EHSI Yorkshire blog

This is The Engineering Heritage Skills Initiative
blog page for EHSI placements in Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Scroll down for the latest Yorkshire/Cumbria EHSI News

The EHSI Project will close on Tuesday 31st of March 2015

Yorkshire/Cumbria Placement Providers

The EHSI project in Yorkshire and Cumbria is very grateful for the vital role played by our placement providers listed below:-
National railway Museum - York.
North Yorkshire Moors Railway - Carriage and wagon, Signals and Telegraph and motive power departments.
Simon Robinson Classic Cars - Darlington.
The Rusty Bug Workshop - Skelton Cleveland.
Kirklees Light Railway Nr. Huddersfield West Yorkshire.
Windermere Steamboat Museum - Bowness on Windermere Cumbria.
Adam Dalgleish Engineering - boilermakers, Stockton-on Tees

Our excellent placement providers, have put their time and effort into supporting an EHSI trainees during their one year traineeships. Without them there simply would have been no EHSI Project. 
15 trainees have graduated from the project in Cumbria and Yorkshire, 13 (86%) graduates are in employment or further training with 2 (13%) seeking employment.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway - Pickering and Grosmont - North Yorkshire - one traineeship

The EHSI trainee at NYMR is Joshua Smith, he is working in the engine shed at Grosmont on diesel locomotive maintenance and restoration. After his graduation, he has been taken on by NYMR as an apprentice, continuing to work with diesel locomotives.

Kirklees Light Railway - Clayton West - West Yorkshire two traineeships

Philippa Spreadbury, following her transfer from Windermere Steamboat Museum, is working on a wide range of engineering projects. Peter Standring joined the project in August 2014 for a 7 month placement at the railway mainly focused on fabrication.
Since graduating Philippa has returned to sea to complete her HNC in Marine Engineering. Peter 
Standring graduated from the project at the end of February 2015 and is currently seeking employment.

North Bay Railway - Scarborough - one traineeship

Our EHSI trainee at this 3/4 mile, 86 year old, 20" gauge tourist railway is Callum Darraugh.
After graduating from EHSI Callum has been offered a job with North Bay Railway Engineering Services, working on locomotive repair and new build projects.

Rusty Bug Workshop - Skelton Cleveland two traineeships

Dominic Wright is our EHSI trainee at Rusty Bug was focusing on body work preparation and painting, After his graduation he was asked to join the company where he will continue to develop his bodywork preparation and painting skills.

Adam Dalgleish Engineering - Stockton - one traineeship

ADE is a new and welcome placement provider in the rare skills of boilermaking and repair. The trainee at the Stockton based firm, is Jamie Godwin. When he graduated from his traineeship at the end of February 2015 he was offered a full time role at his placement provider ADE.

Stuart Hines - Heritage Engineering Co-ordinator Yorkshire and Cumbria

Stuart has a steam engineering and further education background so is well placed to provide the right kind of support to the heritage engineering organisations and trainees. Below is a shot of Stuart. 
Stuart will be working part time for EHSI until the end of March 2015, when he will take up a full time role at South Tynedale Railway.

After a long gap in postings due to a very busy December and January here's an update to the North East blog. 

We have recently said goodbye to the majority of our Yorkshire and North East trainees who graduated from the project at our graduation ceremony at the Preston collection in Hutton Rudby in North Yorkshire on the 21st of January.

Through the generosity of the Preston family we were permitted to use the excellent facilities at the collection, to celebrate the achievements of the project, its trainees and our supportive placement providers. Without the support of our placement providers the project would simply not have been possible. 

Here's a shot of the 14 graduates on the stage at the Preston collection with the collection's huge Gavioli organ in the background.

Left to right they are:-

Ryan Auton - HMS Trincomalee - Hartlepool

Jamie Cowens - Stanegate Restoration and Replicas - Haltwhistle

Zach Taylor - South Tynedale Railway - Alston

Dominic Wright - Rusty Bug Workshop - Skelton Cleveland

Phil Smith - NE Maritime Trust - South Shields

Joel Vernon - William Lane Foundry- Middlesbrough

Steven Hopper - Locomotion - Shildon

Peter Standring - Kirklees Light Railway - Clayton West Nr. Huddersfield.

Ryann Hodgson - William Lane Foundry- Middlesbrough

Rosie Power - NE Maritime Trust - South Shields

Joe Power - Stephenson Railway Museum N. Shields and  NE Maritime Trust - S. Shields
Josh Smith - North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Callum Darraugh - North Bay Railway - Scarborough

Jamie Godwin - Adam Dalgleish Engineering - boilermakers - Stockton-on-Tees

20th of November 2014 update

I recently visited Josh Smith the EHSI trainee at NYMR Grosmont shed.

Josh works on the restoration and maintenance of the railway’s diesel fleet.

His long tern project has been the restoration of a BR, Crewe built, class 24, D5032.

The locomotive is going through a full rebuild and Josh has been working on some of the auxiliary systems that support the operation of this diesel electric locomotive. In this shot we see Josh with one of the two engine cooling radiators pointing out to me the work that has been done. Removing the cooling radiators was one of the first jobs Josh worked on. 

Now these radiators have been fully refurbished with new cores and are ready for installation when the time comes.

Here’s a shot of a radiator in its position in a locomotive, air is blown across the radiators to cool the engine.The radiator is the silver bit behind the blue pipes.

These locomotives are fitted with two brake exhausters that create the vacuum used in one of two braking systems fitted to the locomotive. Air braking, is the second system on the locomotive. Here’s a shot of the refurbished exhausters ready for installation.

Here’s a close up of a commutator and brush gear on one of the motors that runs a traction motor blower. These blowers supply cooling air to the traction motors mounted on the locomotive’s bogies. Josh stripped and rebuilt the blower motors, skimmed the commutators in the lathe, fitted new bearings and refurbished the brush gear. This task will be repeated on all the DC electric motors that have been part of the locomotive’s rebuild.

Back to fuel and water, this is a shot of the combined water and diesel fuel header tank. It is mounted inside the roof of the locomotive to provide a buffer, gravity fed,  supply of water and fuel oil to the engine In case of a circulating pump failure.

This is the typical location of the header tanks in the roof space of a locomotive.

Air is used for control purposes as well as braking here’s part of the control air system pipework and valves that Josh has refurbished.

The inside of the locomotive’s bodyshell also comes in for attention, the first shot shows the unrestored interior of one of the body sides and the second shot shows one of the cab bulkheads, which has been thoroughly cleaned and is the process of having an undercoat applied.

Josh also works on diesel engine breakdowns. In this shot, he’s holding an input drive flange, from the driving axle of the railway's 1950s Metro-Cammell, diesel multiple unit, The DMU will have a replacement drive flange fitted in due course.

Out in the yard the NYMR steam crane was in action inverting a boiler to allow access to the firebox for repairs.

In the workshop was a velocipede used for transport of track workers in times gone by.

There's a very active velocipede group at NYMR, check out the u-tube video links below, to see their recent antics, at a gathering of these machines and their owners at the railway on the 7th and 8th of November.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeVa4eJ_BgE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1RHUmyYig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdmeEODWnA

28th of October 2014 update

Facebook update - See https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts

I was at Kirklees light Railway today and have posted on Facebook an update showing the work of EHSI trainees Philippa Spreadbury and Peter Standring.

24th of October 2014 update

Facebook update - See https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts

for an update about the work of EHSI trainees Rebecca Stonehouse and Dominic Wright at the Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton Cleveland.

5th of November 2014

Earlier this week I visited Adam Dalgleish Engineering and was able to get up to date with the work EHSI trainee Jamie Godwin is doing.

Here's a shot of the backhead of the Robey stationary engine boiler ADE are making a new inner firebox for.

Here's a shot of the new steel inner firebox for the Robey which has been partially welded by the company's coded welder.

Jamie's points to the inner surface of the weld which he has been grinding, which will later be subject to non-destructive testing to ensure the integrity of the weld on this pressure vessel.

Another job Jamie has been working on is a BR standard boiler they are doing some work on for the Severn Valley Railway. This has replacement sides to the outer firebox and a replacement part of the throat plate fitted. This shot shows one of the fire box sides that has been welded in place. In addition a template has been made from the old backhead to drill the stay holes in a the new backhead.

  

Jamie stands beside the other fire box side in which he is drilling the stay holes.

This is a shot of the other side of the fire box that is waiting for the new plate work to be welded in place.

