RPSI Home - Steam Train Dates - Online Shop - Website Contents - About Us Whitehead Works Photo News If you had been down at Whitehead on the 6th March 2004, YOU could have been enjoying the reward and satisfaction of helping with: In the Carriage Shed, Alan is removing any paint accidentally put onto the glass of the windows of our Mark II carriages.  Alan has been heavily involved in the Carriage department for a number of years and has had the pleasure of watching and actively helping their restoration to first class condition. The Carriage Shed is positively buzzing with volunteers at the minute (a number of them new or newly returned).  Most are working hard to prepare the carriages for the operating season (starting at Easter).  At the back right a team are being competence assessed to carry out engineering examinations of the carriages. Over in the Loco Running Shed, comissioning of No.186 continues.  Brian was cleaning up 186's tender axleboxes.  Here he is collecting the axlebox caps for turning.  He then takes them... ...across to the lathe.  Here he is setting them up in the chuck in preparation to tidying off any sharp edges. "Who designed this thing?" seems to be an ever popular question in the Loco Dept!!  Here 186's cab platework is being secured in place. Out the back of the Loco Workshop, Eddie is getting on with the essential job of cleaning loco parts.  These are bits of the brake gear of No.461, which is undergoing overhaul at the moment.  I wonder who is going to steam clean his glasses afterwards?! Nope, this photo is not the wrong way round!  James (a relatively new and very able younger volunteer) is assisting in the re-fitting of boiler washout plugs in No.85.  Here, he is sitting in the locomotives smokebox.  You can see the small tubes behind his head, above him are the superheater elements and the large pipe covered in front of him is one half of the locomotives blastpipe (with blower ring coming in across the top of the shot). In order to help James, it was decided to manufacture a new washout plug spanner.  Here, Peter and Charles are using the milling machine to create a mould the same shape as a washout plug. This close up shows the square shape that the spanner end has to fit over.  The washout plugs allow any dirt that might build up in the locomotive boiler to be washed out periodically.  This is an important safety feature and ensures continued locomotive performance. Once we've made our mould plug, we heat up the piece of metal we want to make into the spanner until it's red hot and then...  ...squash our mould into the red hot metal using the heavy hammer.  Afterwards, it's a fairly simple job to knock the new spanner head off the mould and leave us with... ...a new spanner head.  This shot shows a washout plug in the background on the side of No.85.  Being able to make our own tools like this is a valuable way of saving time and money. I hope this has given you a fun insight into a typical day volunteering at Whitehead. Why aren't you enjoying life with us?? Click on the RPSI logo (above) to go to the RPSI Homepage