News, 6 July 2026

A word about easyfundraising - plenty of similar groups use it because it's easy....clicking the link below will take you to their website where you can see more about it than I can tell you here.

Pretty much anything you buy online can be bought via a link on their website (and, if you want it, embedded onto your browser too) and we get money from the retailer simply by you buying things. It doesn't cost you anything, it makes no difference to the cost of the goods and we benefit.

Also, you can now link debit and credit cards (including phone based payments) so that the retailer will automatically donate to us as you buy, including purchases made 'on the High St'.

It's simple, it costs you nothing and we get the benefits - thanks.

Other stuff

There's nothing particularly visual happening at the moment. The two photos below show the hand (parking) brake indicator from both cabs. The modification to one of them is interesting. It's very easy to criticise 'BR' for their maintenance practices but most of the criticism comes from the comfort of an armchair behind the shield of the screen...

Clearly the handbrake indicator wasn't working as it should and quick action needed to be taken to release the loco off repairs or an exam. Access to the handbrake lead screw (under the cab floor, where the linkage is for the indicator) is a pain and access to the indicator plate in the nose end is difficult at best. In this instance a paint pen and some hand written words was perfectly effective and allowed the loco to complete the remains of its working life.

We'll repaint both of these indicators anyway, this being necessary because of the reversed direction of operation of the parking brake lead screw in its modified form.

A couple of weeks ago we showed a perfect demonstration of Cardboard-Aided Design (CAD) in the manufacture of sandboxes and this week we see a perfect demonstration of a String Computer. Most of the loco is drawn in (proper) CAD now but there are times when it's just easier to use a piece of string to calculate the length of cables. This is one of those times, the string in this photo emerges from the top of the control cubicle and runs (unseen in the photo) to the Main Generator. With cable for this run costing nearly £100 per metre it's important than ever to get the lengths accurate.