In the yard we come across a 15" gauge boiler that had just passed its steam test. This was the first job Jamie worked on at ADE when he fitted new tubes, something he was used to, having replaced tubes on engines in his grandfathers steam collection.

The tender tank that we saw Jamie working on earlier in the year is making progress.

The very large wide boiler from a Southern pacific continues to be worked on.

Here's a shot of the inside of the firebox, showing the thermic syphons which are a distinctive feature of these steel welded boilers, first constructed during world war two. The grate area of the merchant navy pacifics is 48 square feet fired by one fireman!

15th of October 2014 update

Between the 14^th and the 18^th of October EHSI has been able to fund a blacksmithing course for both North East and Yorkshire trainees at the workshop of Adrian Wood in Hornby North Yorkshire. In this rural location, Adrian has a well-equipped forge with a useful range of equipment, he’s built up during his 10 years as an blacksmith.

The aim of the training was to give trainees an opportunity to undertake a favourite blacksmithing project or make or repair an item for their placement provider.

Here’s s a shot of mainly Yorkshire based trainees along with two North East trainees after their first day of Blacksmithing at Hornby. Left to right

Peter Standring KLR, Phil Smith and Rosie Power NEMT, Philippa Spreadbury KLR,

Richard Robinson and Callum Darraugh NBR and Josh Smith NYMR.

The jobs trainees were tackling varied.

Here we see Josh Smith who was making a fireside companion set for his wood burning stove at home

Later with the help of former EHSI trainee Lee Campbell, Josh punches finger recesses in the pokers handle.

Here’s a shot of the finished poker, with the recesses for fingers punched into the metal on the left.

Later Josh worked on making a rake and a shovel to complete the set.

Both Richard Robinson and Callum Darraugh chose to make firing shovels.

In this shot Richard starts thinning out the edge of his steel blank to begin making his shovel blade.

Here’s a shot of Callum later in the process using a press to shape the rounded end of his shovel blade.

Here’s a shot of Richard’s shovel blade in the muffle furnace, which gives a more even heat for flattening out.

Here’s the blade on the anvil cooling down half way through flattening out in the press.

Richard and Callum decided to weld in place tubular handles to the shovels which they planned to weld into place.

Callum checks the fit before hammering the handle to fit the blade

While Callum is hammering Richard checks the fit of his handle before re-heating it in the forge.

Peter Standring used tool steel to make a chisel.

Here he is making the initial shape and later examining the final ground tip after heat treatment.

Later he checks the ground tip after heat treatment and grinding.

Peter went on to make a combined weld chipping tool and spatter remover.

In this shot he’s finishing off the tool with a grinder.

Here’s the finished ‘Standring’s patent’ weld cleaning tool!

Philippa Spreadbury opted for an artistic piece modelled on a dragonfly.

This is Philippa barley twisting one of the rods that will form that dragonfly’s body.

Later with Adrian Wood’s help, Philippa fire welds the pieces that will form the dragonfly’s body together.

Here’s a close up of the fire weld

Later the dragonfly got copper wings and had its legs welded on.

Rosie Power and Phil Smith had brought from the NEMT, a complete rudder from the Henry Fredrick Swan lifeboat; some of the ironwork straps that brace the rudder need to be re-made. In this shot Phil checks a new piece of steel for length against the old straps.

Here’s a copy of the original hull drawing which shows what the rudder should look like.

Rosie and Phil worked together in using a former to round the edges of the new steel to match the original profile of the rubber strapping.

In this shot Rosie is hitting the flattening tool which Phil is holding on top of the work piece which rests on a swage tool which produces a rounded edge on the work piece.

On Wednesday Rosie and Phil removed two of the straps on the old rudder held in place with copper rivets, to use as templates, for the new straps. These will be later welded up to make a copy of the two originals.

Later on today Phil used the press to ‘joggle, the ends of the new straps so that they could follow the profile of the originals at the top of the picture, which later will be butt welded together.

6th of October 2014 update

At the end of September we said goodbye to our EHSI trainee at the Windermere Steamboat Museum(WSM)  Matthew Foot. Matthew has  been fortunate enough to be offered a full time job by WSM's owners the Lakeland Arts, as Conservation Assistant working on the restoration of the museums boat collection during the £12.4M restoration of the museum. We wish Matt well for the future and would like to thank all those at the Trust who supported Matt especially his mentor, Conservation Workshop Manager Adrian Stone. 

Stuart Hines has sent me a number of photos of recently so lets have a round up of recent events.

At Kirklees Light Railway we have a couple of shots of Philippa Spreadbury working on the air brake system of articulated locomotive Owl. In this shot Philippa is working on the pipework mounted on the locomotive's mainframe.

In this shot Philippa is discussing the job with Stuart. 

In the shot you can also see one of the two V twin cylinders, which drive the locomotive, through a gearbox and drive shafts to the locomotive's two power bogies.

At the North Bay Railway - North Bay Railway Engineering Services (NBRES), the new company set up by owner David Humphreys, is getting into its stride. The company is working on Bagnall-Price valve gear components for 'Brown Bear', the replica Bagnall locomotive that the Groudle Glen Railway are building in the Isle of Man. 

In this shot we see 2 motion bush castings and a fabrication as well as the blanks for the expansion links.

Find out more about the'Brown Bear' project at http://www.ggr.org.uk/brown-bear-appeal/

Here's a shot of former EHSI trainee, now NBRES employee Richard Robinson and EHSI trainee Callum Darraugh standing beside their handiwork in the NBRES workshop with the company's computer controlled machining centre behind them.

In this shot they proudly show off their new tee NBRES shirts.

26th of September 2014 update

Stuart Hines sent me some photos of the work Peter Standring has been doing at Kirklees Light Railway. In this shot Peter is standing beside one of the station lamp bodies, he's been fabrication and welding recently.

15th of September 2014 update
Stuart Hines visited the Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton last week, here's a few shots of EHSI trainees Rebecca Stonehouse and Dominic Wright at work.
Rebecca was working on a brake master cylinder, she's in the process of replacing the seals and reassembling the unit to fit back in a vehicle.

Here's a shot of Rebecca talking to Stuart about the master cylinder.

Dominic, meanwhile, is dealing with a Triumph TR4, which is in the workshop for bodywork repairs. In this shot he's applying some body filler.

Later, after the filler has dried, is on with the wet and dry paper and some sanding.

4th of September 2014 update

As a follow-up to the story posted on the 29th of August, Stuart Hines also visited KLR recently and was able to take a couple of shots which show the progress on machining the new diffuser which is being fitted to locomotive Hawk.
In this shot the locomotive's existing chimney, is being set up in the lathe, ready for parting off by Philippa Spreadbury, so it can be joined to the diffuser and mounted on the locomotive's smokebox.

Later, Philippa discusses the job with KLR's Operations Manager, Ian Screeton.

29th of August 2014 update

I visited Kirklees Light Railway again yesterday and what a difference two days has made.
The locomotive chassis of Kitson-Meyer articulated locomotive 'Hawk' seen in this shot, has had the boiler lifted and its pipework removed ready for the installation of the new exhaust diffuser.

The boiler, having been lifted from the chassis, is now on the floor awaiting assessment.

27th of August 2014 update

I visited the Kirklees Light Railway Yesterday and arrived just as Kitson-Meyer Articulated locomotive ‘Hawk’, was being stripped down for some work on its boiler and exhaust system.

In this shot we see EHSI trainee Philippa Spreadbury, who is inspecting pipework recently removed, whilst a KLR volunteer, works on removing the manifold in the cab that supplies steam to the locomotive’s gauges and controls.

Later Philippa gets on with removing the reverser.

Ian Screeton, KLR’s Operations and Engineering Manager, leans into the cab to check progress on the strip down.

In an earlier post, in July, we saw Philippa making the new exhaust diffuser for Hawk.

This is now complete and Ian was kind enough to get it out of the workshop

so we could take a shot of the current chimney and the new diffuser together.

The lower part of the diffuser which is rusty in this shot, will be inside the smokebox,

whilst the upper conical part will be above the smokebox replacing the current chimney.

Ian explained that this is yet another step in the gradual evolution of Hawk’s exhaust system,

aimed at making the engine more efficient and easier to manage.

18th of August  2014 update

Here's a new batch of postings from EHSI trainees in Yorkshire.

Lets start at Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton Clevelend. We have two trainees hosted by RBW Rebecca Stonehouse and Dominic Wright.

Rebecca has been restoring a mini sub frame, currently work in progress, on the shelf beside her in this shot.

