Class 90 locomotive naming ceremony

NXEA Class 90 locomotive named after Bressingham

As part of a programme of events to celebrate Bressingham's Fiftieth Anniversary, National Express East Anglia (NXEA) agreed to name one of their Class 90 electric locomotives used on the London to Norwich line Bressingham Steam & Gardens.

I received my invitation about four weeks ago and was quite surprised — I already knew that the ceremony was taking place in June, but didn't think for one moment that I would be a part of it. I felt very privileged to have been invited and it was with great alacrity that I accepted and I've been anxiously counting down the days for the past four weeks.

St Christopher, George Sholto, Gallopers and Teddy Bears

St Christopher in steam

Although today's visit was family time, I used some in between time to catch up on some of the things that have been happening over the past few weeks. Since I do not attend regularly like a lot of volunteers I have to make the most of my visits.

With St Christopher passing its boiler test a couple of weeks ago, this was its second weekend of running, and an opportunity to write the remaining blog entry chronicling its entry into service.

St Christopher locomotive progress

Whilst at this year's Dad's Army Day, I took the opportunity to check out the progress being made on St Christopher and was rather surprised to find it in pieces!

The boiler has been bead blasted to thoroughly clean it out, and Phil is making changes to the braking system so that it's compatible with the air braking system used on the Waveney carriages.

Boiler cleaned and painted

Cab and saddle tanks

Meanwhile Chris and Adam have made splendid progress on the platform, and are hoping that the workshop can temporarily pop the cab back onto the chassis so they can check clearances, then whilst they make the track and platform adjustments the workshop can get the locomotive finished.

Waveney platform work coming along well

Once thing for certain is that the white post on the left will have to be moved otherwise St Christopher will not even get as far as the platform!

Fingers crossed St Christopher should be in service for the bank holiday weekend at the end of May — it will certainly be nice to have the Waveney Valley line back in operation.

All Change - Preparations for St Christopher locomotive

Exmoor St Christopher

With no Rosenkavalier, the Waveney Valley Line has been out of action for the past few weeks. Now that a new 15″ locomotive St Christopher has arrived service should be shortly reinstated — once the platform and some minor locomotive works have been completed. My task today is to help Chris and Adam get the platform ready so that St Christopher can be running as soon as possible.

Royal Coaches and Gallopers (what no trackwork?)

Camera setup for shooting VR

Today's objective was very well-defined: to photograph inside the rooms of both royal coaches in order to create a virtual reality (VR) tour. I have been trying to squeeze the odd room in for the past few weeks but always seemed to run out of time, especially since the locomotive sheds are locked when the workshop finishes for the day.

Of course, I also managed to catch up with the latest on the horse repairs, and a couple of other things.