and cylinder liner castings £10k
Copper bar for stay production £1k
Boiler tubes – Small £7k
Boiler tubes – Flue £3k
Bottle ends for flue tubes £1.5k
Steel bar for set screws £1k
The next few weeks will be continuing to get the tender ready for lifting, needle gunning the frames and dismantling the wooden underfloor structure to remove the rotting boards.
We are planning a big working weekend over Easter. If you’re visiting the GCR over the Easter weekend, please drop by the loco shed and stay hi.
Alan Berck-May
Chairman
5305 Locomotive Association.