With many thanks to the Nene Valley Railway for inviting us, RRRG will be operating our sales stand at Wansford station during the the Winter Tornado gala this coming weekend (2nd and 3rd November). Any railway enthusiast must acknowledge the sheer achievement that the successful completion of 60163 Tornado represents and we are proud to help support the A1 Steam Trust as their locomotive stars in what should be a very good event.
We have recently taken delivery of a chip and PIN credit card terminal, allowing us to take credit card payments easily on the sales stand. This aplies not just to this event but to all future sales stand operations. We believe this flexibility in accepting payment, coupled with our keen prices, will make our stand even more appealing to our loyal customer base. We look forward to seeing many of you over the coming weekend.
After much hard work and development we are proud to announce the launch of the brand new RRRG website at http://www.renownrepulse.com.
We are now able to launch a proper new on-line presence and wanted to launch now so that our online shop is made available to you in time for the Christmas market! You can get as much as an additional 10% discount if you are a member of RRRG.
The site contains lots of information and photographs of the project. It will be constantly updated and grown as a site so please do check back regularly for updates, new pictures and more online shopping opportunities!
We will be happy to receive your feedback and comments on the new site and we will gladly incorporate the best suggestions into the design of the site. We look forward to your visit! Thank you to all RRRG fans for your support.
A small RRRG party consisting of Sarah McCall and Steve Tripp visited Booths today to pick the remains of 47829 and 37428. The pickings were unfortunately a bit thin as not much was left on these locomotives by the time they arrived at Booths. The RRRG volunteers recovered a number of resistors (these are needed for Renown and we're getting closer to completing a full set), some insulators, turbo gauges and two dismantled arc chutes (complete ones were missing but these parts will help us repair our damaged examples) which made the day excursion worth it. Well done to those who took the time to go along to Rotherham today.
No, RRRG has not dissolved and ceased to exist! Yes, things have been a bit quiet regarding posts here. The main reason is that we are working frantically behind the scenes on a brand new website which will eventually supplant this Wordpress site as our window to the world. Much effort is being devoted to this; in fact so much that we haven't had much time to update things here. A number of RRRG Committee members attended a meeting at Peak Rail on October 14th where we decided on various strategies for the future of the project and the way ahead. The fruits of this will become apparent in due course. I can also report a successful sales operation during the recent diesel gala season where thanks to a number of railways kindly inviting us we made some good money. I can also confirm that RRRG members will receive the next issue of the Group newsletter in early December.
So, yes, from the outside it looks very quiet in RRRG land. But there's a lot going on behind the scenes and in the words of Shaw Taylor: "Keep 'em peeled!" - there will be some exciting announcements in the near future.
Dave played with his new toy today, a 4-ton forklift truck, to help Ian & Pete remove one of the turbos and the intercoolers from the power unit in readiness for removing the camshafts. Chris Thorn continued sorting out airpipe runs and cleaning debris from the clean air room, and removing air pipes to allow the removal of the exhauster by the brake frame for overhaul, while his brother Tom continued working in No.1 cab. Mark Burrows covered the spare bogies with tarpaulins, Chris Bodell started cleaning the air pipes Chris was removing, while I finished wiring the auxiliary contacts on the no.3 field divert contactor.
While they are waiting for the next delivery of parts for the next four pistons, Ian, Pete & Dave removed the steel bars (stays) that provide extra support for the intercoolers and turbos at the free end of the power unit & started loosening bolts, hoses & connections on the one remaining turbo (the other already having been removed before we got the power unit from Crewe) and the intercoolers, as Ian has taken advice on the inlet/exhaust cams and has now decided it would be wise to change them for 'newer' ones. To allow the camshafts to be removed, the turbos & intercoolers require removal. Only the intercoolers are actually in the way, but they provide part of the support for the turbos, so both need removing. Chris continued working on fabricating various sections of pipework for the air & braking system, while I finished assembling, fitted and began wiring the aux contact block on the no.3 field divert contactor.
Ian & Pete fitted another piston to its conrod then fitted the piston & rod into the power unit, not so easy in the cold weather. Mark Burrows continued repairs to Renown's No.1 cab, after which he helped Ian & Pete put the new tarpaulin over the power unit & moved the old one into Repulse to cover her power unit as we have yet to repair the corroded central roof section. Chris Thorn, his brother & I continued sorting equipment in the coach, dismantled two more sections of pallet racking from the container, re-erected them in the coach & moved the equipment into the coach.
Pete & Ian attempted to refit the first of the large new shell bearing caps onto the piston conrod they inserted into the block last time using the traditional method of a piece of rope suspending the cap beneath the crank shaft to align it. However, even with much greater room with the power unit out of the loco, this proved difficult, so they devised a tool to aid them, which worked well & the cap was successfully mated to the conrod. No electrical work was undertaken as Chris T, Chris B, Tim & Dom & I amalgamated the items in the coach into 50 & non-50 parts & cleared one side of the coach for racking from the container. We then cleared one section of racking in the container, dismantled it & reassembled it in the coach & transferred the electrical parts into the coach. Tim & Dom also removed the rubbish mentioned last time from the coach into the PR skip.