After her discussion with Stuart about the subframe it was back to work wire brushing the underside of a Triumph Stag.

In the spary booth Dominic Wright masks up a HIllman Hunter prior to spraying.

Moving down to Kirklees Light Railway in Clayton West Near Huddersfield we have newly arrive Peter Standring and Philippa Spreadbury.

In this shot Philippa gives a little instruction, in changing the blade on the hacksaw, to Peter Standring on the right.

Here's another shot of Philippa at the workbench, working on a point lock for the railway's permanent way.

Peter, meanwhile has started a production line of lamp standard tops, for exterior lighting of one of the line's stations. In this shot he's dressing the welds.

As this shot shows he's produced quite a pile!

At the North Bay Railway 20 inch gauge, steam outline, diesel locomotive, Poseidon's brakes get attention. Callum Darraugh works in the pit whilst his mentor Graham Duncan gives advice.

Here's Callum in the pit below the engine.

Graham and Callum get their heads together to sort the problem.

17th of July 2014 update

Stuart and I paid a visit yesterday to the Kirklees Light Railway to welcome our latest EHSI trainee, Peter Standring, to the project. Peter has been a volunteer at KLR and we have been able, with our remaining funding, to offer him a short term placement at the railway, where he will work towards a welding qualification.

Here's a shot of Peter working on a door way in one of the railway's storage areas.

While we were at KLR we also caught up with Philippa Spreadbury's work.

At the beginning of July we saw Philippa making a Diffuser for a locomotive exhaust on the KLR's hydraulic press. In this shot Philippa is examining the Diffuser which has now been welded up and  been ground to its final finish.

Philippa has also been working on the fabrication of a welded point lever base.

Here's a couple of shots of the fabrication she had recently made, from flame cut and milled plate. I'm sure readers would agree, it looks very much, fit for purpose.

Back to earlier times, here's a shot of locomotive Jay, repainted by our former EHSI trainee Sara Lygo and has a new cab, waiting to be fitted, made by another former trainee Jordan Leeds. The locomotive is now masquerading as a locomotive of the 'Ffarquhar Quarry Co Ltd'.

10th of July update

Earlier today Stuart Hines and your blog master visited the Windermere Steamboat Museum.

The museum is in the middle of moving their collection into temporary buildings in an adjoining field. Despite being in the middle of moving house they are progressing the restoration of steamboat Osprey.

In this shot we can see the underside of the hull where the copper nails have been sealed and the joints caulked. The hull has also been raised on hardwood blocks to allow access to the keel.

In this shot Matt checks the area where the stem, has been sanded down, to blend in with the hull.

The boiler has been dry fitted into the hull.

Osprey is too big to get in on one shot, the next two shots, show the progress on the hull, with the area below the water line now all caulked and ready for finishing.

Part of the move involved a former ferry boat, once used to carry livestock across Windermere.

The hull was carefully jacked up and moved on to a steel trolley for moving. The ferry boat was in the way of the new buildings, that will be erected as part of the £13.4 million project, to rebuild the museum on its existing site. 

In this shot Stuart looks at what remains of this historic boat.

The low stern, once had a loading ramp for loading cattle and materials, for the journey across the lake.

Here's a shot of the inside of the existing museum. The old building will be completely rebuilt with new roof/wall structures and with the dock extended by a further 50%.

1st of July update

I was at the Kirklees Light Railway yesterday to complete the final paperwork for Jordan Leeds our second trainee who has graduated from EHSI following a placement at the railway.

Jordan. We wish him well for the future and thank Ian Screeton and Stuart Ross at KLR for providing him with the opportunity to develop his engineering skills.

During the visit Jordan showed components he had been machining for a series of 71/4 gauge diesel electric locomotives he and some friends are building between them. In this shot Jordan shows me one of the fly cranks that will drive the axles of the locomotives.

On the floor of the workshop are the wheel and fly cranks blanks for the locomotives.

Also the axlebox blanks are piled up on the floor, they are about to go off to the North Bay Railway in Scarborough, for former EHSI trainee Richard Robinson to machine at the new workshops of NBRES, North Bay Railway Engineering Services.

Jordan's final large scale project was a new cab for the KLR's diesel 'Jay', in this shot he's checking its dimensions.

While visiting the KLR I was also able to catch up with Philippa Spreadbury, who has recently transferred from Windermere Steamboat Museum to complete her traineeship at KLR.

Her current task is to make a new Lempor exhaust for one of the railway's locomotives.

The conical top of the exhaust shown in the shot below, is called the Diffuser and this is the piece of the system that that Philippa is making.

Looks like a chimney doesn't it but its much more than that, its part of a specialised steam locomotive exhaust system, built to the design principles of Argentinean engineer L.D. Porta. The design incorporates the design ideas of earlier engineer Jean Lemaitre, so L.D. Porta gave the name 'Lempor' to the exhaust system.

Philippa made the Diffuser by pressing the sheet metal gradually into a cone using a former on the railway's hydraulic press.

In this shot you can see Philippa operating the hydraulic press, gradually inching the Diffuser into its finished shape.

Here's a close up shot of the Diffuser in the press, showing the tack welds that are holding the cone together, during the forming operation.

Please copy and paste the link below into your browser, to see and hear Philippa operating the press.

http://youtu.be/PaoZ6rxFRqk

10th of June update

Stuart visited our two EHSI trainees, Dominic Wright and Rebecca Stonehouse, at the Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton Today. See his posting on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts

5th of June update

Were pleased to say that Richard Robinson out former EHSI trainee has graduated from the project and has now taken up a full time job with the North Bay railway in Scarborough.

For some time, the Railway has been building a 20" gauge steam locomotive named 'Georgina'.

On his last day with the project in late May, you can see Richard if you click the video link below. Richard is on the right and with a colleague, he is hot riveting the footplate angle bracket, on to one side of the new locomotive's mainframes. Hearing protection is a must its a very noisy process!
Click on this link to see the video http://youtu.be/Y4thL0WkLrI

Also taking part in the riveting was Callum Darraugh who now is the remaining EHSI trainee at NBR now that Richard Robinson has graduated.
The compressed air for the riveting guns uses the equipment the railway already has.
The compressor that works the braking system is driven by the locomotive 'Poseidon' diesel engine, the compressed air supplied via the flexible pipe that leads towards the engine shed.

The brake reservoirs from the locomotive also provide sufficient compressed air storage to operate the riveting guns.

That's Callum on the right getting ready to use the riveting gun.

Here's some of the new rivets that hold the footplating angle on to the locomotive's frames. In this shot you can also see the cut outs in the frame for the horn guides that will eventually house the axleboxes. If you click on to the railway's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NorthBayRailway?fref=ts you can see that the frames have now been fully riveted.

Later Callum gets to work with the angle grinder to remove one of the temporary bolts from the frames.

Meanwhile the railway still has maintenance to do.

Locomotive Triton has had its wheels removed to deal with a cracked cast iron axlebox.

In this shot the 1932 built Hudswell Clarke locomotive, has been jacked up  on sleepers and the wheels and motion removed.

Here's a close up of the main frames with the wheels removed.

The offending axlebox showing the cracked area close up. The railway was sourcing the raw materials to manufacture a replacement at the time of my visit, so that the locomotive could be returned to service as soon as possible.

Stuart Hines has been out and about, see his Facebook postings on recent visits to the South Tynedale Railway and Windermere Steamboat Museum on the EHSI Facebook page at
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts

23rd of May 2014 update

Stuart Hines has posted on our Facebook page, an update on the work of Rebecca Stonehouse and Dominic Wright at the Rusty Bug Workshop and the work of Philippa Spreadbury at Kirklees Light Railway. See Stuart's posting at https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts

12th of May 2014 update

I called in recently again to see EHSI trainee Jamie Godwin at Adam Dalgleish Engineering

He showed me the work he and his colleagues have been doing on the the boiler of BR standard 2-6-4 tank locomotive No. 80104. Here's a shot of an existing welded copper repair on the inner firebox.

On the opposite side of the firebox an area of the joint between the firebox side and the backhead has been prepared.for a much larger repair. In this shot Jamie is showing me the area that will be repaired by a specialist copper welder. What looks like rivet holes are areas that will eventually be filled during the copper welding process.

In this shot we can see 10 of the superheater flues that will also be replaced as part of the repairs the boiler is receiving at ADE.

