Good evening,

Tonight we have a quick post featuring the June update from the 35011 General Steam Navigation project.

June 2016 Update

Our next working weekend on the locomotive at the Sellindge site has been arranged for the 16th and 17th July.  We held our first working weekend on the 23rd and 24th April and firstly we’d like to thank all those who attended we had a great turn up. Our main focus of the weekend was to protect the locomotive from the elements and protect as many of the key components as we could. The most noticeable thing we achieved was getting a coat of protective paint on both the boiler and cab. The boiler and the main frames appear to be in good condition but we won’t know for certain until specialist tests are carried out. We also were able to cut away the remaining boiler cladding, removing the fibreglass insulation from the boiler throat plate to prevent further corrosion and we also released the damper operating bracket on the boiler backhead to remove the rust between it and boiler.

One of this less glamorous jobs we did was a bit of gardening to clear all the weeds and plant life that had grown around the locomotive. We had some wooden covers kindly made for us by John Masters before the working weekend for the boiler manholes and cylinder covers. Nick was then able to drill all the holes for the studs by hand with a bit and brace as we did not have a big enough bit to fit in the electric drill on site. These covers should keep the weather out of these key components.

Please would you would consider making a small regular donation of perhaps a £5 a month by standing order or consider sponsoring the cost of the paint and gas we used at the working weekend. We have been asked by some members how to set up a standing order which we are now able to set up if you get in touch.

Our next working weekend on the locomotive will be on the 16th and 17th July. Our objectives will be to make a start removing the heavy corrosion from the underside of the boiler and the front tube plate in preparation to remove the boiler tubes. All our members are invited to attend and get involved with the work or simply just come down to the site to meet the team.

We can confirm will be hosting a stands at the Isle of Wight Steam Railways ‘Steam Days’ on July 10th and the Watercress Lines Autumn Steam Gala between the 21st and 23rd October. Our stands are a great way of getting the word out about our project, selling our merchandise and signing people up to the society. We are looking to host stands at other railway events but with us having a small sales team we are only able to cover a limited amount. If your interested in helping out we’d love to hear from you, we are hoping to get a team to host a stands at the Severn Valley Railways Season Finale Gala and the Swanage Railways Autumn Steam Gala but these appearances are dependent on getting us team together to cover the whole of the events.

Our whistle we got cast recently has been sent to get machined, one of our members who volunteers on the Bluebell has kindly offered to do the work for us.

Over the next couple of weeks we hope to have some exciting news about the project coming out and in order to keep members up to date we plan to create an email list.  If you don’t miss to be part of the list please get in touch and we will remove you from the list.

As always thank you for your support