April 2013 We have achieved so much in the last year, we hope this newsletter will give you a brief idea as to what has gone on during the last few months. However if every shareholder could give up one day every couple of months to help at a working party, just think what else can be achieved ? Winter Bunker Building Preparation started in October 2011, when volunteers carefully demolished the old bunker, rivet by rivet, saving the plate work for patterns. Lots of hours of worked by many volunteers. With help from Dave and Matt Stubbs an excellent shelter was built on a reinforced concrete slab. Between March and December 2012, each part of the bunker was manufactured, drilled and bolted together to ensure a perfect fit. By January 2013, enough preparation had been done to achieve the final build, which was riveted together in a matter of weeks.

First of all you need heat and someone who is prepared to slave all day over a very hot stove. The Forge Masters were often considered to be the plumb jobs in the working party, nothing too physical or demanding, and always near a warm fire. More importantly nowhere near the skilled work, and too far away to be blamed when things went wrong! Rumoured to produce burgers and BBQ ribs during the quiet moments.

Once the rivets are hot enough, a well organised human chain of specialists came into operation: “unbolters”, “hole reamers”, “grinders”, “gunge squirters”, “rivet carriers”, “holderupers” and “rivet gun operator”. All must play their part before the rivet has had a chance to cool down. Dave Roberts seen here on a mission with hot rivet. Strange how nobody wants to get in his way ? Why has the man to the left got no gloves on ?

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The reward for this split second team work, is that if successful, you can do it again and again …. and again. It has been estimated that some 1,300 rivets were needed to complete the job. Left: angle irons are riveted on to the coal floor prior to assembly. The coal floor sits on top of a water tank, which in turn is connected to the side tanks by balance pipes. In its coal hauling days the boiler was made to work very hard, requiring a massive supply of water, hence the nick name ”water carts”

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As can be seen each man has his part to play. Note: “Gungy Man” strategically standing on the left with tube of mastic. We were given to understand that this was a vitally important role, because the waterproof mastic would hold the bunker togther should the rivets fail? Not shown in this pic are the Forge Masters.. still freezing outside, the tea makers, and the coach loads of visitors who came to watch. Bunker building was definitely a spectator sport

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Left: Showing the water tank below the coal floor. The angle irons on the floor are to attach the water baffles, the pipe will house the handbrake rod as it goes through the water tank. The two fabricated items are splashers to accommodate the rear wheels, these were welded into the floor and front panel to help provide additional strength, handy work courtesy of Henry Mowforth. The row of horizontal holes is where the coal floor is be inserted and riveted to the walls of the bunker.

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Stuart Phillips was found in the water space allegedly inspecting the plate work but we all know he was trying to grab one of those sneaky senior moments ! Ideally, we wanted to have the water space grit blasted clean and coated before we continued to build up the back of the bunker. However the contractors quote was surprisingly high, and so it has been decided to defer the work until the side tanks have been made.

At last the final product, prior to riveting in the rear ducket (where the rear lamp bracket is situated) The team has attempted to leave nothing out, note the tool boxes on the front of the bunker. We could have built these later but this way it saves visiting the same area of the engine twice.

A general view of the rear of the bunker, showing the coal floor installed. The coal floor has two inspection hatches into the water tank for general maintenance. Here the hatches are seen in place and bolted down Note: footsteps on rear wall have already been welded in by Richard Moffat

Other Progress:

The boiler work continues with firebox tube ends ground out, and we are almost ready to remove the tubes, this is where we need more helping hands. Unfortunately it has been far too cold to work on the frames over the winter months, but we have a massive list of tasks to complete now the weather is warming up! We would expect the wheels to return from South Devon towards the end of the year. 5668 & Parts The much discussed purchase of 5668 and parts has taken place. We have taken delivery of a considerable amount of ferrous and non-ferrous components for 4253 including most of the back head fittings, injectors, oil boxes, a vacuum pump and side rods and much more! Needless to say, many of these items are NOT stored on site! Our grateful thanks are extended to Terry Rippingale who has spent the last thirty years collecting all these components, and this has saved us an inordinate amount of time attempting to source the parts. We are pleased to announce that the missing parts list has got substantially smaller and continues to reduce by the day. However, we are still short of items such as a brake valve, lubricator, cylinder drain cocks, plus the main connecting rods. As ever, we do have a cunning plan for production of these items nearer the time, but if you have any ideas as to where we might look, please let us know! STOP PRESS: We may have an amazing development with our hunt for a connecting rod. Announcement very soon ! At the moment 5668 is still at Blaneavon. Attempts to transport the engine to KESR have been frustrated due to organisational problems in Wales. However, we hope to take delivery very soon. Most of the parts for the engine have already arrived and been stored.

The cab is next in line to receive attention. The cab front and back sheets have been drilled and riveted, we now await the roof to be put in place. We need to move the bunker out of the shelter to complete the cab and so wait for the services of a passing steam crane !

Meanwhile the right hand side tank has been dismantled ready for reconstruction, using the angle iron and plate work as patterns. This has shown itself to be a complicated construction and will be a real challenge to produce. However it may be that 6619 will need new tanks as well as 5668, so the team will have plenty of opportunity to practise

Looking Ahead With the coming of summer and better weather ( ha ha ! ) we hope to progress the frames, and the side tanks, so lots of work for all. Meanwhile, we have plans to promote ourselves at the KESR Beer Festival in June, Hoppers Weekend at Bodium 14/15 September, Return to Robertsbridge 21/22 September. Help is desperately needed for all these events. We also need lots of items for Rolvenden Boot Fares, which take place every two weeks over the summer period and have the potential for a good source of additional funds. We also hope to run a Boot Fare stall at Bodiam over the weekend of 21/22 September 2013, that’s the Return to Robertsbridge weekend. If you feel you can support us with any of these events or you have got boot fare items to donate, please get in touch on gwr4253@gmail.co. The publicity road show has now at last been rolled out in the form of illustrated talks. 4253 personnel (whose names cannot be mentioned…. probably for legal reasons!) are available for talks about the engine and its restoration. So far our audiences have been Rotary, car clubs, and railway supporters groups, including Friends of the NRM. However we are available for all occasions including: weddings, funerals and children’s parties! We can adapt our presentation to suit the occasion, so if you can suggest any venues we would be pleased to hear from you. Life and times of 4253. As a result of the sterling work undertaken by our archivist Phil Edwards, an excellent publication covering the history of 4253 and her class is nearing completion. We hope to have this available to shareholders in the next couple of months. Swindon College We would like to thank staff and students of Swindon College who have kindly donated a quantity of redundant tooling and material. Faced with imperial and Whitworth tooling, it is very difficult to find a use for such things in this modern metric world. When Swindon College lecturer Bob Ashworth visited our project over the winter he instantly realised that 4253 would make an ideal recipient. We hope this will lead the way to further liaisons between 4253 and Swindon College, with visits by engineering students from the college. Shareholder Challenge Our shareholder support is holding up well, with a trickle of new shareholders every month. So far financial support has not held back our engineering activities, but like all ambitious organisations, the more funds we can attract then the more we can achieve. We still need to increase our shareholder support, so please find a friend… sister, brother, neighbour, lover… there must be someone you know who would love to be a part owner in one of the last steam locomotives to be restored in the UK? If we can all find just one extra shareholder we could achieve twice as much as we have already done, and the sooner we can all play with the end result ! Working Parties Progress on 4253 depends on working parties every Sunday and Tuesday. You don’t have to be skilled. If you can clean, paint, grind, there can be a job with your name on it ! However if you do happen to have a skill, please let us know. If there are other times of the week when you can come along, please let us know on: gwr4253@gmail.com

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