It has been a busy first quarter in 2025, for the Awake the Giant team who are working on overhauling BR 9F 2-10-0 No. 92240, following on from their last update.

At present, the front end of the loco resides in the milk dock, exposed to the elements at Sheffield Park, whilst its BR1C tender remains in the maintenance shed, with work on its overhaul coming along nicely.

January Progress

Since New Year’s Day 2025, work has continued at pace on the tender. Despite the sub-zero temperatures experienced in January, a handful of working days were held.

Keith cleaned the axle boxes and made new gaskets for each of the boxes. Martin and Howard worked on prepping the drag box and removed the remains of rivets which were holding the footpads on top of the buffer sleeves on the rear buffer beam.

Tom and Andy started to clean the drag box using paraffin and a range of scrapers to remove accumulated grease before cleaning the surfaces with white spirit.

Peter and Rick undertook to rub down to the undercoat paint on the tender tank sides with wet and dry emery cloth to create a key for the next coat of paint and to remove any high spots.

Father and son team Duncan and Simon continued cleaning the frames and the brake rigging ready to remove the latter at a later date.

In late January, an inspector visited the railway to undertake Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) on several of the railway’s locomotives. While he was there, he also ultrasonically tested the three axles on the 9F tender, which has passed all the tests.

February Progress

As February arrived, work consisted of degreasing, scrapping and wire brushing the inner sections of the drag box before adding a coat of primer.

The middle sections proved very tricky and required needle gunning.

With large surfaces to cover, the wet and dry rubbing down continued, whilst Martin and John worked on the back of the tender, attending to some metal work and applying coats of primer.

Duncan and Simon continued underneath working on the fiddlier areas including the corners and working around the brake gear.

At the end of February, the team had a painting demonstration with one of the Bluebell Railways paint experts, Lewis Nodes.

Some of the volunteers in the Awake the Giant Group team are new comers to the world of Heritage Railways so the opportunity was taken for them to learn how to mix and apply the paint to give the correct finish, and the best way to apply the top coats and varnish which will be used later on in the restoration.

March Progress

As the weather began to warm up, painting the water space inside the tender tank continued with Mark and Phil.

The two-part epoxy-resin paints need to be applied within 24 hours of each other to give a long-lasting finish which protects the metal work from rust and extends the life of the tender water tank. At the time of writing the tender water space is 75% complete and is looking exceptionally bright inside the tank.

Howard removed the old dirty grease from the axle boxes replacing it with clean before adding the new gaskets and refitting the axel box covers, while Martin got to work welding the beading along the top edge of the coal space which had split due to rust forming in the gap when the tender was stored outside for six years prior to overhaul.

Tom has also continued with sourcing material for the 92240 archive, while David and John S have sourced a new information display and created a poster with information about fundraising for the locomotives’ restoration.