THE SCOTTISH VINTAGE BUS MUSEUM
SHED 47 RAILWAY RESTORATION GROUP
In Duplicate 16,
December 1996, Pete Westwater described the history of the Lathalmond spur and
plans for the Engine Shed:
Those
of you who have not visited Lathalmond or seen an old plan of the site when it was
a Naval Stores Depot may be unaware that there was an extensive standard gauge
railway servicing the many sheds. The Depot was connected to the national
railway network via a short spur off the old “Steelend Branch”.
The
first loco on site in 1917 was a 0-6-0 crane tank built by Barclay of
Kilmarnock. This was replaced a few years later by two small Bagnall 0-4-0
saddle tanks, these in turn being replaced by a Ruston DS88 4-wheel diesel and
a slightly heavier one from F. C. Hibbard & Co. Ltd.
A
group of railway preservationists most of whom are members of the Kingdom of
Fife Railway Preservation Society have recently joined the SVBM. It is their
intention to set up a small restoration facility in the former Engine Shed
which still has track in it along with an inspection pit. A price for renting
space in the building has been agreed with the Trustees and work parties have
already started to do some minor repairs to the building and give the interior
a coat of paint to brighten it up. There is room for two items up to the size
of 0-6-0 tank locos of the order of thirty feet in length each. An offer has
been put to the Kingdom of Fife RPS to do restoration work on items from their
collection and hopefully we will have a positive reply from their Council soon.
The
KFRPS is currently negotiating for the site of the former railway yard at
Kirkland, Methil, and intends establishing a Railway Heritage Centre to house
and display the collection of locos, carriages and wagons etc., representative
of the railways of Fife which were acquired over a period of about twenty years
by their predecessors at the now closed Lochty Private Railway.
This
project is looking very promising at the moment, though with the best will in
the world it will be two or three years before facilities are ready on the site
to do any serious restoration work on the stock, hence our proposal to set up a
'temporary' facility at Lathalmond. With careful management this should surely
be of benefit to both organisations.
Might
we be seeing a 'Road Run' from Lathalmond to Kirkland in, say, five years time
in addition to the Scottish Road Run to Bo'Ness?
(Photo: April 2008 Jim Crichton)
The Shed 47 RRG was formed
about 1997, with the object of setting up a small workshop in the former
locomotive shed (Shed 47 of the former Naval Stores Depot at Lathalmond) to do
restoration work on railway locomotives and rolling stock.
New members are welcome;
why not come along some Sunday afternoon for a chat. There is potential
for interesting developments to demonstrate the industrial use of standard
gauge railways within the bus museum site, to complement their activities. How
things develope will depend on the availability of funding and the volunteers
for projects. For further information contact Pete Westwater on 01592 264587.
Whilst the Naval Stores Depot was still connected to the railway network, Shed 47 housed the two locomotives which were used to move wagons and vans from the exchange yard just outside the west end, to the various store buildings which are now full of buses. The first locomotives to work the yard were steam; replaced by diesels which lasted until 1971, when the branch from Dunfermline which serviced the yard was closed and the rails lifted. Likewise, the rails round the site - several miles - were lifted leaving just a few short lengths in some of the sheds. It was the fact that the rails were still in situ within the loco shed that sparked this project off. The inspection pit and workbench was a bonus. PW
For the full history of work-done, start at
the bottom of this web page
Dec 2009
by Pete Westwater
During
the past couple of months a variety of work has been carried out on items in
our care. First the Palvan was moved
into the shed to have its roof felt stripped off and new flexible plastic sheet
stuck on using bitumen paint and felt nails. This done and the van now water
tight, it was moved out of the shed and the wheels, axle-boxes and the steel
frame for the horse tram were brought in.
Which
brings us to the Horse Drawn Tram Project. The re-gauging of the wheels was
mentioned in the last issue of Duplicate and since then a new steel frame has
been designed, fabricated and delivered to site a few weeks ago. This was
craned into the shed following the completion of the Palvan roof and work
commenced with the mounting of the bearing assemblies, brakes, brake rods and
rubber strips cut to cushion the tram body when it sits down in the frame. The
frame is awaiting its final inspection by our client prior to shipping to
Edinburgh to join up with the tram body. This has been a most interesting and
challenging project for our small group and has shown that we have the
capabilities to do more than just locomotive refurbishment. Our thanks must go
to Roemac for their machining of the axles and fabrication of the frame.
Dave
has been working on the brake-van which we purchased from the Rutland Railway
Museum and which was brought to Lathalmond by Andrew Goodman's haulage firm
Moveright Heavy Haulage, their claim to fame being the transport of the North
British Locomotive Company locomotive from South Africa to Glasgow and the TV
programme about the move. First Dave reglazed the missing windows with clear
plastic sheet then set about needle-gunning the chassis and priming it. To date
about half has been treated.
After
Jan completed work in the weighbridge hut he turned his attention to the wagon
turntable kit that we got from the SRPS some time ago. Using the press in the
main workshop he successfully pressed out the short very worn axles from the
eight cast wheels then turned up new ones on the lathe in Shed 47.
Unfortunately, when attempting to press an axle back in the cast iron wheel
broke in two. Luckily he was able to elicit the services of his pal Alex's
retired brother, who was experienced in welding cast iron, which involved
carefully heating up the casting before welding and allowing it to cool very
slowly afterwards. The result being the wheel is as good as new. The axles will
now be skimmed till they can be pressed in with little force and the keys
reinserted in the keyways to secure them. The eight curved sections, each
weighing about two hundredweight (100 kilos), were brought into the shed where
Jan I and Pete have rotary wire brushed them, primed and painted them black.
The
Yellow Hunslet No.251 has been consigned to a siding following the discovery of
an air leak. Air is escaping from somewhere and not allowing the pressure to
build high enough to release the brakes. It requires inspection over the pit
and will be seen to once the tram chassis vacates the shed.
Norrie
has been busy on two fronts; one the Tram chassis and the other one being the
refitting of oil lubrication pipes on the steam loco No. 17. There are six in
total, four to the axle bearings and two to the cylinder valve chests. These
are connected to a Wakefield mechanical lubricator mounted above the footplate.
The two pipes which were missing when we first got the loco have been replaced
. The other four have been de-kinked and cleaned before re-fitting.
Aug 2009
by Norrie Briggs and Pete Westwater
Work
has continued on the inside of the Blue Hunslet's cab by Davy Coupar who has I
been rust removing and changing the colour scheme to light battleship grey.
Pete has I been working on the outside surfaces rubbing down and applying
further coats of I paint. We have a contract with an Edinburgh Group to
re-gauge a set of wheels for a I horse drawn tram from 3'-0" to
4'-81/2" and to supply a frame for the re-gauged wheels to carry the cab
body. Norrie has been working on this and now has new axles that will allow
fine gauge adjustment. The old bearings have been refurbished and one axle is
now rebuilt, the second being worked on. Next stage is to design the frame.
Hunslet
No 251 did sterling service during the Fife Vintage Vehicle Rally and performed
well giving Cab rides for the attending public. The railway crossing gate was
in operation at this time and everyone was most patient and orderly whilst the
gate was shut.
Our
thanks and appreciation to Tullis Russell & Co Ltd for their most generous
donation of railway track which has now been lifted and removal completed. Jan
has continued with refurbishing of the weighbridge which with the help of a
chap from a weighbridge company, who got the weighbridge adjusted so that it is
now in working order and can weigh up to 40 tonnes. It could well be the last
fully operational mechanical weighbridge in Scotland.
Our
group has just bought an ex British Railways 20 ton goods brakevan built 1956
from the Rutland Railway Museum where it was surplus to their requirements. It
requires repairs to the timber body but nothing major. If all goes according to
plan it 1 should arrive Tuesday 14th July. Andrew Goodman (haulier) is
contracted to bring it r up to Lathalmond then pick up the standard tank no
80105 at Bo'ness and take it down to the Wensley Dale railway for a short
spell. This keeps cost down by arranging to tie in with a return load. Even so
it will set us back about £1,000. To make 1 unloading easier we have set a
thirty foot panel of track into the ground on the end of the short siding which
usually stables the Palvan.
Finally,
I have been painting and lining the running frame (chassis) of the Barclay
steam locomotive now that refurbishing it has been completed. It is being put
into what we believe to be Fife Coal Company livery. Old photographs indicate
that the livery in 1920 was very similar to the Reid livery of the old North
British Railway at that time. The number "7" on the front bufferbeam
looks like a "2" upside down! It has caused a bit of a talking point
but I have photographic evidence which supports my rendition.
