Kildare

First job for working parties will be to take the cloths and wooden gunwhales off, so that we can replace/refit and reseal them to stop the many leaks which have been evident.

President

On Sunday and Monday Dave Speer, Babs and yours truly spent a goodly number of hours getting thoroughly mucky joined by Dave Stott on Monday. A number of jobs were completed and a number had substantial progress made.

Completed

Remove and replace the fusible plug - An annual trial of strength, it finally succumbed to the combined efforts of Speer and Crompton and a LARGE socket set.

Rebuild the firebox brick wall -

David Stott had sourced some refractory bricks and cement and Babs enjoyed herself getting thoroughly mucky building it up.

New side shelf on port side of engine - Will be used for all sorts of things, but most importantly it is the place for the Windermere kettle which Babs has polished ready for the new season.

New larger diameter exhaust pipe - Replaces a constriction near the point where the exhausted steam is injected up the funnel. Should result in lower gas speeds and therefore less "bark" at higher revs.

Babs had a really good go at cleaning up the various clamps, mud hole doors, manhole cover with a rotary wire brush. After she was done you could have shovelled the air out of the Bolinder shed !!!!!!

Brian Empsall had previously taken the whistle away and re-ground the valve and given it a good clean/paint/polish

Ongoing

Patches made for some corrosion holes in the smokebox shroud - need to be bolted in place;

Weed hatch clamp - new arrangement fabricated by Dave Speer in place of the one which cracked last year and the pile of wood that has been holding the weed hatch in place since!!;

New ejector for the condenser - Replaces the Weir pump for this duty only, which is better suited as a boiler feed pump with high back pressure;

Shelf for the starboard side of the engine room;

Babs had previously cleared out below the shovelling plate, we are now giving thought as to how to stop it becoming repacked with coal gravel and dust;

Seriously distorted dead plate - Ian Kemp is fabricating a new one as it is easier than straightening the old !! This plate supports the firebars at the firebox door end.;

Re-seat and replace the main steam valve;

Boiler inspection and steam test.

So still lots to do but we are making good progress on P.

As soon as we have K on the bank, we can hopefully put together a proper work plan with dates.

If I can sing Richard's song for him a little, there is no point in doing all this, if the boats are not going to move this year for lack of crew !!!

So if you, can get volunteering !!
The engineering team will be busy at the beginning of the season on K and as we are all regular crew it would really help if you can fill Richard's schedule for Middlewich and Ellesmere Port in particular. Good to see those of you who made it to the AGM, as a day it went very well, with some startlingly young looking members in the shape of Messrs Stott, Nuttall, Nixon and Rogers in the slide show!!!

All photos by Dave Speer