Also being repaired are firebox's monel metal stays. This shot shows the stays which have been drilled out by Jamie. Once the ends have been drilled through from both sides the majority of the stay falls into the water space between the inner firebox and the outer wrapper. Later the remnants of the stays will be removed through the washout plugs and manholes in the firebox.

After drilling and tapping new replacement stays will be fitted.

Although we might think of a standard class 4 as just a tank engine, the locomotive's all up weight is 85 tons and as this next shot shows the boiler is quite a size.

2nd of May 2014 update

Sara Lygo at Kirklees Light Railway came to the end of her traineeship at the railway at the end of the month. As Sara has posted on our Face Book page she has had an amazing time at KLR and learned a lot of new skills. Sara has decided to continue working at  KLR as a regular volunteer. Here's a shot of her last big job at the railway, the painting of Kitson-Meyer articulated locomotive, Hawk. Close up, the painting and lining out is of a very high standard. The shot was taken earlier this week during a driver experience course at the railway.

Stuart Hines visited EHSI trainee Jamie Godwin at Adam Dalgleish Engineering's boilershop in Stockton recently and caught up with the work that Jamie is doing.

At time of Stuart's visit Jamie was working on the repair of two boilers, a BR Standard and a narrow gauge locomotive.

Lets start with the bigger of the two jobs, the boiler of BR standard 2-6-4 tank locomotive No. 80104. This has worked on a number of railways, but is currently based at the Swanage Railway in Dorset, and is owned by clients, Southern Locomotives. The locomotive is at ADE for repairs to leaking firebox stays and replacement of tubes. 

Here's a shot of the boiler in the ADE workshop.

This shot taken inside the firebox where Jamie is pointing out to Stuart the stays which will be replaced.

Jamie also points out tubes which will also be replaced.

Jamie has made a new dome mount for the narrow gauge locomotive, machining and welding the the fabricated component. In this shot he examines the fabrication before test fitting it to the boiler.

Next step is to test fit it to the boiler.

29th of April 2014 update

Our first trainee at the Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton in Cleveland, Robert Foster, leaves EHSI this week and is fortunate to have been offered a full time job at at the car restoration workshop. So here are a two shots of Robert on his second last day as an EHSI trainee!

In this shot Robert is rubbing down the wing of a Mercedes.

Rusty Bug specialise in grit and soda blasting. Robert is blowing out the oil ways of a six cylinder BMW cylinder block RBW have grit blasted externally and internally soda blasted.

The finish is spotless and brings components up like new.

Working alongside Robert is this year's trainee Dominic Wright 

Rusty bug restore modern and classic vehicles, going through the workshop for a repaint is a VW diesel van. Here we see Dominic getting on with rubbing down quite a large area of paintwork prior to applying a coat of primer.

Robert checks his work.

Later its back to the classic cars, working on the fine detail of a Triumph Stag, which is having the under bonnet area painted.

There's good news at the North Bay Railway below is the story written by Stuart Hines and recently posted on our Face book page

A new, exciting and interesting development and investment at the North Bay Railway is the acquisition of a complete and functional engineering workshop plus a woodwork and joinery shop from a retired engineer in Scarborough. Instead of splitting up his workshop he offered it to the North Bay Railway as a going concern, it is a fine, well equipped facility within walking distance of the railway with some quite substantial machine tools and associated tooling. It is capable of handling very complex and intricate engineering works, but allowing at the same time, the opportunity to do mass production as well, with the use of a CNC (computer numerically controlled) machining centre.

David Humphreys, the owner and director of the North Bay Railway, has formed a division of the company called The North Bay Railway Engineering Services (NBRES) and handed this and the newly acquired workshop over to our two trainees, Callum Darraugh and Richard Robinson, together they have now got the opportunity to build there own business taking on engineering works for the heritage sector nationwide. 

Talking to both trainees today it is already clear that they are not only excited by the prospects of rising to this challenge but also bristling with ideas as to how to get the work flowing in. Watch this space for more information as they settle into their new premises!

Here's some of the shots that Stuart took which give a good idea of the comprehensive range of machine tools and woodworking equipment that will now be available to the railway.

15th of April 2014 update

Last September we posted some shots of Robert Foster at The Rusty Bug Workshop who at the time was making modifications to an old Rover car to convert it into a pick up. The vehicle has now been completed and converted to diesel power. Here are some shots of the completed vehicle outside the workshops showing off its attractive two tome red and white paint job.

Were pleased to report that when Robert completes his EHSI traineeship at the end of April, he will be taking up employment at Rusty Bug, as they have offered him a full time contract, to help with their increasing order book.

Whilst I was at Rusty bug last week Robert showed me his latest job repairing the bodywork of a Mercedes Benz. In this shot he's showing me the repair panel that had to be fitted to the lower part of the wing to replace a rusty section.

Later he had marked out a small rusted section of the door which he was to cut out with an angle grinder.

Robert cuts out the rusted area with the angle grinder. Later he was planning to cut a repair section which he will weld in place

Outside the workshop I found our most recent EHSI trainee, Dominic Wright working on a Commer caravan body which has featured on the blog before. Dominic hasn't featured on the blog so far so this posting corrects that omission. The body work has progressed since we last saw it, with Dominic working hard, on the no doubt, seemingly endless task, of filling and sanding a huge area of bodywork!

Jamie Godwin the EHSI trainee at the boilershop of Adam Dalgleish Engineering hasn't yet featured on the blog so lets put that right now.

Jamie comes from a steam background as his family have been owners of steam traction engines and fairground machinery for many years. 

When Jamie started his traineeship the first job he was involved with was the fabrication of a new tender tank for Southern Locomotives who own and operate light pacific No. 34072 257 Squadron. The locomotive was first restored in 1990 and for 12 years and 4 months has operated successfully at a number of preserved railway in the UK. Following the development of firebox problems the boiler was in need of repair, the repairs are also being carried out at Stockton.

In these first shots we see Jamie and a colleague turning over one of the cross frames ready for welding.

Jamie gets to work on one of the frames with the angle grinder.

The base of the tender has been carefully set up on the substantial supports which will eventually bear the weight of the finished tank.

Eighteen days later things have moved on quite a bit. 

The tank is being fabricated from steel sections that have been profile cut by Middlesbrough firm, SM Thompson Ltd. Thompsons provide ADE with a 'flat pack' of all the steel sections required to make the tank. This can be done, because ADE have converted the original locomotive drawings into a digital format, using computer aided design software, which provides an accurate cutting list for Thompsons to work from.

The rear of the tank is to the right and the sloping supports on the left will form the base of the coal space. The fabrication has to be strong because the tank holds about 20 tonnes of water and 5 tonnes of coal.

Here's a close up shot of the internal structure of the tank which not only has to hold the weight of the water but also restrict the movement of the water with baffles during braking and acceleration.

With a welding set in the foreground, Jamie discusses the next stage of the job with his colleagues.

14th of March 2014 update

The Yorkshire blog is long overdue for an update so lets start where we left off at the North Bay Railway.

The boiler for the 20" gauge steam engine is structurally complete, here we see it in the workshop only needing fittings and fire grate to make it ready for insulation and cladding.

Here's a shot looking into the firebox with all the fire tubes now in place. The silver on the joints is the dye penetrant which is used to detect hair line cracks in the welding. There weren't any by the way!

Before my recent visit the boiler was hydraulically tested at twice its working steam pressure, to 300 pounds per square inch. The boiler passed the test. Here we see it on a truck outside the workshops in Scarborough with the hydraulic hand pump attached to one of the boiler fittings.

The moment of success, the gauge reaches 300 PSI with no leaks from any of the tubes or welded joints, a testament the skills of the NBR construction team.

Some components like the driving wheels and eccentrics have been machined.

Whilst others, like cylinders wait their turn in the queue.

Moving not too far from Scarborough lets go across to the NYMR and the Grosmont works of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Josh Smith the EHSI trainee has been working on Ex BR Type 2 Diesel of 1959 D5032. This locomotive is in its 55th year and after well over 100,000 miles in service just on the NYMR, is having some serious engine work done.

In this series of shots we see Josh helping to remove one of the locomotives pistons.

In this shot Josh and a colleague have attached the chain hoist and are standing in the engine compartment, getting ready to lift a piston and connecting rod from the Sulzer 6LDA28 engine.

In this shot the chain hoist has taken the weight and they are lifting the assembly over the side of the locomotive.

Josh now gets down to floor level and starts lowering the piston and connecting rod.

The assembly starts to make its way towards to ground.

