No. 1 Alan Bloom maintenance

Boiler separated from chassis

Every five or so years, Bressingham-built No. 1 Alan Bloom requires a bottom end refit, so this year's maintenance job is rather more substantial than usual — wheel re-profiling, valves and valve gear, slide bars, bushings, some shimming and whatever else turns up.

New two-foot carriages

Back at the end of August, Phil was fixing together the framework that will form the main structure of the new carriages. Even though I try to follow these projects, there are inevitably times when I'm not in or simply run out of time, so here I find that the carriages have been completely assembled and painted. I've also discovered that they are going to be the open type, meaning that Bressingham will now have three open and three closed carriages to run on the Nursery Line.

Framework assembled and painted

Roof support

John (the one that I met on my very first day) has been busy making the roof supports — they have to be cut to an exact profile so that the roof will fit snugly.

From the outside

Spars for the seats

The first three photographs were taken two weeks ago, in that time all the spars that form the seats have been cut to length and positioned awaiting fixing and John's working on the wooden steps that need cutting to profile as well.

Apologies for the poorer quality of the first three photographs, but with horrid difficult lighting, my tripod back in the car and the shed about to be locked up for the night it was a case of grabbing what I could.