May 2009
by Norrie Briggs and Pete Westwater
Due to weather condition recently most of the work carried out has been in the workshop.
Following on from Duplicate 53 loco No 251, Yellow, has been moved outside the shed and its place taken by No 250, Blue, to have the brake blocks replaced. This required removing the coupling rods to access the brake hangers and the pull rods were then unscrewed to give clearance to remove, them and the callipers. With these items off the loco they were wire brushed, primed and painted. One side has been completed so far and work is in progress on the other side. Although no 251 still requires a top coat of gloss yellow, blue no 250 needs a fair bit of filling and sanding to bring it up to the same standard. However before either are taken to the finishing stage regarding the painting, it is our intention to do some remedial work on the flat wagon and the Palvan.
Meanwhile attention has also been given to the running frame (chassis) of the Barclay steam loco no 17. Cleaning and de-rusting is now complete and one side has been taken to the finishing coat of Wicklow Mountain Green and a start to lining out with yellow and black. A bit of blacksmithing was undertaken to straighten out some of the bends and bashes to the valance and footsteps.
The newly acquired radial drill in the workshop was connected to the three phase supply and proved OK. It was used a few times but the forward contactor coil burned out and the isolator emitted smoke, so an electrical replacement programme is underway.
Outside, Jan's work with the mini-digger earlier in the year has improved the drainage considerably. Ballasting the track is ongoing when Pete needs to warm up a bit!
Jan has found a new interest in the site weighbridge since it was part of the old railway system. The weighbridge pit has been pumped out with a view to closer examination, broken windows have been replaced and a new door fabricated. It is intended to refurbish the electrics, redecorate the office and hope that the weighing mechanism can be brought to life. This should bring an added interest to the Museum site.
Finally, Jan and Norrie have been back at Tullis Russell dismantling the remaining three track panels. This work was interrupted some time ago due to problems within the mill. We try to arrange work parties when the weather forecast is favourable.
March 2009
Quite a lot of productive work has been done on our collection of locomotives since the last DUPLICATE report.
New brake shoes were fitted to the Hunslet in the shed. To adjust them we were faced with a problem. There was not enough room underneath to turn the large adjusting - nuts. To do this we needed to get the loco over a pit. Unfortunately the running frame of the steam loco was already over the pit! The springs were off and the frame jacked up on blocks. So we refitted the springs which weigh a couple of hundredweight each (that's 100kg in metric money) and are mounted above the footplate about five feet above the floor.
These springs had been stripped, cleaned and re-assembled well over a year ago. With the fitting also of the reversing reach rod and quadrant the running frame was jacked up off the blocks, which were removed and the frame lowered so that the springs took the load. We now had a rolling unit again. We were now ready to shunt the Hunslet and steam loco frame about. Unfortunately the loco's saddle tank was sitting slightly foul and had to be eased over a bit to allow enough clearance to do the shunt. That done, the brakes were adjusted satisfactorily.
Other smaller jobs have been done on the Hunslet; for example we had the seats reupholstered by Thomson in Kirkcaldy. Window frames have been removed for cleaning and repainting.
Now the steam loco running frame is more accessible a start has been made to cleaning the frames and wheels. The connecting rod and coupling on one side have been removed to give greater access for cleaning the wheels and frame ready for painting. The brake hangers on one side have also been removed for cleaning.
Jan has been busy with his mini-digger and has cut a shallow drainage ditch between our running line and the hillside which should allow the ground to dry out a bit by channelling the run-off water from the hillside away from the area at the back of shed 92. The track behind the toilet block and bothy has been ballasted up level with the top of the sleepers along with the pair of points. One of the other points has been similarly treated, in an effort to clear the weeds from the track.
December 2008
PETE WESTWATER’S SHED 47 UPDATE.
Since the Open Weekend we had a work party at Tullis Russell's in Glenrothes one Sunday preparing track components for removal. These were duly transported to Lathalmond a few days later. The same contractor took away some short lengths of flat bottom rail for scrap which paid the cost of transport from TR and netted the funds a useful sum. That was done whilst the price of scrap rail was netting about £200 per tonne. Since then the price has dropped to half that, making it less attractive to thieves! We had lost over a tonne of scrap chairs and the KFPRS at
Leven also lost several tonnes of material.
Hunslet No 251 is in the workshop and has had all the paint removed using rotary wire brushes and a needle gun; perhaps a more violent approach than used on buses but since only the bonnet doors and top sheeting is less than 4mm thick steel, is not a problem. The body of the loco has now received one coat of grey primer and two coats of yellow, the main frame, footplate deck and wheels are in black. One coupling rod has been removed, cleaned up and painted red. Whilst the rod was off the brake shoes were replaced on that side. To remove the coupling rod, the pins
through the collars had to be drilled out. These were replaced with new ones turned for us by Roemac. By the time this appears in print the other rod should have been given the same treatment.
Before Norrie went off on holiday (to Bermuda) he had spent a fair bit of time refurbishing various components on the Hunslets, for example the windscreen wipers, a refinement not present on the Fowler.
The problem with the electrics on the Iron Fairy is ongoing, the starter motor being away for repair. The digger started to lose power recently and this was traced to dirty fuel filters. These have been cleaned and the machine is back in action again. It has since been used to load two of the plate layers trolleys with ballast. Well, actually it's crushed road material from highway repairs kindly donated by Gilmartin. Using the bogies made shovelling it between the sleepers easier as it saved much to-ing and fro-ing with shovelfuls of the material.
One of the turnouts and the track behind the toilet block has so far been treated, and it's actually starting to look like a proper railway. With luck we still have enough material to treat the turnout behind shed 92 and the short link between it and the one next to the toilets.
July 2008
Since the last Duplicate we have had three occasions on which to demonstrate the running of our Diesel locos and two wagons. These occasions were of course the "Running Day", a visit from a party of members of the "North British Railway Study Group" (on their annual outing who included us in their itinerary of visits to various ex North British railway sites in Fife) and the "Fife Historic Vehicle Club Rally". Special thanks must go to the lads from the Lothian Bus Club for giving some of the Study Group members a trip round the site in one of the Edinburgh Corporation buses.
Left: Western Extension, April 2008, Jim Crichton
Dave, being a professional train driver, working odd shifts, has been making use of his mid-week rest days working with Norrie on the Hunslets, so progress has been quite rapid of late.
Hunslet No. 250's metalwork has now received a coat of paint: Oxford blue for the bodywork and wheels, black for the running frame and valances and handrails, silver radiator grilles, red coupling rods and yellow and black wasp stripes on the bufferbeams. 250 has been moved outside and 251 moved into the shed for similar treatment, albeit with the intention of retaining the yellow MOD livery. Sunday past saw Paul, our latest recruit - a visitor at the FHVC rally - busy with a paint brush, undercoating a cab door and handrails which Jan had de-rusted. On the day before the FHVC rally No.250 was found to have an air leak to the brakes (which was traced to a failed piston seal on the 12" brake cylinder) and No. 251 had an oil leak. As we had no spare gasket the piston seal on 251 was removed and fitted to 250 to get it operational. The oil leak has been traced to the mail filter housing. A new seal for the air cylinder has been acquired from Hunslet Barclay, No problems with the Fowler.
Photo: Shed 47, April 2008, Jim Crichton
The flat wagon has had some supporting metalwork replaced and the top surfaces painted black. The first of two layers of 20mm exterior plywood has been creosoted and fitted as a flat deck. The ply for the second layer is ready for fitting. The Palvan's ends have been painted yellow as a step to maintain preservation. Once No.251 is outshopped the Palvan will be brought in to allow some bodywork repairs to be carried out. Work on the track continues and we are now progressing eastwards along the back of the Lothian Shed to the point where we hope to install the wagon turntable which we received some time ago from the S.R.P.S. at Bo'ness.
PW and NB
April 2008
The crane saga continues. When the Ram lowering pipework was removed the previously repaired one was found to be passing oil when trying to lift. Both Rams were removed but this time we were able to split them and found a broken lip on the piston half which had not been replaced. A replacement half was machined for us by Roemac and fitted along with a new seal. With the Rams now re-fitted the crane jib is now operational again.
A real oddity has occurred with the wiring. On two occasions recently the engine has been found to be running when the shed was opened! In the process of trying to track why the electrics to the cab are dead including the ignition switch an intermittent short must be occurring as the temperature changes. Until we can trace the fault the battery has been disconnected. A leaky master cylinder for the clutch has also been seen to.
