North Bay Railway Engineering Services, based in Darlington, has confirmed that progress is being made on Blickling Hall for the Bure Valley Railway.
The reason for the new boiler was due to inspections by the BVR finding that the condition of the boiler to be in need of replacement.
No. 6 is one of two locomotives requiring work, the other being No. 7 ‘Spitfire' which is needing a new boiler, and an urgent appeal was launched in January 2021.
Recent progress on the work has seen the boiler lowered into the frames and the cab being fitted.
This work will mean that the Bure Valley Railway will have enough locomotives to operate a service in the Summer (Covid restrictions pending).
Once Blickling Hall is complete, No. 6 will return to Aylsham, whilst No. 7 will make the journey to Darlington for its boiler to be replaced.
Andrew Barnes, Managing Director of the Bure Valley Railway, told RailAdvent “David and the NBR Engineering team have done a great job. We worked very closely with them at the design stage to ensure the new boiler fitted and washout plugs etc. aligned with the cut outs in the frames. They were a pleasure to work with through the design and build phase and now in the fitting phase. Everything has run to budget and schedule, and we look forward to seeing No.6 back at Aylsham next month, and No.7 will make the trip north to Darlington to have her new boiler fitted.”
If you would like to donate to the appeal, please visit the Bure Valley Railway Go Fund Me Page.
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Bure Valley Railway
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This line never stops moaning and begging. Not long ago a senior person there complained on social media that the lines that were awarded funds for the COVID problems were “poorly run”. Now they’re claiming that they don’t have the money for basic, essential maintenance of their steam fleet.
If they can’t afford to keep running, perhaps they need to hand the keys back to their landlord so that they can look for someone more capable to take over. Certainly, with their history and as they seem to be admitting that they are unable to keep up with maintenance, I hope for the sake of the wider movement that the ORR will be watching them very carefully.
Ugh….minimum gauge.
However, i do hope i’ll warm up to mini railways someday.