Josh standing beside the piston and connecting rod gives a good idea of the scale of the engineering that he's tackling at Grosmont!

12th of December 2013 update

We recently visited The North Bay Railway to complete Callum Darraugh's induction photos of Callum will follow but lets catch up on the progress with the marine style boiler for the new locomotive being built at the railway. We were going to get Stuart and Richard to prop the chimney on top of the boiler but it proved not only heavy but awkward  to lift so we went for a safer shot, which you see here!

Mounted on the tube plate was a magnetic drill, which was being used to drill the holes for the boiler's longitudinal stays.

 The NBR have embraced the use of new technology in building the locomotive, by using high pressure water cutting to make these valve gear and regulator components.

Eccentrics for the valve gear have also been delivered.

This is the circular firebox.

Here's a drawing of various components of the locomotive.

The railway has loaded a CAD drawing of the locomotive, into special software, that allows the locomotive to be viewed from different angles. This allows the team to check that components of the valve gear have sufficient clearance when they are moving.

The day of the visit was bright and sunny and all the railway's four historic steam outline diesel hydraulic locomotives were lined up outside the shed.

They may look like a steam engine from a distance, but the footplates of these Hudswell Clarke built locomotives, look nothing like the footplate of a steam engine.

We also recently visited the Windermere Steamboat Museum to complete Philippa Spreadbury's induction who is the new EHSI trainee at Bowness-on-Windermere.

In this shot we see Adrian Stone of the museum instructing Philippa in the planing of a piece of hardwood.

Meanwhile Matthew Foot has been making good progress on building the hull of his sailing canoe.

Here's another shot of the canoe's frames.

Matt has also fitted and glazed the cabin window frames we saw him working in a previous posting.

I'm sure readers will agree that the quality of Osprey's rebuilding is of a very high standard. Here's a shot of the inner hull planking which is made from alternate strips of American black walnut and teak, fitted at an angle to line up with the rake of the cabin, as is the tradition on these lake district steamboats.

Work was also being carried out on the stern and the stern deck.

Today we visited the North Yorkshire Moors Railway at Grosmont to complete Josh Smith's induction. Josh has become the EHSI trainee at Grosmont engine shed.

Here we see josh wearing his in full safety gear as he is de-rusting a radiator support that fits in the locomotives engine cooling system. In the background is Bullied pacific 34101 'Hartland' which is being rebuilt at Grosmont.

The radiator support comes from this locomotive, which is a former BR Type 2, D5032. This 54 year old locomotive by 1986 had covered 100,000 miles on the 18 miles NYMR, but by 1999 it was in need of care and attention. Its in the works at Grosmont for a full re-build.

  

 As this shot shows the body shell is also coming in for repairs.

Stuart Hines and I recently visited Chris Rogers at Simon Robinson in Darlington as he was completing his traineeship. Fortunately the company have offered him a full time job, so Chris is now on the payroll at Darlington.

Here are three shots of his final job as a trainee the restoration of a VW 'Beetle' body shell.

On the way through the showroom we spotted this very rare and lovely ice blue Mark 2 MGA which is currently offered for sale for £47,995.

Stuart Hines visited the Kirklees Light Railway to see how the development of Sara Lygo's and Jordan Leeds's heritage engineering skills are getting on.

Sarah Lygo has taken on the painting and lining out of locomotive Badger's sandpot and cylinder cladding.

First step is to remove the sandpot which, as this shot shows needed a lot of preparation before it was ready for painting.

After cleaning and rubbing down both the sandpot and the cylinder cladding is ready for priming and undercoating.

Here Sara applies the primer with a spray gun.

After undercoating Sara applies the top coat of green gloss.

Then after drying, its time to mask up and apply the black edging to the cylinder cladding.

Sarah then spent a good bit of time practicing lining out.

Then she lined out the cylinder cladding which previously had been unlined.

It was then time for Sara to fit the sandpot.

Here's a close up with the sand delivery pipes yet to finish.

Here's the locomotive's cylinder cladding and sandpot fitted to the locomotive and its job done for Sara!

Jordan Leeds latest job, has been to remove a wheel set on locomotive Fox. The wheel set was removed to replace a roller bearing on one of the axle boxes. Using roller bearings means the wheels will have to be pressed off the axle to allow a new bearing to be fitted.

First step for Jordan was to jack up the locomotive, here's a shot of locomotive with a hydraulic jack under its front buffer beam.

After jacking up this shows the locomotive with its driving wheels just visible below the main frames, with its coupling and connecting rods already removed.

Later Jordan lowers the the wheel set to the ground with a trolley jack. 

Here's close up of the wheel set after its removal, in this shot the axle box has been rotated through 180 degrees, as the coil suspension springs are under slung below the axle on Fox.

28th of November 2013 update

We last caught up with Richard Robinson at the North Bay Railway in October. Since then there's been quite of work going on on the new 20" gauge Bagnall narrow gauge locomotive.
Here's a shot of the locomotive's frames.

Here's one of the axle box blanks which will eventually house a roller bearing.

Here's the outer firebox shell in the process of being welded.

This shot shows the boiler barrel and smoke box, the cut out in the smoke box for the steam exhaust and inlet pipework is facing the camera.

Here's a shot into the smoke box looking at the front tube plate.

Later the outer fire box has been welded to the boiler barrel.

The inner firebox waits its turn to become part of the boiler assembly. The two rods sticking up from the top are stays.

Richard unloads a chimney casting from the railway's workshop truck.

On the truck are safety valves, cylinder and chimney castings for two engines.

To give an idea of how the locomotive might look in the future, here's the safety valve casting sitting on the dome.

Against the wall of the workshop the locomotive's wheels wait there turn to become part of the

locomotive.

20-24th of November 2013 update

Its been a while since we had an update on the Yorkshire/Cumbria blog. This time it will be a mixture of news and some more detailed explanations of work our trainees in the past but which received limited coverage at the time.

 North Bay Railway - Scarborough
See the posting by Stuart Hines of the 19.11.2013 on EHSI Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts
Stuart has posted details of the work that EHSI trainee Richard Robinson and the NBR team, on building a Bagnall style 20" gauge locomotive at the Scraborough workshops.

Lets go to Cumbria and see the work that Matthew Foot has been doing at the Windermere Steamboat Museum.
Matthew has been working in one of the windows of steam launch Osprey.
He made a special tool to cut the decorative rebates on the window frames.
Here's a close up of Matt's special tool which he made from a piece of mahogany with a screw with a sharpened edge, which is used to cut the decorative rebates in the window frames.

Here's a close up of the components of the window frames with the rebates cut with Matt's special cutter and the tenons cut ready for assembly.

Here's a short short video of Matt cutting the rebates in the window frames, towards the end he talks about what he's doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkTpZjclQ4

Watch this video and hear towards the end of the video, Matt explain how he'll finish off, the window frames he's fitted to Osprey's cabin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lswDwJobjM

In addition to working on OSPREY, Matt also has embarked on his own personal project, the building of a 'Rob Roy' sailing canoe. This canoe was designed in the 1860's by John MacGregor, a barrister turned boat designer, who, inspired by a visit to Canada built the first sailing canoe. He popularised the canoe in Europe and North America.
This shot shows Matt at the beginning of the project with the canoe's drawings laid out in the workshop with a template of one of the canoe's frames also lying on the bench.

Here's a photo of sailing canoe, more shots to follow next week.

Chris Roger's placement at Simon Robinson car restoration company is nearing its end but there's no rest at Darlington as these shots of Chris working on the restoration of a VW beetle show.

Chris hand sands the roof of the VW shell he's been working on.

In this shot Chris checks out the surface of the roof.

But as this shot shows there's still plenty to do!

Lets go back now to see the detail of some earlier jobs at the Kirklees Light Railway.
Earlier we saw Jordan Leeds turning a reversing screw for locomotive 'Badger', here's the follow up to the job which shows the reassembling the reverser on the locomotive.

Here's all the bits laid out, left to right reverser nut, holding down blocks, reverser thread, reverser handle and cut off indicator scale, plus all the thrust washers, split pins etc.

The reverser stand had been stripped down previously to accept the new parts. 

Close up of one of the holding down blocks.

The reverser half way through re-assembly, with the reach rod connected.

The finished job.