Hunslets nos. 250 and 251 have both now been started and run on the test track and one used on shunting duty. The pneumatic clutch control system had been problematic but a few '0' rings and some lubrication worked wonders. Replacement battery boxes to replace the badly corroded ones have been fabricated and one installed on 250 along with two new batteries. We have managed to rejuvenate three of the four old batteries using, of all things, Epsom salts! Dave and Norrie have refurbished the 146 radiator cores on No 250 and re-fitted them with 292 new rubber sealing ferrules. This was a fairly lengthy operation but it has been successfully completed and the engine started to check for leaks. A start has been made to repainting No 250 with Oxford Blue gloss paint. The brake blocks on all three diesel locos are rather badly worn and in need of replacement. We have been informed that we should be able to get some from an order to replace those on a class 26 at Bo'ness.
Work
on the track has been progressing steadily with the completion of the right
hand B6 point from Tullis Russell at Markinch. On starting to reassemble the
points using the markings put on the various rails as a guide prior to lifting
at Markinch, it was found to have a shortened 'lead'. What that means is that
the radius of the curved line is sharper than for a standard B6. We have laid
951b Bull Head track westwards from the points parallel to the other line at
the back of the Lothian Shed and installed a bufferstop at the end. The first
length of Flat Bottom track back eastwards from the point is also in place
ready for the sleepers to be drilled for spiking down.
Left: Western Extension, April 2008, Pete Westwater
We have recently taken delivery of a 'Palvan' which had been supplied new to the M.O.D. and used at their depot at Longtown, near Carlisle. It is similar to the ones country. We bought it off - would you believe - E-bay! About ten years ago it had been bought and located at the former Dolphinton Station site before being used as a furniture store at another site in Dolphinton. It's rather appropriate that it has ended up at another ex M.O.D. site.
PW and NB
Dec 2007
The
big news this time is that we took delivery of two Hunslet diesel hydraulic
locos donated by Babcock International Group PLC of Rosyth.
The locos are 0-4-0 wheel arrangement with electric start Cummins engines. They were delivered using Heanor Transport who is one of the main hauliers specialising in moving railway locos, coaches and wagons around the country for the main railway companies and preservation societies. The rigs have rails permanently fitted to the deck of the trailer arranged so that when the tractor unit lowers it to the ground and moves out of the way, the minimum of packing and temporary rails need to be connected up so that the item of rolling stock can be winched on or off.
Right: Hunslet Diesel, Pete Westwater
Unfortunately at the Rosyth end the only suitable spot for loading required extra packing due to a height difference and a couple of dozen sleepers had to be borrowed from within the dockyard to rectify the problem. Two trips were done over a day and a half. At Lathalmond the unloading was relatively easy as we used the Iron Fairy crane to swing a 30 foot long panel of track between the siding end and the front end of the trailer; only a small amount of packing was required to get the rail ends in line with those on the trailer. The Fowler diesel, with the flat wagon as a barrier was used to pull the loco off Heanor's trailer.
Since arrival, work has commenced on the bodywork in preparation for a repaint. With the help of David Heathcote and Andy Walker and the Museum's portapack the loco was successfully started up and run to the west end of the line and back a couple of times, then the engine died.
The next week Norrie cleaned the fuel filter and primed the system which allowed the engine to be started again. New battery boxes have been welded up and are ready for fitting to both locos. The originals had been badly corroded.
Left: Fowler Diesel, Aug 2007, Jim Crichton Right: Fowler
Diesel, Aug 2007, Jim Crichton
The jib rams for the Iron Fairy were repaired and in place only twenty-four hours before the arrival of the locos. It seems the piston in one of the rams had fractured. This was repaired through a contact via Trailer Refurb and the seals replaced.
Unfortunately the crane failed again on Sunday with the same problem, i.e. the jib would not lift. We suspect the piston in the other ram may have failed.
Work has started on the siding and points which will
give access to the proposed lean-to shed against the Lothian building. PW
July 2007
Left: Fowler Diesel at the Fife Historic
Vehicle Club's rally in June 2007, Pete Westwater
Since the last report the demonstration line is now complete and extends to some three hundred yards between the buffer stops. The flat bottom rail point behind the toilet block which has been assembled from bits of several points required us to cut several rails to length. This means we will have to cut holes for fishplate bolts. To ease that task we were lucky enough to buy a petrol rail drill from an auction in Hawick a few weeks ago. Preparation work is in progress behind the Lothian shed where we have started to lay in a siding.
Also from the sale at Hawick a job lot of nine plate layers trollies were bought, more than enough for our needs, so four have been sold on to the S.R.P.S and one to the Waverley Route group.
On the loco front Dave has finished cleaning down between the main frames and given them a coat of vermillion gloss on top of a grey undercoat on the inside and is currently working his way round the outside with grey primer. When unloading the bogies from Jan's trailer with the Digger one swung round and struck the air filter causing it to puncture the radiator. After three hours Norrie has been successful in removing the radiator which is
away for a new core to be fitted. Norrie took the opportunity to clean the fan and its cowl which surprise, surprise is the same yellow as the rest of the machine!
The news on the crane is not so good. We have had it confirmed that the seals on one of the jib lifting rams has gone and have been advised to do both rams as the other is likely to fail fairly soon. A set of seals will set us back about £300. PW
Feb 2007 (Photos:
Pete Westwater)
Just before Christmas we had built up enough of the points, which connect the track behind the toilet block to the track laid by the army last June, to be able to run the Fowler Diesel over it. For the past few weeks Steve, Norrie, Jan, Dave and I have been busy preparing the ground beyond the track the army laid so that we can extend the track about another hundred and fifty feet. Gilmartin the contractor which has done most of the landscaping in site donated about a hundred and fifty tons of used road metal, which we have been digging into, and spreading. It helps us and saves on landfill tax. On Sunday past despite the rain we were able to set out the sleepers for the next length of track.
Jan has almost completed the cutting up of the old Coles crane and we shall shortly be having a skip in to clear the last of the scrap and turn it into much needed revenue.
The recent gales caused our Iron Fairy Crane to be called upon to try to retrieve some sheeting, which had blown against the perimeter fence over the burn. Unfortunately just when the crane was in position something failed in the hydraulics preventing the jib from being raised. All other functions are O.K. Another problem to solve!
Grant managed to get a coat of gloss grey paint on the Barclay steam locos pannier tank at the back end of 2006 so hopefully that will hold till we are ready to paint it up in Fife Coal Co. livery. Work on the steam loco chassis continues and Dave has been seen working away on it from time to time. The current task has been to jack the frames up a couple of inches and drop the axleboxes for inspection. PW
Oct 2006
(Photos: Pete
Westwater)
Return visitors to the museum cannot fail to notice considerable changes in the vicinity of Shed 47 since their last visit. Back in June we managed to get the curved section of track laid round the back of the toilet block, though it still needs some more large coach screws to be fitted before we can run the loco on it regularly. This was done just before the Army - Regular Army and not T.A. as previously mentioned - had arrived to clear the area behind the Lothian Shed for us. In June just before the car rally, five soldiers and a sergeant spent a week on site, billeted in the function suite. With them came a JOB, a Case bucket loader, a Grader and a vibrating roller. After they had cleared the saplings with chain saws they set about clearing the other scrub and spoil. This proved much more difficult than anticipated as the ground was found to be much boggier than expected. So much so, that all their plant got bogged down at some stage in the proceedings and had to be towed out.
Once the area had been levelled I had the pleasure of teaching the Army how to lay standard gauge bull head track using mostly simple hand tools. The heavy work of putting down ballast and placing the chaired sleepers and rails was done by the Case bucket loader. Rolling the rails into the chairs was done using muscle power and pinch bars. Time ran out and they were only able to lay three panels for us, about a hundred feet in all.
Since then we have received planning permission for our storage compound and have now started to build up the pair of points which will link between the back of the toilet block and the section laid by the army. The proposal includes a second siding with a kick back to the wagon turntable given to us by the SRPS, which we intend installing next to the corner of the Lothian Shed nearest to the toilet block. Eventually the area will be fenced off to give a secure storage area.
If only we had had this just before the army arrived, we would not have lost our entire store of fishplates to scrap thieves. We are extremely grateful to the boys at the Prestongrange Mining Museum and the Kingdom of Fife RPS for some replacement plates otherwise the army could not have connected together the panels that they had laid.
