Sunday 25 February 2018

Tyseley: Sunshine and Winter Maintenance...

Hi all. Another pleasant day in the cold today at Tyseley Loco Works, helping with various tasks around the works including maintenance on the beautiful Castle 5043. There were many groups in today including the "Kinlet" crew and the "Duke" gang, not to mention a good turnout from the 84E lads. Stood silent was the beautiful 4965 "Rood Ashton Hall" as she awaits her next outing...
Content wise I have little to say today. It was a pleasant day in the works with a good laugh and a chat in between the work with the Castle. Cheers all, Sam...

Sunday 11 February 2018

Tyseley: Frozen...

Hi all. Dear me what an absolutely foul day it was for weather today: rain, sleet, wind and freezing temperatures! I did venture over to the former 84E at Tyseley for a couple of hours, with the main source of warmth being a visit to the café with Phil and his roller team. I didn't hang around though I must admit, I couldn't stand the cold today - too much for me! Cheers all, Sam...

Sunday 4 February 2018

Tyseley: In The Bleak Midwinter...

"In the Bleak Midwinter, frosty wind made moan" - quite right...today was freezing! Regular readers will know that I regularly reference the 1872 poem as it just seems so wonderfully appropriate in these conditions. After breakfast at the Tyseley Corner Café this morning, we continued the journey to Tyseley for a day in the shed. A hardy gang of volunteers had gathered for a very cold day amongst the silent steeds. There was some stay knocking going on making the works a living nightmare as this inescapable banging drives itself into your very soul - earplugs were very much necessary! A couple of us were put to work today performing some maintenance tasks on the smallest in Tyseley's fleet: Peckett No2004. This pretty W7 0-4-0 is a lovely little tool and shows just how nice a well preserved Peckett in original condition can be. All around, work was on going with various other locomotives. After a good day on the Peckett, I left for home at around 3:30pm to curl up by the fire with a beer...