More recently, with Sarah Lygo, Jordan has been using the lathe again to make parts for some new lamp poles for two of the railway's station sites. click on the link below, to see a video, which shows Jordan boring some of the lamp mountings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB96hXHUDPI&feature=youtu.be

Sarah Lygo has been helping out on the lighting poles too.
She has been involved in making some sheet metal fittings for the lighting poles.
In this shots Sarah has marked out some sheets steel for bending

Later Sarah checks the work piece after bending it.

After bending a further three parts and a bit  bit of spot welding Sarah has completed the fabrication.

While were on an outdoor theme Sarah's painting moved outdoors painting one of the railway's access gates.

First in Primer

And then the top coat.

In an earlier post we saw the excellent work Sara had done on diesel locomotive Jay.
Here's a few more shots that show more of the detail of its re-painting.
In addition to painting, Sara did some work on fitting a guard to prevent contact with generator belts during the locomotive's maintenance. Here's she's drilling mounting holes for the guard, in the locomotive's bodywork.

'

Later Sara uses a tap, to cut a thread in the hole, to accept the guard's mounting bolts.

Sara in her full protective gear, sanding down Jay's footplating.

Here's a shot of Jay, after filling, prior to undercoating.

After more rubbing down, Sara gets on with undercoating the bonnet.

Here's Jay wearing its recently applied undercoat.

A reminder of how Jay looked in an earlier post, showing the locomotive with its top coat complete.

Here's a number of shots which illustrate Sara's patience. The complex, hand painting, of Jay's warning stripes, involves a lot of careful measurement and masking to get the final effect.

Sara also painted some footplate doors, that have been made to fit to the railway's Kitson-Meyer articulated locomotive 'Hawk'. This shot shows Sarah, rubbing down, before applying the top coat of paint.

With sunlight shining on the paintwork, here's the finished door ready for mounting.

30th of October 2013 update.

The EHSI project says goodbye to our trainee at the National Railway Museum, Huw Cairns.
Huw's interesting and varied placement comes to an end tomorrow Friday the 31st of October.

Many thanks from the EHSI project team to Tony Holroyd, who mentored Huw on his engineering skills throughout his traineeship. For organising, approving and supporting the placement we have have to thank Helen Ashby OBE, the museum's Head of Knowledge and Collections and heading up the workshop, Chris Beet, Engineering and Rail Operations Manager.

Here's shot of Huw in a departing handshake with Chris Beet, behind them the boiler of Flying Scotsman, a locomotive Huw spent quite a bit of time working on during his traineeship.

In his final week Huw has been working on, former royal train locomotive, class 47 Diesel No.47798 'Prince William' .
In this shot Huw is painting a switch in one of the cabs.

In this final shot of Huw at the NRM, we see him fitting the cover a cab heater which he  earlier prepared for painting, finishing off with a top coat of black gloss.

25th of October 2013 update

Lets catch up with events at Kirklees Light Railway.

Jordan Leeds has been making a new reversing nut and screw for steam locomotive Fox, the railway's first locomotive built in 1987.

Here's shot of 2-6-2 tank engine 'Fox'.

Here Jordan measures the work piece with a micrometer, before he begins to cut the screw thread on the lathe.

                                                                                  

In this shot Jordan is beginning to rough out the thread of the reversing screw on the lathe.

Here's a close up of the the finished lathe cut square screw thread. This type of thread is used as it provides precise and accurate adjustments of the locomotive's valve events. The thread has 4 threads per inch, the thread depth is 1/8".

The screw was later heated before quenching it in oil to harden the metal.

Here's a shot of the bronze nut that Jordan produced to match the screw.

Here's a shot of the screw, nut and assorted washers that Jordan has made.

Here's a shot of the final assembly just to show it all fits together.

Sara Lygo recently transferred to Clayton West from Heritage painting to complete her traineeship at the KLR.

Sara has been putting the skills she developed at Heritage Painting to good use by rubbing down, undercoating and gloss painting, 

1992 built diesel hydraulic locomotive, Jay.

Here's a shot of Jay in the snow performing a winter duty with the railway's snowplough.

First and most important step in any re-painting is surface preparation, here's a shot of 'Jay' during the rubbing down process.

In the next two shots we see 'Jay' after the bodywork has been rubbed down and the undercoat applied.

In this shot Sara has now applied the locomotive's black top coat of paint.

Earlier in Jay's refurbishment Jordan Leeds had removed the locomotive's gearbox. The gearbox is thought to date back possibly to 1933, as a gearbox in one of Blackpool Pleasure Beach's 21" gauge Hudswell Clarke diesel hydraulic locomotives, which are the sisters of the engines at the North Bay Railway.

This shot shows Jay's engine bay after removal of the gearbox. 

This shot shows the old gearbox alongside  it 's shiny blue replacement which at the time of the photograph Jordan was about to assist in re-fitting to 'Jay'.

21st of October 2013 update

Stuart visited Matthew Foot today at the Windermere Steamboat Museum.

He sent me some shots of some of the wooden joint test pieces he's been making at the start of his traineeship with the help of one of his mentors Shona Micklejohn.

In theses two shots we see  Matthew and Shona discussing a stepped scarf joint. This joint is often used to fir new replacement timber into a structure where timber in the structure has rotted.

In this shot we Matthew holding a secret mitred dovetail joint. This kind of joint is used on a corner where the strength of a dovetail joint is needed but without the visual intrusion of the dovetail joint's interlocking 'pins and tails'.. 



Matthew has be busy making test pieces lately, here's a shot of the various pieces he has made since he joined the project at the beginning of October. I think its obvious that the work he is doing is of a very high standard.

15th of October 2013 update

On the 25th of September Both North East and Yorkshire trainees visited HMS Trincomalee and William Lane Foundry in Middlesbrough. 

EHSI would like to thank David McKnight at HMS Trincomalee, Edward Bilcliffe at William Lane and their respective staffs for hosting these visits. The visits provided EHSI trainees with an insight into traditional ship maintenance and foundry practice.

Lets start with a group photo we managed to catch 12 of our 16 trainees outside the entrance to HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool.

Left to Right Richard Robinson - N Bay Rly, Ray Batchelor - Locomotion, Matt Bedard - Beamish, Tom Naisbitt - Stephenson Rly Museum, Jordan Leeds - Kirklees Light Rly, Sara Lygo - Heritage Painting, Richard Snowdon - Tanfield Rly, Teriann O'Connor - Heritage Painting employee, Alex Pickering - NYMR, Huw Cairns - NRM, Chris Rogers - Simon Robinson's Darlington, Ian Carney - NYMR, Robert Foster - Rusty Bug Workshop Skelton.

Starting in Hartlepool here's helmsman Matt Bedard at the ships wheel, no power steering here, in bad weather you simply added more sailors to keep the ship on course.

Below decks Rosie Power sits in the mess deck with some pretty unappetising replica food on the wooden plates in front of her!

Rosie's colleague at the North East Maritime Trust, Phil Smith shows, that below decks you have to watch your head, if, like Phil, you are tall.

If you are claustrophobic the powder magazine isn't the place for you! This early 19th century warship's magazine compartment is lined with copper sheet to prevent sparks.

Next door is the excellent Hartlepool museum where there's an exhibit that reminds visitors of the 1st World War bombing of Harltepool by German Zeppelin airships in 1916 and 1918.

Moving to William Lane foundry Middlesbrough, one of the North East trainees Ray Batchelor made a pattern for a nameplate for the model railway he takes to exhibitions throughout the north east.

Here we see him ramming the pattern in the moulding box.

After the pattern had been used to make an impression in the moulding boxes its time to pour the molten metal. In this shot Ray adds weights to the moulding boxes.

Here's a shot of the pouring of Ray's nameplate.

As a supplement to the earlier shots I posted here's some more taken by Stuart Hines.

Without a pattern there's no casting, here the Yorkshire EHSI trainees visit the foundry's pattern shop.

All of the machinery used to be driven by line shafting, which is still in place.

Jordan Leeds brought along a pattern for a 71/4" gauge locomotive's wheel blank, for casting, in this shot he's preparing the moulding box for casting.

The Yorkshire team also visited the patterns store. William Lane tell me that during a recent tidy up they have discovered some small furnaces in the floor,which they think date back to the early days of the foundry. More news to follow once excavations have reached a conclusion!

 7th of October 2013 update.

Lets Start the update with news of our newest trainee Matthew Foot at the Windermere Steamboat Museum.
In these shots we see Matthew working on wooden test pieces he has been making at the museum's workshop using hand tools.
Here's a shot of the drawings Mathew made before he worked on the hexagonal test piece also in the shot.