Norrie has commissioned the power hacksaw and we passed the smaller one it replaced on to Andy for use in the bus museum workshop.
Some more track has been donated to us by Network rail from the material lifted from the Stirling - Alloa line prior to it being re-laid for a passenger service to be reintroduced. A small quantity of track material is still waiting recovery from Tullis Russell paper makers of Glenrothes. PW
May 2006 (Photos:
Pete Westwater)
Norrie has been working on a larger power hacksaw donated to us by the SRPS and its nearly ready for use. It will replace a smaller machine which has proved most useful over the years to us and to Andy Walker and others in the bus museum.
The T.A. have confirmed that they will be coming to do some site clearance work and lay some track along the back of the Lothian shed for us in June, just before the Fife Historic Vehicle Club Rally. Barring being called to some conflict abroad as happened a couple of years ago! We have bought in some 200 tons of ballast and barrels of diesel fuel and some petrol for their chain saws etc. Their labour is given free as part of their training exercise.
In preparation for their project we have spread and levelled about twenty five tons of the ballast behind the toilet block and with Dave Couper's (an active member at the Prestongrange Mining Museum) help moved and laid enough concrete sleepers for ninety feet of track. The flat bottomed rails are in place ready to be screwed down onto the sleepers. We have still a bit of site clearance to do and a turnout to lay in preparation for the T.A. exercise.
Jan
has been busy cutting up the Coles crane which proved to be beyond our
resources to be made operationally safe to use. The SRPS had a redundant seven
ton Iron Fairy which they were thinking of scrapping. It was still operational,
so it was suggested that for half the proceeds from the scrapping of the Coles
crane we could have it. There have been a few niggly problems with it, most of
which Norrie has sorted out. It has been very useful already with the
dismantling of the Coles and moving rails and concrete sleepers into place.
Grant Robertson has concentrated his efforts on sanding and undercoating the steam loco's tank with a little help from me.
I have been overseeing the track laying and done a little painting on the diesel loco main frames and wheels. Because of the thickness of the metal, moisture in the atmosphere condenses on to these surfaces if the temperature rises a few degrees, so good painting conditions during the winter are few and far between. PW
Nov 2005 (Photo:
Pete Westwater)
My information regarding the wagon chassis in my last report was incorrect. In fact we bought it from the SRPS for £200. Jim Summers and Steve Dewar have cleaned out the axleboxes and replaced the "water" with oil!
Since the open weekend both Norrie and Jan have missed a few weeks due to holidays. However since my last report the bothy is now wind and watertight again.
Work is progressing slowly but steadily on the steam loco. The cleaning of the inside of the running frame and motion is almost complete and ready for reassembly. Grant, our newest recruit has been working on the saddletank, sanding down the bits which I could not get at whilst it was fitted to the loco and priming each bit as it is treated.
Norrie, Jan and I have removed about another twenty tons of spoil in preparation for laying the track round the back of the bothy and toilet block, using the Whitlock digger and the Dump truck. A hydraulic hose on the digger blew and had to be replaced. An intermittent failure of the slewing action of the back acter manifested itself which seemed to clear after a couple minutes of inactivity. We suspect an airlock in the system as a result of the recent hose replacement. We now need some 30 tons or so of ballast to be spread on which to lay the next 120 feet of track. The Army T.A. unit from Chatham has been back on to us to see if we still need their assistance in clearing the area behind the Lothian Shed and the laying of some track there. They are looking to doing the job as an exercise next spring if we still require it. The Gulf War knocked the previous attempt on its head two years ago.
Finally painting below the footplate on the diesel loco continues intermittently. We have to contend with water condensing on the thick steel main frame, which happens if the atmosphere is damp and the temperature rises by only a few degrees. Some days it stays damp to the touch all day, as the steel takes a long time to acclimatize. PW
Aug 2005
(Photo: Pete
Westwater)
Norrie and Jan have completed the dismantling and removal of the recoverable track from the west end of Messrs. Tullis Russell's Paper Mill site in Glenrothes, and had it transported and stacked ready for use on the proposed extention along the back of the Lothian shed. The material recovered consists of one complete turnout, one bufferstop and a quantity of bull head track, some in short panels and the rest dimantled into its component parts.
The S.R.RS. at Bo'Ness have given us a complete wagon turntable which we hope to reassemble and include it in the extension. The most suitable site for it would appear to be close to the corner of the Lothian shed nearest to the toilet block. They have also given us a flat wagon which had originally been the chassis of a tank wagon and this should be of use to us with the next phase of track laying. These two items are now on site. The work which we did some time ago has allowed the ground behind our bothy and the toilet block to dry out and firm up and is now suitable for laying track on it.
Repairs to the bothy are well advanced and may well be complete by the time you read this.
Work on the steam engine continues with the cleaning up of the motion between the frames and painting each bit with primer immediately it has been treated to prevent corrosion setting in. The S.R.RS. boiler expert has been over and inspected No. 17's boiler and I can report that two small patches will have cut out of the inner firebox and new material welded in, fourteen rivets in the bottom of the tubeplate at the front will have to be drilled out and the area built up with weld and new rivets put in. After that a complete retube will be undertaken.
Norrie has unbolted one of the cab footsteps on the Fowler diesel to allow me access to the coupling rods, sand box and main frames so that I can continue preparing the area below the footplate deck for painting. PW
April 2005 (Photo:
Pete Westwater)
Since the autumn of last year Norrie and Jan have been spending a fair bit of time, mostly on Saturdays, at Messrs. Tullis Russell's Paper Mill in Glenrothes, dismantling what is left of the standard gauge track from their once extensive internal railway system. It is bull head rail dating back to the first quarter of the last century, some ex North British Railway and some London & North Eastern Railway material. It has been donated to our group on the understanding that we dismantle, lift and remove it leaving the site tidy on completion. About half of the material is already on site at Lathalmond and the rest is nearly ready for transport. This track will be used to extend the test track along the back of the Lothian Shed.
We have recently had two new recruits to our group. Steve Dewar, who is a professional train driver and Grant Robertson who brings surveying and other skills to our group. They have been helping Jan, Norrie, Alex, Dave and I on the steam loco. Most of the effort recently has been concentrated on cleaning down the inner faces of the main running frames, dismantling and cleaning the eccentrics arid valve rods and removing the axlebox springs. As each bit is cleaned, it is painted with red primer and labelled. The four axlebox springs which have thirteen half-inch thick leaves have been completely dismantled with much cursing and persuasion with the heavy hammer. Three of them have been cleaned and reassembled. Reassembly is simply a reversal of the operation. The fourth spring should be back together again by the time this goes to print.
In recent weeks I have been lining out the Fowler diesel locomotive in a livery reminiscent of the old L.M.S. Red loco livery. It is over ten years since I have done any hand-lining on a full size loco i.e. without the use of masking tape. For extra practice I have started to line-out one of the Barclay Pugs at Kirkland in the care of the Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society.
The outer coating of our bothy has started to peel, so over next few weeks this will have to be attended to, to make presentable for the 10th anniversary weekend in May. PW
May 2004
(Photos: Pete
Westwater)
Work on the steam loco has been continuing. The spring hanger pivot pins have been freed off so that the springs should start to work as springs again! Something they clearly have not done for years. Undulations in the Coal Board Track at Bedley Colliery being accommodated by dint of the fact that the axleboxes were free to drop about one inch in the horn guides in a manner similar to the wheelsets in our platelayer's bogie which run in u-shaped plumber blocks. Jan has dismantled the eccentric straps (which control the slide valves which admit steam to the cylinders) for cleaning and painting. Dave Coupar from the Prestongrange Mining Museum comes in from time to time and gives us a hand on the steam loco. On his most recent visit he wire brushed the smokebox and gave it a coat of red oxide primer.
A
few weeks ago Norrie and I rolled the 5-ton boiler-firebox unit through ninety
degrees using only hand tools, it’s amazing what can be done with very little
effort using old fashioned ratchet jacks and Egyptian principals.
We were gifted some more track by Tullis Russell of Glenrothes from their paper mill site and Jan and Norrie have been side tracked preparing it for removal and transport to Lathalmond. Advice regarding our proposed security compound behind the Lothian Shed has been sought from the local planning department and an application is currently being prepared. Work has also continued behind the toilet block and it is much drier now that we have spread some builders’ rubble and lumps of tarmac. Our thanks go to Alex Soutar for giving us a hand the other Sunday to do a tidy up of some of the P-way material. We are hoping to move all the P-way material and crane jib to the other side of the track before the open weekend.
