Older news

	24/3/2003: Station cat Sulzer has been busy restoring Barclay 0-6-0T "Harlaxton" in her spare time....
....inside Harlaxton's smokebox all fittings have been removed and Steve Pegg and Ken Joy have begun removing the old tubes. Two tubes ready for removal can be seen on the right.

18/3/03

Lots of work been happening recently. The track relay at Arrat is virtually complete save for lining and ballasting, and Harlaxton's overhaul has begun. The boiler is now just about ready to be lifted out of the frames, but we can't do that until the track relay is finished so the crane can get to Brechin!

Dave Lawson has emailed this picture of the Bridge of Dun new building, showing the nice new sign which adorns the Montrose end of it.

06/3/2003

The boiler inspector has made his annual visit today, examining our steam loco boilers for insurance purposes. The 0-4-0 Barclay has passed (subject to steam test), and the inspector also had a good look at 'Harlaxton' to see what work will be needed for its ten-year overhaul - a steam loco must be stripped down every ten years an overhauled to comply with insurance regulations. His verdict was that Harlaxton's boiler is in good condition, so we can must now strip it of tubes for a full inspection before we can put new tubes in. Any offers of help to CME Steve Pegg, please! The boiler inspector also gave the boiler of 0-6-0ST Peckett no. 2153 the once-over, and tells us that its boiler  is also in quite good shape. Roll on three working steam locos!

No site updates over the next week or so due to staff holidays.

01/3/2003

Steve Pegg and Graeme Fullerton have been busy washing out the steam engine boilers today. This process removes any silt or scale which has accumulated in the boiler since the last washout - although Brechin's superior water quality means there is often little to wash out!

	01/3/2003:  Graeme Fullerton (right) running for cover, while Steve Pegg threatens him with a hose!
Both steam engines are washed out, the 0-4-0ST (closest camera) for its annual insurance inspection, and 'Harlaxton' (furthest away) as a preliminary to the insurance inspector deciding what work is needed for its ten-yearly overhaul. This overhaul should start in a couple of weeks.....
	....and inside Harlaxton's smokebox there evidence of recent tube removal, visible where the tubeplate has been cleaned. The removal of these tubes allows the boiler inspector to view the interior of the boiler barrel.

20/2/2003

The group who own the Swindon-built Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) formerly based at the Caledonian Railway have recently updated their website. Follow this link to get to their gallery pages where a number of interesting photographs showing the DMU at our railway in the 1980s have recently been uploaded.

	16/2/2003: New sleepers being craned off a lorry at Bridge of Dun and onto a 'warflat' wagon for transporting to the worksite......
...where the crane is positioned to offload sleepers for use refurbishing the track panels in the foreground. It is obviously low on diesel, and Steve and Ken are taking supplies from the class 27's fuel tank!

14/02/2003

Our engineering director Steve Pegg has been preparing the steam engines for inspection. All the firebars (the grate in the firebox) from Harlaxton and the small Barclay were removed by Blair Winton as he's the only one small enough to fit through the firehole! The washout plugs, mudhole doors and safety valves were then removed by Tommy Anderson and Steve before the ashpan was dropped from the small Barclay to allow 'larger persons' access into the firebox. 'Harlaxton' only needs the back of the ashpan removed to allow this.

The small Barclay is due its annual inspection by the boiler inspector, while Harlaxton's ten year boiler certificate is now expired. This means we need to remove the boiler from the loco chassis, strip it down for inspection and then re-tube it - which will take at least 5 months. We need more help on these tasks and there are plenty of unskilled jobs - if you consider messing around with steam engines to be a better activity than slumping in front of the telly, appear at Brechin shed on Thursday evenings or any time on Saturday....

Meanwhile work continues quietly on the 'big Peckett' (0-6-0ST no. 2153), whose eccentric straps have now been refitted to the axles following polishing. The diesel department have also been carrying out vital tasks, examining the Ruston 48hp to assess work needed to repair the final drive and also fitting a hotplate to class 26 D5314! 

The pway gang must have been on overtime last weekend, scouring the trackbed at Arrat on Saturday with a JCB, in preparation for 14 newly-refurbished 32' panels to go back down. On Sunday they were carrying out further work to these panels, in advance of new sleepers arriving which will enable completion.  