Matthew stand in the WSM workshop beside the workbench where his test piece is sitting in the vice.

Moving across the Heritage Painting where Sara Lygo is currently working at the East Lancs Railway in Bury on a Black 5 tender chassis.
In this first shot we see Sara painting underneath the chassis of the tender. Helpfully the tender tank has been removed which obviously makes things a lot easier.

Here's Sara working inside the chassis painting the tender's pipework

In this shot we see Sara at work through one of the cut outs in the tender chassis.

Moving across the Pennines to Clayton West and the Kirklees Light Railway lets catch up with Jordan Leeds who has been involved in installing a new point lever which he fabricated in the railway's workshop before helping to install it. In this shot we see Jordan standing beside the newly installed point lever.

Here Jordan makes some adjustments to the point lever.

Later It was time for Jordan to join the PW team in some line maintenance.

Here's a shot from the other end of the work site with 1987 built 2-6-2 locomotive Fox at the head of the train.

Both EHSI teams came together on the 25th of September with visits to HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool and William Lane foundry in Middlesbrough.

In this shot Jordan Leeds gets involved ramming a pattern in a moulding box for his 71/4" gauge, cast iron, wheel blank.

William Lane had a large order for Victorian benches going through the foundry, here we see the top of a large moulding box being lowered into place.

Later in the day, with all EHSI visitors standing well back, the William Lane team melt and prepare to pour molten iron into the shaped moulding box for casting the ends of the Victorian railway benches.

The actual pour of the molten iron

EHSI would like to thank William Lane for once more providing an interesting and informative visit for EHSI trainees.

On the east coast at the North Bay Railway Richard Robinson is getting deeply involved in the construction of a new steam locomotive.In this shot we can see the locomotive's laser cut mainframes which are in the process of being erected.

In this shot Richard and a colleague examine the back and front plates of the new tubular boiler.

More news on this new build to come.

18th of September 2013 update.

Our latest trainee, Matthew Foot, will be starting his bursary placement at the Windermere Steamboat Museum on the 1st of October.

In this shot he's being welcomed to his traineeship by Adrian Stone the Conservation Workshop Manager at the Bowness on Windermere workshops. 

They are standing in front of 'Osprey', a steamboat from the collection, that Matthew will be working on when he starts his bursary traineeship.

Later Adrian and Matt discuss the work that needs to be done on petrol launch Penelope

The EHSI project is delighted to be able to work with the museum in supporting a bursary placement at this nationally important collection. 

The museum, which is now owned by the Lakeland Arts Trust, has recently has a £9.4m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund which will allow the museum to be totally rebuilt. click on to http://www.lakelandartstrust.org.uk/media/windermere-steamboat-museum-secures-heritage-lottery-fund-investment to read more about the grant. Click on this link to read about their development plans for the museum http://www.lakelandartstrust.org.uk/museum-re-development-project

Now back to a news of our trainees and the work they are doing at their bursary placements.

Let's start at Simon Robinson in Darlington where EHSI trainee Chris Rogers is buffing the boot lid of a Triumph Stag.

Here's a couple of shots of the car the boot lid came from

Here's a short video of Chris in action. http://youtu.be/j3TUWpLGjrU

Off to the National Railway Museum now to see a variety of jobs that Huw Cairns has been tackling.
.In this shot Huw is making some make some pipework connections under the footplate of City of Truro. This locomotive was recently in service on heritage railways but the decision has been made to that in future it will become a static exhibit at the NRM.

Having made the connections on City of Truro Huw moves on to a Cravens steam crane where he's greasing a number of components to keep corrosion at bay. Its quite a large machine!

As can be seen its spent some time outside and is now in more suitable storage conditions.

Huw gets underneath the crane to get access to the components he's greasing.

Off to the Richard Robinson now at North Bay Railway in Scarborough.

In this shot Richard looks over the latest batch of lazer cut main frame components that have arrived for the two locomotives that the railway is planning to build in the near future.

Richard points out to Stuart Hines the welding bench he recently made.

Richard has been developing his engineering skills, in this shot he is holding a brass chime whistle that he has fabricated.

The joints are made with silver solder, but are so fine they can hardly be seen.

Robert Foster at the Rusty Bug workshop in Skelton has been working on a number of interesting jobs. The construction of a pick up for the workshop using a Rover P4 saloon, saved from a banger racing fate, by Robert's mentor Steve. He's also been working on a Volkswagen bay window camper van for the 'Help for Heroes' charity and in the same vein refurbishing the wooden body framework of a Commer camper van.

Here's a couple of shots of the P4 pick up, which to me has the look of an Australian 'Ute' the kind of utility vehicle made by the likes of Holden in Australia for outback farmers.

In this shot Robert shows Stuart Hines the welding that he's carried out inside the body to create this unique vehicle.

The outside is equally unusual with butt welded joints to create new panels to join the saloon body to the pick up box.

Robert removed the original Rover engine.

There's plenty of room in the engine bay which will now be occupied by a turbo diesel.

Robert discusses with Stuart the modifications that will be needed to accommodate the new diesel in the P4's engine bay.

Here's shot of the ' Help for Heroes' camper van which is in the process of becoming a promotional vehicle for the charity.

Here's the Commer camper van which has had its wooden body framing replaced.

Heritage Painting are working at the East Lancashire Railway in Bury on an LMS Black 5 tender. EHSI trainee Sara Lygo is working with her colleague Teriann O'Connor on rubbing down a large acreage of black steel work on the locomotive's tender.

Here's side view of the tender with the locomotive mainframes and wheels on the left minus, of course, the boiler which has been removed from the mainframes for repairs.

In this shot we see Sara de-greasing the nooks and crannies in and around the shoveling plate that allows the coal to be transferred from the bunker to the firebox by the fireman. There's plenty of evidence lots of rubbing down!

The various lockers on the tender front end need careful de-greasing. to ensure a suitable surface for primer, undercoat, top coats and varnish that will follow.

22nd of August 2013 update.

Events coincided this week for Stuart Hines. He was visiting EHSI trainee Jordan Leeds at Kirkless Light Railway in Clayton West, West Yorkshire, when, Heritage Painting's EHSI trainee Sara Lygo was also on site. Her placement company had got the job of re-painting the KLR's standard gauge DMU, which is used by the railway as a venue for children's parties. 

Lets start with Jordan who was working on a new fabricated lockable point lever that he is making for the the railway. In this shot he's explaining to Stuart the various engineering techniques he has used when fabricating the point lever.

In this shot Jordan tries the mechanism of the point lever.

In this short u-tube video Jordan talks about the point lever 

and describes it design features.

http://youtu.be/QpvnxjTR8oo

Meanwhile outside the workshop, in the station yard, Sara Lygo and her colleague Teriann O'Connor are working on the DMU. 

Here's a shot of Sara beside the DMU during a break in sanding down.

In this short video clip we see Sara sanding down on of the window surrounds.

http://youtu.be/P0PM2DxIrfY

But its soon back to work!

Later in the day Stuart Hines got the opportunity of a cab ride up the line in 0-6-4 tank locomotive 'badger', 

with which Jordan Leeds assisted in it's final assembly.

Here's a shot of the locomotive in the station before its run up the line.

Here's the first of three video clips that Stuart took from the cab during his run up the line.

http://youtu.be/Ocd-TO5z-is

Here's a second clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtbaR6R8_Y0

and a third http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_mDvnWI640

Moving from West to East across Yorkshire we travel to the North Bay Railway in Scarborough.

At the NBR EHSI trainee Richard Robinson was involved in boiler inspectors visit, 

to approve the new boiler of 71/4" gauge locomotive 'Emily'. 

This locomotive has been fitted with a new boiler and received attention from Richard, to its valve gear.

Little and large!  - 'Robin Hood' another of the 1930's steam outline diesel hydraulics in the NBR fleet, poses 

beside 'Emily' and shows the dramatic difference in scale between 20" and 71/4" gauge.

In the next shot, having carried out the hydraulic test, 

to the satisfaction of the boiler inspector, Richard starts to light the fire to raise steam for the steam test.

As this video clip shows there was plenty of steam to spare when it came to setting the safety valves. http://youtu.be/ZjLcowP9-eI

After the safety valves were set, Richard drives the engine down the short length of 71/4" gauge track 

and blows the whistle, which is echoed by one of the railway's steam outline diesels!

http://youtu.be/NcjYyfaY-vg

Later it's the turn of Stuart Hines, no stranger himself to an engine regulator, to have a try of the engine. 

http://youtu.be/xQPXrCZ4iS0

15th of August  Update.