One final thing, a small area in the Display Shed has been set aside for railway items and to that end the old North British Railway point lever which was recovered by us several years ago between the Nissen huts and the gate where the railway line came into the depot has been cleaned and painted. This lever, we reckon dates back before the M.O.D. days and was used to control the points for the siding which served the Balmule Quarry. PW
Feb 2004
(Photos:
Pete Westwater)
Despite missing three weeks over the festive season we have made good progress since my last report. The weather rather curtailed work outside so a concentrated effort has been put into dismantling the steam locomotive, N.C.B. No.17. Norrie and Jan removed the coal bunkers and freed off all the bolts holding the boiler to the smokebox saddle. Locomotive boilers are only fixed to the frames at one end to allow for expansion when steamed up, (in the case of a small boiler like No. 17's the increase in length is over half an inch) otherwise some of the bolts would sheer! The weekend before Christmas we hired in a 35 ton crane, which was used to lift the tank off the top of the boiler and then lift the boiler out of the running frame. These were positioned on sleeper packing, outside the shed to allow for a thorough inspection before proceeding further with their restoration.
Whilst
Norrie and Jan were working on the steam loco I finished painting the wasp
stripes on the Fowler diesel and did some more filling, sanding and painting on
the cab and bonnet.
The first Sunday after the holiday saw all three of us working on the running frame (chassis). Jan removed the rear footsteps and the bolts holding the rear section of footplate decking, which is badly corroded and will need to be replaced with new quarter inch thick plate. Norrie spent most of the day wearing eat protectors whilst he needle gunned the smokebox saddle. Meanwhile I cleaned the area between the frames where the firebox used to be, with scrapers and a wire brush. The bits which were beyond the scope of the wire brush were duly needle- gunned by Norrie which then allowed me to apply some red oxide paint to cleaned area. Sunday past saw Jan removing the corroded section of footplate mentioned earlier, cleaning up and priming the area it covered. The three of us then removed the two rear axlebox springs and the spreader beam between them. Instead of shackles at the ends of the springs as on a bus the top three leaves of the thirteen (each half an inch thick) have a hole at each end, which fit over two vertically pivoted rods, the tops of which are threaded. A large nut and lock nut act as stops and are in fact the adjusters for tensioning the springs. PW
Autumn 2003
(Photo: Pete
Westwater)
In the months since the last report work continued on the spoil removal and we have succeeded in making the break through beyond the toilet block. Some work is now needed with the back-acter of the digger to tidy up the base of the bank before we put down some ballast in preparation for track laying.
Some problems with the Whitlock digger electrics have been sorted out by Norrie Briggs and the battery is now charging. The fuel pump packed in a few weeks ago and has been replaced.
Work on the steam loco has been going on steadily and there are now only nine tubes and a few tube ends still to be removed from the boiler. When Dave Cooper was last over he managed to get into the water tank to unscrew the nuts from the bolts holding the funnel and petticoat pipe in place. This unit was then jacked up so that the museum fork lift truck could be used to lift it clear of the tank and lower it to the floor. Norrie spent a fair bit of time today with the needle gun de-scaling the firebox fire-bar (square) ring and priming it. He also spent some time cleaning off surplus weld from bits of the sanding mechanism on the sand boxes.
With regard to the Fowler Diesel, Norrie has completed the interior of the cab and refitted the refurbished sliding cab doors. Last weekend I undercoated the back of the cab and rear buffer beam (from which I had removed the paint, about 2mms thick, using a chipping hammer and a very course file). These beams are about eight feet wide by three feet high and five inches thick, solid steel!!! This Sunday I marked out the positions for the "Wasp Stripes" and painted the yellow inverted V six inch wide bands. Hopefully by the time you read this the black bands will also be painted. PW
Spring 2003 (Duplicate 34) The JCB bucket loader in action (Pete
Westwater)
Since the previous report the weather has been a bit kinder to us allowing us to nibble away at that mound of earth behind the bothy and toilet block, which had been the scrapings of the area between the Lothian Shed and the Display Hall, when the site was tidied up ready for the SBAAT event a few years ago. We were getting on fine up until about a month ago when we had some heavy rain and it turned the area into a bit of a quagmire and we started to have trouble with the digger getting bogged down again. Luckily just then, Lynden appeared back on the scene with a four wheel drive JCB bucket loader from the farm where he works and was able to remove about four times the amount of material in an afternoon as we could with the Whitlock. Although it slipped quite a bit it did not get stuck.
We are now starting to cut back the bank and slope it so that we end up with bed about fifteen feet wide suitable for laying a panel of railway track; which will in turn open up the way for about a hundred yard extension to the running line behind the Lothian Shed. Material ( a mixture of broken up tarmac and bottoming) which had been dumped in the museum main car park and was not quite what had been expected, and thus totally useless to the museum, is proving useful, in filling in and forming a stable foundation for our extension.
(Jan pulling tube 04 out of boiler (Pete Westwater)
The boiler tube removal operation on the steam loco is continuing steadily with Jan, his pal Alex, I, Norrie and Dave from the Prestongrange Mining Museum mucking in from time to time. The process is speeding up as we gain experience. The score is currently 99 out with 54 to go.
The Prestongrange boys have offered us about 60 thirty foot lengths of 95lb bullhead rail, chairs and fishplates which is surplus to their requirements. That's nearly fifty tons of material! We just have to organize transport to go and pick it up.
Our bric-a-brac stall at the traction engine rally did very well in May thanks to the donation of good quality items from the estate of a deceased relative of one of our group. PW
Spring 2003 (Duplicate 33)
It is with a heavy heart that I have to start this report with an obituary. One of our group, James (Jim) Philp died peacefully on February 9th, after more than a year long fight with cancer. Jim joined us shortly after we formed our little railway group and was instrumental in getting much material and equipment donated to us for our project. He had the ability to talk contractors into providing transport free of charge or for just the price of the fuel. As an example, his efforts allowed us to move all the track materials from Kincardine Power Station for a fraction of the true cost. Jim had many interests over the years, from badminton in his youth, C.B. Radio, folk singing, song writing, through to vintage cars and railways in his later years. He was one of the leading lights in the early years of the Fife Historical Vehicle Club and was involved in organising its first annual Rallies in Dunfermline Glen. He also had a spell as a local councillor in the Levenmouth area. He worked as a school janitor for many years and did security work in his 'spare time' up until his retirement just two years ago. Over the past year, although he wasn’t fit to take an active part in our project, his wife brought him to the museum fairly regularly for a chat, right up until just three weeks before his passing. Our sincere condolences go to his dear wife Mary, his son Robert, daughter Fay and his grandchildren. Another chapter has closed.
On a happier note Norrie is on the mend and back active again after the 'Dynarod' treatment for a blocked artery. To ease himself back in again he has taken over the job on the Fowler which Jim had started before illness struck. During the past few weeks he has been repairing the other sliding door to the cab which only needs the drop light to be fitted (for some reason unbeknown to me, windows on railway vehicles are called lights!) and the bottom roller units which I fettled by turning up new brass rollers so that it can be reinstalled on the loco. Meanwhile I have been continuing with the cosmetic work on the engine cover doors with fillers and have applied some paint to bits of the steam loco. Jan has only been up once recently, as he has to work most weekends on the new parliament building in Edinburgh. Seems there is a bit of a panic on to get construction back on schedule. We have had one or two visitors recently and are hopeful that some of them may be coming to give us a hand. PW
Winter 2002/03
(Photos: Pete Westwater)
The weather has been against us for much of the autumn, far too much rain soaking the ground has prevented us from making much progress with the mound at the back of our bothy. It looks like we will have to put down a temporary roadway made of old railway sleepers (the ones which are no longer suitable to lay track on) to stop the digger getting stuck in the mud. We have tried cutting shallow drainage channels to feed the water towards various drains. It works for a while and then the rain comes on again and saturates the area we are trying to drain. So it's been back into the shed in recent weeks. I have been continuing with the cosmetic work on the diesel: - filling-sanding-painting the bonnet door panels.
