The increasingly stripped 34081 '92 Squadron' was on display at the NVR steam gala weekend of 11th/12th September. The Battle of Britain Locomotive Society have clearly made great progress so far and I wish them good fortune and every success with this overhaul.
The LMS steam crane had also been pulled out of the shed - it can't be too far from completion of its extensive overhaul:
Meanwhile, one of our intrepid volunteers, Andy, continues his work renovating another platform trolley (his most recent trolley restorations were featured in the early days of this blog and can be found somewhere in the earliest archives on the right of this page). Like the other trolleys, he is building a completely new replica timber body to replace the well-rotted original, using the salvaged and repaired metalwork. The three trolleys completed so far (one LNWR grey, one LMS red and one GPO red) can be viewed on the platforms at Wansford. It looks like this one, seen here on its side as it undergoes construction, will have raised end rails:
Finally, while on the subject of replica timber bodies being built from scratch, another of our volunteers, Tim (and various helpers) have made fantastic progress with his BR 20 ton brake van No.B953944. A new replica body is being built on what was, until fairly recently, an unloved empty chassis that would probably have got the chop eventually. His Fotopic site here and this (very out of date) page here give further details on the history and restoration of this former 'no hoper'. This was the view a few weeks ago, on 6th September 2010:
That's it for now, hopefully I will visit again in a matter of days!