4/02/2003     

Bitterly cold weather and snow has hampered work this week, but a sunny Saturday saw the diesel department transfer their large collection of spares from the VDA van (which has been sold) to a land-based shed! On Sunday the pway gang finished half the panels of the current relay, craned the finished panels onto a flat wagon and replaced them with the next 7 panels. More brand new sleepers should arrive this week. In the steam department, "Harlaxton" will shortly be withdrawn for its ten-yearly overhaul. This should not be too arduous as the loco has done comparatively little work since she was last overhauled.

Extremely good news was received this week in the form of a £10,000 donation towards the cost of the Nairn Goods Shed project. This means we now have sufficient capital to employ contractors to dismantle the timber-built Highland Railway Goods Shed at Nairn, transport it to Bridge of Dun and re-erect it there.  

28/01/2003

New year, new track relay - four and a half panels (63 sleepers changed, 126 chairs cleaned, 378 ferrules replaced!) were completed by the pway gang on Sunday. At Brechin, Mike Jackson has been working extremely hard re-pointing the walls in the new shower room, while the empty part of the station (the 1848-built Park Road wing) has now been cleared out in readyness for work to begin on the cafe and stationmaster's flat projects. In turn, this has entailed a thorough tidy-up of the railway's large stores building (the 'North Eastern Farmers Shed') so all the spare coach seats could fit in the top floor.

21/01/2003

The pway gang spent Sunday tidying the 'relay area' at Bridge of Dun, craning all the old sleepers from the last relay onto a spare flat wagon. These sleepers are now offered for sale individually for gardening projects etc. Contact us for more information! The coach gang was again in full swing at Dun with reupholstering and continued brake and buckeye coupling tests taking place.

At Brechin, the North Eastern Farmers Store is beginning to be reorganised in advance of all the artefacts in the lower part of the Station (empty wing) being moved there. This move will enable work to begin erecting columns and laying concrete to reinstate the station master's flat which formerly occupied the first floor - at present this building is a large empty shell.

In the shed at Brechin, Blair and Kenny have been completing the cabs of their type 2 diesel no. 25083, and Steve Pegg has been busy working on refitting the eccentric straps to Peckett 0-6-0ST no. 2153.

14/01/2003

A full house of volunteers at Bridge of Dun this Sunday - the pway gang lifted the 14 panels of track near Arrat Crossing ready for the next re-lay. Meanwhile the coach department were in full swing doing the annual brake tests and buckeye coupling exams on all the serviceable coaches, utilizing the class 08 diesel, while the rest of the coach department began work on reupholstering the remaining half of their pet Mark 1 coach, TSO no. 4676.

I have finally figured out how our digital camera works, and can belatedly show you some pictures of the excellent BRPS Christmas meal, which was held on 20th December:

Above: Left to right: Andrew Kennedy, Blair Winton, Steve Pegg, Pat Pegg, Simon Hickman, Ken Joy, Dougal Watson, Maria, Frazer Kiddie, Graeme Muir, Mike Watson, Eleanor Watson, David Crabb, Brian Thomson, Mike Brown, Chris Milligan, Dave Muirhead, Mike Jackson, Bob Smith and Andy Dulley.	Above: Would you trust this man with your   type two diesels?

04/01/2003

Happy new year to all supporters of the Caledonian Railway. We look forward to seeing you at the railway, whether working or visiting, in 2003!

The pway gang have been extremely busy during the festive period, and during the course of a boxing day to new year 'work week' constructed a new siding area at Bridge of Dun. This has been achieved by extending the existing sidings at 'Strathmore Junction' further towards Brechin alongside the running line. The addition of a bufferstop has completed the siding closest to the river, while the second siding can now be extended further towards with other lines fanning off it, as time allows. Never ones to rest on their laurels, tree cutting and embankment gardening in preparation for the next track relay from Magdalen Chapel to Arrat crossing starts tomorrow (Sunday).

A big thanks to all those who made the Santa Specials such a success. Exact figures will not be known until Tuesday's board meeting, but it is safe to say that 2002's Santa trains broke all records....again!

2002 news