Jan and Norrie have been continuing with the tube
removal from the steam loco's boiler; it’s another slow job. However on a
couple of Sundays recently Dave Cooper from the Prestongrange Mining Museum
removed some of the tubes for us using a slightly different technique. It
involved making two saw cuts about half an inch apart in the lower part of the
tube end, then peeling that half inch strip up with a small chisel, then
collapsing it in to break the seal between in and the tubeplate. Once the same
procedure is undertaken at the firebox end, the tube can be hammered or jacked
forward a few inches till the widened end is clear of the front tubeplate,
where it can be pulled out by hand. Dave was pleased to be able to use our air
operated pad saw to cut the slots, as they do not have such refinements at
Prestongrange. They have to use an ordinary pad saw! There are now thirty-five
tubes out. Only ninety-seven to go! PW
Right: Burning holes for tie bolts, 2002
The other thing we have been working on is in collaboration with the Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society (who own the former Kirkland Yard site, some twenty acres, at Leven). They are shortly to move their collection of engines, wagons and coaches from storage at Methil Power Station on to their site at Kirkland. We have some lightweight flat bottom rail and they are making up some tie bolts, which is being made into a track kit, which can be put on Cook's semi-low-loader (the one they bring their steam rollers to Lathalmond for the traction engine rallies) to ferry some of the wagons round to Kirkland. It will also be of use to us when we get to the stage of bringing in a wagon or two as hinted at in the previous report. PW
Autumn 2002
(Photos: Pete
Westwater)
The Fowler Deisel received some more cosmetic work from me on the exterior between the Traction Engine Rally and the Open Weekend. During the same period Norrie has been working inside the cab and has it all cleaned up and painted various colours giving it a smarter appearance that it has had for many a long year.
Jan with a little assistance from Norrie and I has been working on the Barclay steam loco. The throttle mechanism was finally removed successfully, being under the steam dome, access to the fixing studs being rather restricted in that the ratchet could only move one click at a time whilst very slowly unscrewing the nuts. Removing the boiler tubes has also commenced and is proving to be more laborious than was hoped. Last week we rigged up a pusher device, made up from a small hydraulic jack screwed to about a two-foot length of five-inch square piece of hardwood and a dolly welded to the top of the screw section attached to the ram. This was used in the firebox to crack the tubes free from the firebox tube-plate. At the front tube-plate they had had three grooves cut with the burner and the ends collapsed in to free them. Once freed thus they can be pulled out by hand. We have about a dozen out so far, leaving only about another one hundred and thirty to go!
Outside when the weather is dry, Norrie and I have been nibbling away at the mound of spoil behind the bothy - which had been dumped there during the preparations for the Stagecoach SBAAT event a few years ago - using the Whitlock digger. The ground is so wet at this spot the digger has become stuck several times. Luckily these machines can jack themselves up to allow packing to be put under the wheels to free them from such situations. We put down some steel plates to spread the load and this helped considerably. Unfortunately we are now working beyond the steel plates and the sinking problem has returned. At this point the water table is only a couple of inches below the surface so it looks like we may have to dig a shallow ditch between where we want to lay the next piece of track and the side of the locomotive shed to deflect the flow of water from the hillside into some suitable drain.
There are some interesting developments in the wind. The SRPS have asked us if we might be interested in taking a few more items and another similar group to ourselves may be looking for a new home in the foreseeable future. If these are progressed further we will need to re-think our ideas for developing the area behind the Lothian shed. Once the position is clearer we will be able to draw up a proposal to put before the Trustees of the museum and then apply for any necessary planning permission. PW
Summer 2002 (Duplicate 030) (Photo: Pete
Westwater)
Since completing the turnout mentioned in the last Duplicate the very wet weather of late has slowed down the outdoor work and allowed us to get on with the two locomotives. Norrie has been working in the cab of the Fowler, cleaning and refurbishing the doors and window surrounds which Jim had been doing before his illness. He has also nearly completed the painting of the cab interior and controls. The control rod for operating the strangler (which is used to shut down the engine) has had extra notches cut in it to take up the slack in its movement.
Whilst Norrie has been working inside the cab I have sanded down the front bufferbeam and given it a quick coat of red paint, likewise the back one. Before the Traction Engine Rally I gave the outside of the cab and bonnet a coat of brown gloss paint. Since then I have been filling and sanding the cab and bonnet doors. As each bit is filled and sanded it is given a coat of brown gloss so that at each stage it looks complete.
Jan has made a start to removing the boiler tubes from the steam locomotive. After several not too successful sessions a technique was devised and three old tubes hauled out. About two dozen have been prepared for removal at the front tube plate, however they still have to be freed at the firebox end before they can be pulled out. That will leave only another hundred and thirteen to go!!'
On the few Sundays recently that have been fairly dry
the Whitlock digger has been in action. A start was made to removing the mound
of spoil behind the bothy. Unfortunately the ground where we need to manoeuvre
the digger is somewhat boggy. After getting it stuck a couple of times it was
decided that we would have to drain the water away before proceeding further
with the removal of the spoil heap. We are hoping that the lumps of concrete
which came from the repairs outside the main bus workshop will provide a firm
base to access the spoil and be a good bed for the railway track which will
eventually be laid round the back of the toilet block to the proposed storage
compound. PW
Summer 2002
(Duplicate 029)
(Photo: Jan
Littwin)
Over the winter we cut a nine foot wide strip diagonally through the tarmac of the shed access road and dug down about a foot so that track could be laid. This will eventually to round the back of the toilet block. The material removed using the Whitworth digger was used to back fill the track up to rail level and generally tidy up the work. The next job tackled was to construct a turnout (points). Although this is really to do with "phase three" we installed it now to save removing about 80 feet of track at some time in the future. PW
Autumn 2001 (Photo: Pete
Westwater)
Since the last report we have managed to lay the 60ft of track needed to complete phase one of the railway project and give us access to track no.2 in the shed. This we had achieved just in time for the Fife Historic Vehicle Club's annual Rally in June and allowed us to put the Barclay 0-4-0 Steam Pug on display outside the shed for the first time since it arrived nearly three years ago.
In mid-June the group purchased a 30-year old Whitlock Digger (similar to a JCB but based on the Ford 5000 tractor) which needed only a few replacement hydraulic hoses to get it mechanically operational. Norrie has taken it in hand and done a few minor repairs and made a few adjustments. All it needs now is a new front windscreen and a side window to make it weather tight.
A few weeks after the arrival of the digger we got the chance to buy a small Thwaites Dump Truck for about £200 - ex-Fife Regional Council, built 1987. Jim has been busy with the needle gun removing cement and rust from the upper body and chassis, and applying red oxide primer ready for gloss painting.
Norrie and I have been learning how to operate the digger and have been using it to prepare the next section for track-laying, to give us a line along the back of shed 92. To try to keep the place tidy as we work, the tarmac and bottoming which has been removed, is being spread to bring the ground level immediately outside the shed up level with the top of the rails. This will give us a convenient flat area for loading or unloading railway vehicles from road transporters.
The digger and dump truck should prove valuable additions to the support vehicle fleet around the museum site. PW
May 2001
The severe wintry weather has slowed down our efforts to connect track No.2 in the Shed back to the pair of points we laid last year. On three occasions we get chased back into the shed after laying just one concrete sleeper! It's slow going as we have had to lift a three-inch thick skin of tarmac and about eight inches of very hard packed hardcore to get the sleepers down to the right level. The extracted material is being used to back fill between the rails to bring the roadway up level with the rail top surface. The track now extends about 50ft out from the shed door on track 2 with another 60ft to go. Once that has been completed we will be able to use the Fowler diesel to shunt the steam loco into track 1 so that it can be positioned over the pit in track 2 for inspection.
Meanwhile work on the Fowler continues. The bonnet doors have been refurbished and primed with red oxide. One of the cab sliding doors has been given 'the treatment'. At some time in the past some (expletive deleted) had fitted the roller mounting brackets upside down, causing the rollers to seize and develop flats. New brass rollers have been turned and fitted. The flameproof dynamo is off for checking electrically as it wasn't charging the batteries.
A wee word of warning, I thought I would try a few different sanders to see which would be the most efficient at smoothing down the very lumpy paint on the Fowler's front buffer beam for just a few minutes without bothering to wear a mask. The dust blocked my sinus and gave me a week of misery.
A start has also been made to the steam loco; the injectors and clack valves have been removed along with one of the sandboxes. Once we get the other sandboxes off we will have a go at straightening the valances which had been damaged by careless slinging during cranage at some time during its Coal Board days. PW
Dec 2000
(Photo: Pete
Westwater)
Shortly after the Open Weekend we rebuilt the buffer stop which we rescued from Kincardine power station last year and now have a run of about 100 yards of track outside the shed on which to test the Fowler Diesel shunter. This takes us to within a few feet of the west door of the Display Building. Sometime in the future it may desirable to exhibit a railway item in the Display Shed. By Craning out the buffer stop and laying a temporary length of track would be a relatively straight forward operation to facilitate this.