Stuart visited Chris Rogers at Simon Robinson in Darlington today where Chris is putting the finishing touches to his MGA project car. Here's a reminder of what it looked like at the start of the re-building process.

Now, the car has been transformed. 
In this shot in the spray booth Chris dries a final small section of the paintwork with the infra red lamp.

Chris has ever right to be proud of a job well done on the MGA.

Here's a shot of the interior which has also been fitted by Chris.

Simon Robinson also repair more modern vehicles. Chris has been painting and lacquering the wheels of a Mazda MX-5, in this shot we see him discussing the job with his mentor at Robinson's, Mike.

After lacquering its time to remove the masking tape.

The finished job!

 14th of August  Update.

Here's a quick round up showing what three of our Yorkshire trainees are up to. Lets start with Ian Carney at North Yorkshire Moors Railway carriage workshop. Ian has been working on one of the railway's Mark 1 ex BR carriages. He's been re-plating the rubbing surfaces of the coach's corridor connection. In this shot Ian is discussing the job with Stuart Hines, the unpainted section on the corridor connection shows where Ian has got up to in the re-plating job.

In this close up shot we can see a section of the re-plating Ian has already completed.

Moving on to the Kirklees Light Railway in West Yorkshire we can see some shots of trainee Jordan Leeds preparing a point lever for welding in the railway's workshops.

In this shot Jordan is showing Stuart Hines a carriage axle he had turned on the lathe.

Readers may recall that KLR locomotive 'Badger' was being rebuilt earlier in the year. Here's a shot of the outcome. 'Badger' is now in service we see it here in the railway's engine shed.

Stuart took the opportunity of arranging a visit to KLR by NRM trainee Huw Cairns. Here we see Huw and Jordan sitting in the newly re-built 'Badger' during the tour of the railway provided for Huw by Jordan.

Let's move now to the East Lancs Railway in Bury, where EHSI trainee Sara Lygo has been working with Heritage Painting colleague Teriann O'Connor, on the cab of an Ex LMS 0-6-0 'Jinty' shunting locomotive. Here we see Sara in full PPE flattening down the paintwork of the cab with an air sander.

Later Treiann and Sara stop to assess progress of their work.

29th of July Update.

Stuart also recently visited Robert Foster at Rusty Bug Workshop in Skelton where he caught up with a couple of projects that Robert has been working on.

In this shot we see Robert standing beside an MGB that is currently having its body work restored.

Here's a close up of some lead loading that Robert has been doing on the joint between the wing and the scuttle.

Out in the yard is a Triumph TR6, Robert has been working on the car's engine bay.

Stuart Hines visited the North Bay Railway last week and saw the progress Richard Robinson is making, on the re-build of a seven and a quarter inch gauge locomotive.

Last week was also a milestone for the NBR, the delivery of laser cut boiler components, for a new marine style boiler which the railway will be welding into a complete boiler at Scarborough.

Here's a couple of shots of Richard working on 'Emily' the 'Tinkerbell' design seven and a quarter inch gauge locomotive he is in the process of rebuilding.

The next big project is the building of  a new marine style locomotive boiler at Scarborough, here are a couple of shots of the laser cut boiler components that were recently delivered to the railway.

23th of July Update.

On the 16th and 17th of July all our Yorkshire trainees attended a two day training session in First Aid, Health and safety and the use of abrasive wheels with facilities kindly provided by the Notional Railway Museum. This training event coincided with the final day of the NRM's 'Great Gathering', a celebration of Mallard's world steam speed record.

This was also the first time that all the trainees had an opportunity to meet so we couldn't ignore the opportunity for a couple of group photographs.

Here on the turntable are the course attendees with their names and locations. Teriann O'Connor is a Heritage painting employee who also benefited from the training. 

 Teriann and myself also took another shot in front of Bittern, which Sara Lygo had a
  preference for as she has been a member of the locomotive's support crew.

Whilst we were visiting the NRM I thought we should catch up with Huw Cairn's latest engineering job. Huw has been working on an attachment that can be fitted on to a fork truck and used to move vehicles at the museum. Here he's pointing out some holes that he drilled in the structure.

We also got a chance to have a close look at the pipework jobs which Huw has completed on Flying Scotsman which was in the NRM workshop during our visit. The three shots that follow show three separate jobs that Huw has completed

 17th of July Update
Kirklees Light Railway

The project team would like to welcome a new trainee to the EHSI project and the Kirklees Light Railway, his name is Jordan Leeds.

Our previous trainee Paul Husband has unfortunately had to leave the project due to a change in his circumstances.

Jordan comes to EHSI from a railway volunteering background and joined the team at Clayton West on the 1st of July.

His first job at the railway was making some new tail lamps for the railway's rolling stock.

In this shot we see him using a grinder to finish off the joints on the lamp.

Here's a close up shot of one of the lamps

The re-build of the KLR's locomotive Badger is nearing completion, here we see Jordan in the process of setting up the lathe in the KLR's workshop to produce some lubrication nipples for the locomotive.

Rusty Bug Workshop
Moving across to Cleveland lets catch up with EHSI trainee Robert Foster.
In these shots he's pointing out to Stuart Hines the various weld patches he's fitted to a MGB GT body shell that is in the process of restoration.

 After welding its time for filling and sanding here Robert  points out one of the areas that's been filled and is ready for sanding down. Note the Triumph chassis on the lift behind Robert.



Robert's first job when he joined Rusty Bug was to work on an S-Type jag removing the chrome trim for re-chroming. This vehicle is now nearing completion and Roberts most recent task on it was to fit all the chrome trim which has been re-chromed.
the S-type jag was an interim model that was sold in parallel with the MK 2 saloon. It was fitted with the now well known Jaguar independent rear suspension and a twin carburettor version of the 3.4 or 3.8 litre XK engine. From the registration plate the vehicle was registered between 1st August 1967 and the 31st of July 1968, it looks well for 46 year old car doesn't it.

Heritage Painting

The EHSI trainee at Heritage Painting has been busy at The East Lancashire Railway in Bury working on a number of projects, in this shot we see her standing in the cab of an LMS 'Black 5' where she has been preparing the roof of the cab for repainting.

Sara has also been working on painting the wheel sets of Midland Railway 0-6-0 'Jinty' tank engine, here she is standing beside the wheel set in the Bury workshops, which themselves are of quite a vintage having been built initially as a carriage shed in 1856 and thus is a grade 2 listed building.

 Sara's also been working on the tender tank of the 'Black 5' which she recently helped to apply an undercoat to. Here she stands beside the tender tank while she discusses the work that she has been doing with Stuart. The building's construction with wooden trusses supported on cast iron columns can also be seen.



Heritage Painting are getting commissions from the traction engine fraternity, here Sara pulls back the covers on a wheel from a small scale traction engine that Sara helped to prepare for the application of primer/undercoat and top coat.

On an adjacent bench here are some shots of components from another scale traction engine which have been lined and varnished ready for re-assembly.

North Bay Railway Scarborough

Richard Robinson has been getting on with a number of tasks at the NBR.
In this shot Richard is showing Stuart a new trackside ramp that is part of the railways single line safety system to which Richard has been making modifications.

Whilst Stuart was at the railway Richard showed him the inside the smoke box of one of the 1930's built Hudswell Clarke steam outline, diesel hydraulic locomotives. From the outside it looks just like a steam engine.

Inside its very different with chain and gear drives for the wheels and the exhaust pipe from the diesel engine which also snakes through the smoke box.

Richard continues to work on the locomotive 'Emily' which after its steam test has been stripped down to have a valve rod replaced on one side. In this shot we see the valve ports on the top of the cylinder now that the casting that houses the slide valve has been removed to allow the new valve rod to be replaced.

Richard has also been working on machining new wheel sets for the railway's coaching stock, these two shots show a wheel being machined in the lathe followed by the wheel fitted to it axle.

Simon J Robinson - Darlington

Lastly for this Yorkshire EHSI update lets go to Simon Robinson's car restoration workshops in Darlington for an update on the activities of EHSI trainee Chris Rogers.
Chris has been focusing on bodywork repairs at Darlington as he already has some mechanical engineering skills. In this shot we see an MGB Roadster whose re-painting was all Chris's work. Doesn't it look brilliant.

Here he is in the spray booth flattening off the MGB's boot lid.

Another job was the painting of the rear quarter of a Sunbeam Alpine which has been masked ready for spraying.