When 14A came into the workshops for its last exam late in 2015, it was noted that one of the lens rings joining the main steam pipe from the header to the cylinder block was leaking. This is a recurring issue with all our Na locomotives due to the lifetime of moisture induced corrosion, and…

There’s been some good progress since this project was first introduced. All the laser cut plates have now been welded together, the progress of which can be seen in the following photographs. The last plate to go in was the bolster lower closing plate, after the internal gussets were fitted. Above you can see a…

     It might look to the untrained eye as if work on the Garratt had pretty much come to a halt once the boiler was in place. As with all projects like this, there are periods of rapid and obvious progress, and times when it appears that nothing is happening at all.  In the…

If there are any recurring themes running through this Blog, one of the foremost will most certainly be the number of repetitive, labour intensive tasks required to keep our century old locomotives and rolling stock in traffic. One of the most time consuming is the white-metalling of axleboxes and side rod bearings. Similar to crankshaft…

With “coincidentally” overlapping trips to the UK planned for June 2015, myself and David Clowes, Puffing Billy’s Maintenance Engineer, decided to make the most of the opportunity and planned a week visiting some of the better heritage railways within Wales and the West Midlands. The aim was to carry out a little research while we…

The workshops at Puffing Billy have carried out all kinds of jobs over the years, on a variety of scales, but ‘Tywyn’ probably rates as one of the smallest locomotives. With a theme based loosely on locomotives of the Talyllyn Railway in North Wales, ‘Tywyn’ belonged to the late Norm Wadeson, Norm had been a…

All the suspension components are now complete, and most have now been trial assembled on the engine units (above and below). This has been a useful exercise to prove everything fits together…..or doesn’t in one particular case! It has also demonstrated that, despite the size of these locomotives, there is surprisingly little room to work,…

Another milestone for the restoration of Puffing Billy’s NG/G16 Garratt was reached early in November when the new boiler was lowered into the boiler cradle for the first time. Following completion of the foundation ring drilling and manufacture of the cladding crinolines, the boiler is carefully slung, lifted from its support stand and positioned above…

First patented by Englishman Samson Fox in 1893, the Fox style bogie carried virtually all the rolling stock on the Victorian Railways 4 narrow gauge lines from construction to demolition. This continues at Puffing Billy today, with only one carriage using a design not covered by the Fox patent. With a design which dates back…

  One of the many constant challenges for the workshop staff at Belgrave is being able to create and maintain an air tight seal around the smokebox door. A poor seal which allows an ingress of air will cause the vacuum created by the action of the exhaust steam to be destroyed, thereby eliminating the…