By way of a community involvement exercise we have had some assistance from a group of Black Watch Army Cadets from Ballingry who on their first visit got 'gloriously mucky' cleaning down the frames and wheels on one side of the Fowler Diesel. Their second visit with a larger squad, cleaned down the other side, painted the exterior of one of the Portakabins and did some de-scaling of rust from the crane jib.
The necessity to move the crane inside Shed 17 by about 12ft to enable more buses in for winter storage proved an interesting exercise. Since standing with the engine out for several months one set of wheels refused to turn when the 'tug' attempted to push it. We ended we removing the offending wheels and belting the drum with a large hammer. That did the trick after which the tug managed to shove about 26 tons of crane forward - albeit leaving a fair bit of rubber on the shed floor. We were lucky with the new position, in that a roof truss was now in a convenient position to hang a chain block making the job of refitting the engine much easier than its removal.
Meanwhile work is continuing on the Fowler, with the bonnet top sheets fixed down and the side door panels being repaired ready for fitting and painting.
The next bit of track-laying outside the shed door to connect the first set of points to the line that the steam engine is resting on has been marked out and a start made to lifting the tarmac. Once this has been completed we will be able to use the Fowler to pull the Barclay outside to do work on it which cannot be done inside the shed. PW
Aug 2000 The
Fowler Diesel at the 2000 Open Weekend. (Jim Crichton)
Since the last report about another half dozen lorry loads of track parts, together with three colour light signals have arrived from Kincardine Power Station.
The second A5 turnout is now in place and about three-quarters complete. Concrete sleepers, rails and parts for the buffer stop have been laid out towards the west door of the Display Shed.
The Portakabins have been fitted out and are in use, though the outsides still require some work before repainting can take place.
The drive shaft assembly between the engine and gearbox which arrived with the loco as a 'box of bits' was generously reassembled for us by an acquaintance of Jim's who felt the weather at the time was too cold to be working on his boat! On trying to start the engine the starter motor was found to be faulty. David Heathcote recognised the starter as being of a type, which he just happened to have a spare in the stores, and kindly lent it to us. The engine then started successfully and Norrie was able to drive the loco out and back into the shed. The engine's own starter has been repaired and refitted. So far we have only tried first gear - the track is not long enough to risk second yet. In top gear (4th) we are led to believe it will do a staggering 12mph! Work continues on the bonnet sheeting - filing and painting.
A problem has arisen with the Coles Crane. An emulsified oily gunge was discovered in the radiator. Fearing a failed cylinder head gasket or worse, a cracked block, our newest recruit Roy Partridge has taken it in hand. He took off the head, no problem with the gasket. So with the aid of the forklift the rest of the engine was removed and transferred to Shed 47 where the sump was removed. Again, no problem, then it was noticed that there was a water-cooling jacket round the oil filter fed from the radiator. A fracture inside the oil filter was allowing oil into the radiator.
A few weeks ago we submitted a proposal for Phase II of the railway development to the June Trustees/Management Meeting which I am happy to say was approved. We now have to find out whether any parts of our proposal will require planning permission. If so this will be sought before proceeding. This plan involves clearing an area about 50ft wide between Shed 92 (sometimes referred to as the Lothian Shed) and the tree-lined hillside to form a security compound with two sidings and room to store P/Way materials out of sight. These sidings would be connected to the second turnout that we are currently assembling and give us a test track of about 200yds. A possible third Phase has been given some thought. A link between the Loco Shed and the weighbridge behind Shed 4 looks feasible though it would involve a fair bit of earthworks, and would involve crossing the road and the Gask Burn. Perhaps a feature could be made of a level crossing, complete with gates, signals, traffic lights and a crossing keeper's hut to control it. PW
April 2000
(Photo:Jim Crichton)
Track lifting at Kincardine Power Station has been occupying Norrie, Jan and new recruit Peter Hunter (a local farmer who got hooked at the open weekend) most Sundays recently. To date six lorry-loads of flat-bottomed rail and fixings and many trailer loads of wooden sleepers and point timbers have arrived on site.
Reconstruction of the first A5 turnout is now almost complete. Over the winter we hope to continue track laying eastwards to terminate at a rail built buffer stop about 20ft short of the west door of the display building. Butler Buildings of Kirkcaldy in fact donated two 30ft Addacabins to us which are now on site. The better of the two is situated between Shed 47 and the western toilet block and is now in use as our bothy/office. The other one is between the track outside the loco shed and the grassy banking and will be used as a store/cum woodwork shop. Jim Philp and I have been doing some repairs to it to improve the security and make it weatherproof.
At the beginning of October, Forth Ports Authority at Leith Docks donated a Coles diesel electric crane to the SRPS. Since they already have three operational cranes at Bo'ness they have given it to the bus museum (if I have understood correctly 'on permanent loan'). It was delivered free of charge by Bernard Hunter of Edinburgh. Since arrival, Norrie and Peter have freed off various seized parts. Last Sunday one of its 12 road wheels was removed and Jasper took it along to the workshop and fitted a replacement tyre and rim. Once the other two jib sections have been refitted and the cables tested and any other repairs required allowing it to be insured have been carried out we will have a crane capable of lifting up to 11 tons (blocked) and 6tons (mobile). The jib can be assembled as a 30 or a 50-footer. Once fully operational it should prove a valuable asset to the museum and the railway section in particular. Hopefully we will be able to get back to working on the locomotives soon! PW
Aug 1999 (Photo: Pete
Westwater)
Our little group has been progressing steadily over the past few months. About 100 feet of standard gauge flat-bottomed track has been laid outside the shed connected to the line the Fowler Diesel is sitting on. The next move will be lay an AS Left Hand point then connect back to the line the Barclay Steam Loco is sitting on.
The SRPS recently got permission from Scottish Power to remove some remaining trackwork from Kincardine Power Station. Three of the turnouts and some other material are not suitable for their plans at Bo’ness but luckily are eminently suitable for our needs and they have kindly offered them to us. We have already had a couple of sessions at the power station dismantling same ready for transport to Lathalmond, hopefully sometime in September.
We have also been busy helping Jan to build the threatened Mezzanine Floor which is now being kitted out with suitable shelving for storage of spares etc. With the necessity of having to vacate our bothy so that it can be reconverted back into use as a ladies toilet we have had a redundant Portakabin donated to us by Butler Buildings of Kirkcaldy, which we hope to have on site before the Open Weekend.
We have also had a large shaping machine donated to us by Balfour's of Leven which will replace the smaller one we inherited from the SRPS. This latter has been passed to Andy Walker for possible installation in the main bus workshop.
Some work has been done on the Fowler, mostly by Gordon (when he is not away at rallies with his tractor or stationary engines), Jim and Norrie. The flameproofing unit for the exhaust system which looks like a small 'Pot Boiler' has been dismantled, cleaned, primed and is in the process of being reassembled. They are now doing a bit of head-scratching over the box of bits which form the coupling between the clutch and the gearbox drive unit!
I have done a bit more filling and sanding the steam loco's saddle tank and have given it another coat of grey undercoat. After seeing the work done on their buses by Messrs Doug Dickson and Forbes with paint pads I gave it a try and managed to do the whole tank in about an hour. That's about half the time 1 would have taken using a brush, however I found it more of a strain on the fingers. Perhaps a pad with a better grip/handle is called for. PW
May 1999
Jim has been concentrating on cleaning and priming the bonnet framing and footplate deck of the Fowler Diesel whilst Norrie has been cleaning up the cab interior and de-scaling round the windows. He has also stripped, cleaned and re-assembled the float chamber from the Flameproof Exhaust System and replaced the batteries in the battery box. We have had them on charge for a few hours now and they seem to be “wakening up” very slowly. I have done some welding repairs to the bonnet front and reinforced one or two areas with fibreglass and fillers which were too thin to arc weld. We have fitted a replacement rear buffer and turned the other rear buffer casting up the other way. I suspect it had been fitted upside-down by a coal board engineer rather than a locomotive fitter who would have known that the little square lug should be at the top to assist a shunter when he was uncoupling! At least the front buffers on the steam loco are OK. Meanwhile painting, sanding and filling continues on the loco's saddle tank.
