Monday 27th March was the planned boiler lift for 2157. Unfortunately the crane broke down in the morning before leaving its base to get to us. After many hours of waiting around and assisting the steam department with various jobs, the cane appeared later in the afternoon.
First we assisted with lifting the boilers out of 5637 and TKH 'Spartan' whilst also repositioning the boiler from Manchester Ship Canal No.70. We then moved our loco into position so it could be lifted out of the frames and into its new position. We also lifted another Andrew Barclay boiler after we did ours, this was from 2354 which is also based at the railway and yes, we are already floating ideas about Barclay running days in the future featuring both 2354 and 2157!
We would like to thank the Steam department at the railway for their continuing help and support and we look forward to many more years of working together as a team.
We have now released our boiler appeal to raise funds for the overhaul! We expect this to be a very costly process with plenty of work to be undertaken before it steams again! All the help we can get will be appreciated.
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