Saturday 5th July was another productive day.

On the working party front, Jonny Johnson definitely ‘took one for the team’ by spending around 6 hours inside the firebox (on what was a hot summer’s day), cutting the ends of the tubes with the oxy-propane, in readiness for their removal. This process involves burning off the beading and then using a chisel to collapse the ends so that the water and steam-tight interface between the tube and the tubeplate is broken.

Meanwhile, Jim Bailey continued the slow and fiddly job of removing the bolts which hold the top half of the cab to the lower half. This will allow the top half to be lifted, so that eventually the boiler can also be lifted out of the frames.

On the sales stand, Steve Andrews and Eric Oates did some healthy business selling ‘swag’ – this pulled in over £200 so thank you, as ever, to everyone that has donated items for sale.

Finally, Dave Horton was on hand to talk to the public, explain the history and relevance of B1s to the Great Central, what work was required to get the loco working again, and to describe how steam engines work.

Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July was the GCR’s Railway 200 open weekend, and saw steam trains operating from Ruddington down to Rushcliffe Halt for the first time since 2019, hauled by Andrew Barclay “Carron No. 14”.