Tea Room Heater, from Water to Air...

On other boiler related items, this one purchased by your scribe a few years ago is not fit for returning to steam... so if its no good for producing hot water, it can at least  produce hot air! Therefore it has been fitted back together as a wood burner for the museum tea room to replace the problematic tortoise stove. It has had its fittings returned so will look like a steam boiler and fit in well with the surrounding equipment.

Roofing Completed

The builder has now completed the roof, all the connection details to the existing building have been completed and the wood work has been painted in Buckingham Green. The end gable was rendered to a bell cast and this has also been painted. The scaffolding was then removed. Work will now progress with windows and doors to get a fully water tight shell. A good site clear up will also be needed before we get back into steam in two weeks time. 

A start was also made on repairs to the bell tower on the existing exhibition hall roof. The steel frame was clad with bedroom cupboard louvers and these had rotted out years ago. The sides had then been clad in rough bits of plywood which had also rotted. All these bits have been stripped back, a new frame screwed to the steel frame and tanalised feather edge cladding fixed to that. Corner detailing was added and given a coat of primer. A new plywood roof clad in galvanised flat steel sheet will be completed in time and the wood work painted in Buckingham green.

Roofing

Things have progressed well with the facilities extension in the last week. Having purchased all the materials it was decided our volunteers lacked the time or physical strength to get the job done so the builder who put the block work up for us has been contracted to carry out the roofing. The pictures below show what three and half days of labour gets you! We had enough spare tiles for one side and had to purchase new tiles for the other. The three rooflights provide natural light and ventilation to the three toilets below, two public and one volunteer. Work left to do includes the flashings to the existing roof, finish ridge tiles, render the end gable. Our volunteers are going to carry out all the painting required before the scafold is removed in two weeks time. Guttering will then be put up, down pipes will be temporary until rendering is carried out later in the year. 

BBC Countryfile

Last Friday saw a pretty hectic day for the museum! Two weeks previous we were contacted by a producer of the Countryfile show to ask wether they could film the museum, conduct interviews and see it all running in steam. This in itself was not a problem and we would happily bend over backwards for an opportunity like that. However as previous posts have shown, the boiler was out of ticket, had no chimney and the site was in a state of winter maintenance clutter! 

So after some running around, some well timed volunteer effort and a last minute boiler inspection we were ready for filming. The boiler was steam tested on the Monday before the Friday filming and passed with flying colours. All seemed perfect, however...

Countryfile wanted to see the Easton Amos pump, on the Steam test at the beginning of the week this was no problem. On the Friday morning of filming, we also had just enough water to pump, however a few hours later the Environment Agency turned on a fourth pump next door and reduced the rhyne level down to the point where our pump was no longer in the water! On top of this by the time the boiler was up to full working pressure a leak developed on one of the mud hole doors. These leaks have a nasty habit of progressively getting worse. So as the film crew and presenter Ellie Harrison turned up we had a very leaky boiler and pump with no water to pump. Faces started looking a bit down...

A decision was made to run every steam item we had until the boiler pressure was reduced to nothing, a brave chief mechanical engineer went in to carefully tighten the mud hole door, and thankfully it sealed up. With a frantic throwing action the firebox was filled up with wood and pressure soon rose to 50psi again. We still didn't have any water for pumping though and after a quick phone call to some Environment Agency staff we know, we waited. Filming began around the Marshall boiler, the railway and filming other steam engines. Just as the crew wanted to begin filming the Easton Amos an EA engineer turned up and turned off two pumps for a short period in order to allow the rhyne level to rise just 6" enough for us to prime our pump!

So after an eventful start the day ended with a happy Countryfile team. The piece will be on your TV's within the programme on the 16th of March. Please let us know what you think! 

Chimneys

With the visual inspection of the boiler complete, a steam test is required. Since the original boiler chimney had to be removed due to a large amount of corrosion, the temporary aluminium one (a sheet rolled, pop riveted and slid down the inside of the cast chimney base) lasted a few steamings but eventually got damaged in the wind. So this Sunday saw temporary chimney number two erected. Made from a peice of donated 600mm spiral wound ducting, the original chimney flanges have been bolted on and the whole thing proped up. Let's hope that we don't see anymore of these storms! It actually looks quite good and might get a paint of black to help it blend in. Temporary at Westonzoyland normally means years! Report to come later on how it does in its test run.

Boiler Inspection

On Monday the Marshall Boiler received her annual inspection. This requires it to be drained down, all the mud holes and inspection plates to be removed as well as all the firebars and fusible plugs from the firebox. A good wash out is done to get rid of any sludge from the bottom. 

Having climbed into the firebox the inspector taps every stay with a hammer to hear if any have cracked. He looks in all the opened holes to check the general condition of stays, fire tubes and other structural components. After a quick cup of tea he gives it the all clear with only a couple of minor items to sort before the next test. Now that's done everything has to be put back together with new seals and tested for leaks. It will then be fired up for a steam test where the safety valves will be checked to ensure they blow off at the required pressure (50psi) and that the gauge is reading correctly, water sight gauges work etc. 

Winter Programme Update

With the rain still falling and the water level rising across large areas of the Somerset Levels our volunteers are still progressing with the projects in hand.

Having had a scrap skip delivered to the museum, this has now been filled to the brim and taken away. As part of the clear up operation some unused equipment was sold off, including two large Broom and Wade compressors. All these funds will be reinvested in new equipment. Our ride on lawn mower requires a new cutting deck, some areas of fencing need replacing and we have purchased a new compressor to start the Crossley Diesel engine. This compressor is single phase and has a max working pressure of 360psi. We only require 250 but means we won't be running it to its limit. All that is required now is to wire it in, get our 600psi tank tested and installed. After nearly two years out of action it should be seen running again in time for April.

With the high winds experienced again over the last week. A large area of brittle trees had fallen over so these have been cut down and turned into logs for the wood burner. Once the ground drys up further winter trimming will be progressed to get the place tidied up before the new season starts.

In order to begin steaming again the boiler needs its annual inspection and certification so the boiler was stripped down and washed out, inspection is imminent. Once visually inspected, it all gets put back together and a steam test is carried out in order to prove safety valve settings etc.

Whilst all this activity was happening, on the opposite side of the engine rhyne the Environment Agency and a private pump hire company were busy setting up two large diesel pumps. These are rated at 60 tonnes per minute each. Why they are putting them in is a 500 page book in itself so I won't go into it!