2015 January - Carriage Working Party and Steam Tests

Pendre update 24th and 25th January


Braving the cold of the West Carriage Shed was a group carrying out air brake and general maintenance on some of our carriages. This involved replacing old triple valves with a newer model, general greasing and checking of moving parts and topping up grease in the roller bearings.

The stars of our 150 celebrations, No 1 Talyllyn and No 2 Dolgoch were lit up for steam testing. As the boilers warm up they are checked for leaks around the newly replaced plugs etc. The safety valves are also checked to make sure they blow off at the right pressure. The boiler inspector is due during the week so fingers crossed for our old ladies. No 7 Tom Rolt's pony truck wheels have been reprofiled and another set of wheels is in the lathe halfway done.

Work started on varnishing the inside of Carriage 20 and painting the floors ready for the seats to go back into place. There is still a lot of painting to do on the outside of the carriage.

Photos Andrew Young and Karen Willans