Steam Crane progress and hidden treasures

When I left Shildon last night, Richard and the team had managed to get the crankshaft and hoist drum back on the body of the crane - excellent progress and good to see it going back together. Pipework has been lagged and is going back on too.
After a meeting with the APT-E support group today: http://www.apt-e.org/ I grabbed a quick sandwich before leaving York to come back to Shildon, and on my convoluted way out, popped into the Warehouse to check on the exiles from the Great Hall whilst exhibition construction work is going on. The two locos are "Hardwicke" and "Aerolite", looking strangely at home amongst the cornucopia of smaller objects from the collection. Behind "Aerolite" is the loco preparation bay, where "Tornado" was being steamed ready for a steam test tomorrow and a test run out on Saturday.

I arrived back in Shildon just in time to see the boiler being replaced on the Smith steam crane, it makes a real difference and allows us to keep plumbing up the myriad pipes which came loose with the machine. We'd better not put the chimney on just yet as it won't fit out the door otherwise. Now for the jib and new ropes...






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