On getting a loan of a road drill a few weeks ago we had a go at breaking up the tarmac outside the shed. Our compressor wasn't quite man enough for the job, running out of breath every couple of minutes. We ended up using it to scribe a groove, then levering the tarmac up and inch or two with pinch bar and belting it with a 141b hammer into manhandle-able lumps. After about two hours we were gratified to find that we had cleared about 70 square yards, which is sufficient to allow us to lay a short length of track out from the line on which the Fowler is sitting. Hopefully we will have this done before June.
Jan's job has been taking him to places like Poland (land of his fathers), Romania, Czechoslovakia, Holland and Iceland so he hasn't had much time to work on the locos; however on the odd weekends he has been available he has removed the two lums which were letting in rather a lot of water when it rains. His next task, which he was seen eyeing up last Sunday, will be to put in the mezzanine floor we have been talking about. Most of the materials are now on hand for that. Once that is in place maybe Jan will get a chance to work on the locos! PW
Jan
1999
Some 150 concrete sleepers have been recovered from the business park part of the Lathalmond site thanks to one of our members, Lynden Butcher, who works on a farm nearby and was able to borrow the MAPRO rough terrain fork-loader for a couple of sessions. Fitted with the large bucket on another 'occasion, a start was made to preparing a bed for the length of track we hope to start laying out from the shed door soon.
Unfortunately Jan's Still saw made heavy weather of
slitting the tarmac so it looks like we may have to hire a compressor to break
it up. Lynden has also been doing a bit of 'gardening', with some assistance
from the rest of us, by removing branches and small trees and bushes which were
in danger of damaging the 
fabric
of the building. A footpath is under construction between shed 47 and shed 46,
'The Grosvenor Suite' (our bothy).
Inside the shed I have been working on the steam loco's saddle tank, sanding, filling, sanding, painting, etc. After several applications the surface is looking less like the mountains of the moon and more like the smooth surface required for lettering and lining on.
Jan, Norrie, Jim and David (on the rare occasions when he is not driving for Stagecoach) have been working on the Fowler Diesel. To date they have removed most of the bonnet sheeting and front and are in the process of refurbishing these and the framing which they were attached to. The air filters have also been removed and cleaned.
The power hacksaw is now
operational and the collection of tools continues to grow. It looks like our
thought to put in a Mezzanine floor above the workbench at the back of the shed
is going to have to be tackled sooner rather than later if we continue to
collect material at the present rate. PW
(Photo: Pete Westwater)
Summer 1998
1958-built John Fowler Diesel on Forth Road Bridge en-route
to Lathalmond (Bill Roberton)
The former Loco Shed, No.47 at the S.V.B.M. has after
a lapse of nearly thirty years become a locomotive shed again. After nearly eighteen
months of negotiations with various parties we recently signed an agreement
with the Scottish Railway Preservation Society for a ten-year loan of two of
their collection of locos.
After two abortive attempts at arranging road
transport it was third time lucky when Allely's Heavy Haulage of Studley in
Warwickshire uplifted on Tuesday afternoon 4 August the diesel and delivered it
to the Bus Museum. . The diesel built by John Fowler of Leeds in 1958 weighs 28
tons and spent many years working a Texaco's Depot in Leith before being
donated to the S.R.P.S.
Ex-NCB Barclay 0-4-0
saddle tank outside its new home (Bill Roberton)
The steam loco was brought over the following morning.
It was built by A.Barclay & Sons of Kilmarnock in 1950 and supplied new to
the National Coal Board, working at Bedley Colliery near Glenboig and finishing
at Barony Colliery in Ayrshire. It is an 0-4-0 saddle tank with 16in x 24in
cylinders weighing 28 tons (empty) and about 35 tons in full working order
Allely's are specialists in moving railway rolling
stock around the country, doing work for the mainline railways and the
preserved lines. They have trailers capable of handling coaches 75 feet in
length and locomotives up to about 140 tons in weight.
Our two loads at just 28 tons were relatively small
fry to them and took about three hours each to load, motor round via the Forth
Road Bridge and offload into shed 47. Well not quite, as we had to use the
museum's fork lift to push the locos the last few feet into the shed to allow
the tractor unit to couple up to the low loader trailer.
We are hoping to have the diesel operational in a few
months time and then give it a repaint. The Barclay will probably take about
three years to prepare it for steaming. It is our intention to lay a short test
track out from the shed and to that end we have purchased some redundant flat
bottom rail from Brechin. Thanks to a donation of concrete sleepers from
Industrial Estates Scotland which were lying in the business park next door,
dating back to the days when the Lathalmond Naval Stores Depot had its own
internal railway system, we shall be looking to start laying the test track
shortly after the open weekend.
The long wait has had one advantage for us in that we
took the time to fit out the shed with various machine tools, rewire and fit up
plenty of lights and improve the fabric and security of the building.
Jan Littwin's wife Janette is due a vote of thanks for
taking a load of household 'junk' which we had collected, over to a car boot
sale at Ingliston Market and raised nearly £200 for the group's funds. PW
Mar 1998
We are held up at the moment whilst a loan agreement is drawn up by the
SRPS's tame lawyer. We have already missed one opportunity to move the two locos
when Allely's were at Bo'Ness recently. We are hoping that we can get the
agreement signed in time to tie in with the movement of a diesel loco which the
SRPS has sold to the group developing at Ainwick in Northumberland. In the
meantime our little Group are doing repairs to and painting Shed 46 which is
the westernmost toilet block on the SVBM site. What had once been the ladies
toilet was completely empty and is being kitted out as a messroom, for use by
the Shed 47 Group and anyone else working at the western end of the site. This
should ease the overcrowding of the 'Dorchester Suite' in the main workshop. PW
Nov 1997
We spruced up the front of the building by repainting
the doors, ventilator and signs just prior to the Open Weekend. David James, our
tame electrician has completed the re-wiring and fitting up of fluorescent
lights. Norrie and Jan have spent several days over at Bo'Ness preparing the
0-4-0 Barclay built saddletank No. 17 and the Fowler 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical so
that they can be shunted into a suitable point for loading on to low loaders
for the move to Lathalmond.
STOP PRESS Saturday 1st November 1997. Arrival of an
arc welder of about 400 amps rating which has been donated to us by P
FAUDLER-BALFOUR of Leven. Our thanks to Eddie George for coming out specially
to unload the unit with the museum's forklift truck. We have also received
today the final seal of approval from the Trustees of the Scottish Railway
Preservation Society for the project to go ahead. It's now just a case of organising the road transport, so with a bit of luck Shed 47 should become home to
the above mentioned locomotives within the next few weeks.
Aug 1997
(Photo: March 2000, Jim Crichton (my earliest photo of Shed 47))
Jan has now sealed the roof leaks and replaced the
damaged side sheets. Norrie has spent several Sunday afternoons sealing round
the base with cement and concrete blocks which should stop the wind whistling
in and keep out vermin. David has completed fitting the ring main and it is
ready to be connected into the fuse box. In between spells of varnishing DCS 616 I have made a start on fitting shelves under
the workbench which extends across the whole width of the shed. Approval for
the SCOTTISH RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY to loan us a Fowler 0-4-0 Diesel
Shunter and a 16" 0-4-0 Barclay Saddle Tank has to be cleared at the
Council meeting to be held in September. We're keeping our fingers crossed. PW
June 1997
A simple two page constitution for the Shed 47 Railway
Restoration Group has been drafted out and approved by the ten or so members of
the SVBM so far involved. The main aim is to rent the Loco Shed and do
restoration work on items of railway rolling stock which have relevance to the
railways of Fife. The interior of the shed has been emulsion painted to
brighten it up. Some repairs to the fabric of the building have been carried
out. New guttering has been acquired and will be fitted shortly. Thanks to a
generous donation of redundant fluorescent light fittings from British Alcan,
we have been able to provide sufficient lighting ourselves without taking up
the Trustees' kind offer to provide new fittings. A start has also been made on
installing wall sockets to provide power for tools. Several avenues are being
followed up to try to get a locomotive to work on, the most promising being
with the SRPS at Bo'Ness. At a meeting of their Trustees about a week ago,
approval in principle to loaning a loco to us was agreed. The next stage will
be an informal meeting between representatives of our Group and some of the
SRPS Trustees. This has been arranged for the 7 June. PW
Feb 1997
Unfortunately,
it does not seem likely that it will be possible to do any restoration work on
the KFRPS collection at the moment. They have been advised not to do any work
in case it prejudices their application for Lottery Funding. It may be possible
to get something of our own to work on in the meantime. PW