January 2025 Update

Tuesday, 7th January, 2025

A Happy New Year to all from the Bury Standard 4 Group.

On Saturday the 21st December our Grand Christmas Hamper Raffle Draw took place on platform 4 at Bolton St Station. The winning ticket was bought by Becky of Haslingden. She wins the fabulous £150 Tesco Hamper which was actually three separate hampers. 

2nd prize, a bottle of Single Malt Scotch was won by Mrs Kershaw who is from Birmingham. 

3rd prize, a bottle of Gin was won by Mr Ransom of Todmorden.

4th prize a bottle of wine went to Rebecca of Ramsbottom.

See pics below of the draw being made by "Fairy Godmother" Rachael Wood, thank you Rachael and congratulations to the winner, Becky.

Our thanks go to all members and supporters who participated. Grateful thanks to Wendy, the Community Liason Officer at Tesco Bury and to Tesco for their support. Also we would like to thank our friends the East Lancashire Railway for allowing us some space to promote not just the raffle, but tell the world about our two locos and all our other activities. Thank you Rory Lushman for scutinising proceedings.

Our fund raising efforts for 2024, two cab ride draws and the Christmas Hamper raffle have all gone well. As a gesture of gratitude our group will be making a donation to the ELRPS Crab Restoration Fund. We all want to see the only operational example of this very "North West" loco class back in action as soon as possible. Thank you again to all and watch this space. More news on 80097 and 46428 below.

80097:                                    We are progressing work on provision of satisfactory safety valves and the regulator valve.

News on Ivatt Mogul 46428 Boiler:

At last the front tubeplate is out! Our illustrious team have beaten it. It fought every inch of the way. Where the tubeplate meets the inside of the barrel a thin bead of weld had been run in. Apparently this was common on BR engines towards the end of steam. A section of the tubeplate was cut out to give a bit more wriggle room. It now lies on the floor and the inside if the barrel looks in pretty good condition. We now hope to move the boiler, inverted inside the workshop. Our sincerest thanks go to everyone who has helped reach this stage. See pics below. 

Last Saturday our crew reconvened this weekend for our first of the year.

We've started to clean up the inside of the boiler barrel after the removal of the tube plate. There were concerns about the condition of the barrel here. The NDT didn't give a clear picture as debris and general crud interfered with the detection equipment. A 'D' repair may be required, we thought. We've cleaned it up and it looks okay. But the Insurance inspector will have the final say. We'll continue cleaning the barrel internally. We've also removed the 'J' pipe for cleaning and storage. This takes the saturated steam from the take-off in the steam dome to the inlet of the superheater header. This will be cleaned up and put into store. Also we've commenced the restoration of the reverser cross beam. See pics below. Watch this space!