The Society owns the preserved British Railways Standard 5MT Steam Locomotive 73082 Camelot, which runs on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, Southern England.
Camelot pictured in the Sheffield Park Loco Workshop alongside her dismantled valves and rods. PETER GIBBS, 07 January 2024
Further progress. MELVYN FROHNSDORFF, 14 January 2024
09 January, 2024
Camelot's Winter Maintenance
05 January, 2024
Bluebell Railway's January-February Calendar
The stays that needed replacement in the firebox have been dealt with and 30 patchscrews have been replaced; also the clack valves need some attention.
The valve bores have been honed but a light reboring is needed so new valve heads and rings are on order. On dismantling, there was only one broken valve ring found so the bores were still in good condition. The cylinders and pistons do not require work at this time.
The centre driving wheelset needs to be dropped so that the clearances between the axlebox guides and the cannon box can be checked and adjusted as necessary.
The rear driving wheelset also needs to be dropped so that the lower part of the ashpan can be cut away and replaced as it was damaged at the end of the running season.
*UPDATE, 18 January*
As can be seen above, Melvyn Frohnsdorff has kindly provided two further photos of Camelot last week - since then, the ashpan has been partially removed and the valve boring gear setup.
Service trains on the Bluebell Railway will return on 10 Feb, 2024 to allow for essential engineering work to take place.
More information can be found on the Railway's web site:
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/today-at-bluebell-railway/
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/timetables-and-calendar/
https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pti/index.html (The Bluebell Blog, Public Train Information)
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/locomotive-roster/
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/special-events/
Sales Stand at Sheffield Park. Photo, DEREK HAYWARD, 2017.
18 Nov, 2023
Doncaster Model Railway Exhibition
The next Sales Stand event will be at this exhibition, in February, 2024.