News and Current Projects

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June 2010

• The summer restoration and maintainance peroid is now in full swing. The boiler crew are hard at work cleaning out the tubes and flues of both boilers No 4 and 5.

• Each beam engine used to have a chain drive from the flywheel axle to a lineshaft on the outside of the building which drove the lime measurers in the lime shed. When the lime shed was demolished, the chains were removed and the lineshafts were "gas axed" on the outside of AB engine house. The lineshaft for C engine has been freed up and shortened. A chain has been fitted and the next job will be to reinstate the chain guard using details from our archive photographs.

• The process of fitting the mahogany cladding to D engine has started with the construction of the circular rings around each cylinder.

May 2010

• This month has been occupied with 3 steaming weekends - 2 bank holidays and a private steaming. The number of visitors at both bank holiday weekends were better than last year.

April 2010

• The Easter steaming went ahead as planned after everyone pulled the stops out and got the site ready in three days.

• The painting of the walls in CD is almost complete - just a couple of finishing touches to do. Most of the floor was also blacked in time for the Easter steaming. Here are two views of C engine. Photo1 Photo2

• The pale blue paint has now been stripped of the handrail stanchions in AB engine house. The driving floor stanchions have now been bolted down and most of the temporary scaffolding rails have been removed. The next job will be to make and fit the mesh infill panels.

• The boiler house is also receiving attention - the walls are being painted too.

• When Boiler 5 finished its 10 years service and No 4 took over the steam raising duties, the boiler crew started work on No 3 as the next restoration task. Unfortunately, a serious problem has been found in the firetubes. The boiler had been left full of water for several years and we believe this caused the corrugated sections to rust so badly that a chipping hammer has gone right through the tube in several places. The Trust has decided to abandon the restoration of this boiler and revert to No 5 when required.

March 2010

• Building repairs have been carried out this month by contractors commissioned by Severn Trent Water. Health & safety requirements meant that the Trust's volunteers were unable to work on the site at the same time as the contractors. Repairs have been carried out on the workshop, agitator and feed pumphouse roofs. Most of the windows and downpipes have been painted and sash cords on the opening windows have been replaced. The contractors vacated the site on schedule on 31^st March, leaving the Trust a tight schedule to prepare the site for the Easter steaming. Photo1 Photo2

February 2010

• The painting of the walls in CD is progressing. Here are two views of D engine. Photo1 Photo2

• Reconstructing the wheels for the pipe drug is continuing. This picture shows the new spokes fitted to the hub.

January 2010

• Our new year steaming was a very successful weekend, despite the rain on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a glorious day with plenty of visitors braving the elements. Running the outside engines in the cold weather produced this very atmospheric picture by Chris Williams.

• The Claymills beam engines have been chosen as one of Staffordshire's 10 objects for the BBC's "A History of the World" project. There will be a broadcast from the Potteries Museum, Stoke on 18^th February.

December 2009

Lots of activity to report on this month....

• Two decorating projects in CD engine house have made significant progress this month:

• Representatives from English Heritage have now agreed that the Trust can repaint the dado walls.
  Paint samples that were taken from the walls showed that the last layer of paint was a "dark cream" colour. A sample of wood taken from the bathroom revealed a dark cream colour that has never been exposed to daylight and is therefore the best sample which will not have faded. The sample was colour matched and a trial area was painted. This photo shows the walls behind D flywheel in undercoat.
• Our unique bathroom has been completely repainted. Photo1 Photo2 This area can only be visited on our "off-limits" tour and visitors must be accompanied by a guide. The bathroom was used by boiler cleaning crews after they had cleaned out the boiler flues. A gang of 3 men washed each others backs!! There also used to be a row of 4 cottages adjacent to the pumping station and only one cottage (the site foremans') had a bathroom, so we presume that the occupants of the other 3 also made use of the engine house bathroom.

• The hubs for the pipe drug are being turned on the long bed lathe as this is the only lathe that can turn work of this diameter. This picture shows an original on the left and the part machined new one on the right.

• The Trust has received grants to recover the missing handrails from AB engine house. The stanchions and railings were removed from AB and used in a building within the modern sewage treatment works next door. The Trust agreed with Severn Trent that the railings could be returned, provided that suitable replacements were installed to ensure the safety of ST's employees. The originals have now been recovered and work has commenced to remove the blue and white paint that had been applied.

• A new stand pipe has been installed on Boiler 4 which incorporates a tee into the 2" pipework system. This makes it much easier for the boiler crew during the warming up phase of bringing the site into steam. Boiler 5 had a 2" feed connected directly onto the boiler shell which was already installed when the Trust came on-site. When Boiler 4 replaced 5 as the working boiler, the facility was sorely missed, so rather than cutting a hole in the boiler shell, a new stand pipe was manufactured and hydraulic tested by Alton Engineering prior to installation and steam testing.

November 2009

• One of the ploughing engines that used to work on the sewage farm recently came up for sale. This is the engine that visited the site for the 15th anniversary in 2008. The owner gave the Trust an opportunity to purchase the engine, but we were unable to raise sufficient funds for a deposit and so it went to auction, where it was sold for £139,000 plus 5% buyers' premium.

October 2009

• The Trust is proud of its involvement with educating the younger generations - William Shrewsbury Primary School brought 85 students to learn about the Victorians. This year the station was in steam and they saw most of the engines actually running.
Others come to help and get mucky too!!

• The Trust was also visited by the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club and the yard was once again full of wonderful cars.

September 2009

• The Heritage Open Days weekend was a great success this year. It was in part helped by Claymills being listed as the first of "Five Top Tips" in The Times on 10^th of September.

• Getting up early in the morning to raise steam for a steaming weekend sometimes has its rewards. The recent spell of good weather provided a photographic opportunity that could not be missed.

• This news page has featured several cars & trains recently, so for a change, here's a motorbike.

August 2009

• The pipe drug is being reassembled now. In the foreground is the fore carriage (painted in undercoat) and in the background, it can be seen that the rear axle has also been reattached to the main chassis framework.

• The Rapidor machine hacksaw has been finish painted. After the addition of the belt guard, it will be ready for installation.

July 2009

• The cleaning of the entablature in CD engine house is progressing well, with two thirds of the sides complete.

• Make sure your saws are sharp.... This is the seasoned oak for the wheel hubs of the pipe drug being sawn into pieces ready for turning.

• Claymills in bloom. Despite our weather this summer, our gardeners have produced a great display near the site entrance.

News Archive

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003

Current Projects

The Railway Wagon

The Joiner's Shop

If any volunteers or visitors have any pictures that they wish to be added to our news page, please email them to webmaster@claymills.org.uk.

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