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May 2026 Update and Working Party Report
We held our May working party over the weekend of the 16th & 17th May. A good few of us there and a good number of jobs continued and or completed. Wost of these were simple, and perhaps mundane tasks such as providing a second securing clip for the long slacker pipe lance for cleaning the ashpan out as well as altering one of the lances to prevent ever enthusiastic use projecting water into one of the axle box oil pots through the ashpan rear air vent! All lessons and improvements learnt from the initial use of the loco.
We also did things like cleaning the tube for the water gauge in the cab as this was having a habit of sticking in places. The gauge is simply a pipe with a weighted float in it that's attached to the mechanism to drive the dial in the cab. We think there was debris in the tube that was causing the float to stick.
We also did a repair to the ashpan as this was warping where the air vents were. We sealed up some of these as we felt sufficient air was entering through the rocker grate hatch in the ashpan rear.
The main job for the weekend however, was to start the process of fitting the cab doors. We had all the laser cut parts available for the doors and their attachment so we started to work on the fitting of the hinges and of getting the the door handles etc ready. We still need to weld together and paint the door themselves.
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A 'kit of parts' ready to fabricate the two cab doors (left) and
a cab door handle after finishing and polishing (right).
A lot of this work was to ready 134 for its first full line round passenger trip from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. This was to take place on the 22nd May and was for the supporters and volunteers involved with the restoration after which the loco entered full service as part of the railway's rostered loco fleet. There's more about this on the Latest New page.
April 2026 Update and Working Party Report
What, you may ask - no March report?! Well, yes we did have a working party in March, however, it was dedicated solely to the sorting out of our old workshop and stores. This involved a lot of clearing out of bits and pieces, components etc, that we've now accepted are beyond practical or economic repair, or have already been replaced. However, there are still many components that could still be of use as spares, or dare I say for No.133(!), and these will be kept in a container unit that is being provided to us for that purpose.
Moving onto April, there were just three of us there with the main jobs being the addition of some of those little 'nice to haves', the odd bit of maintenance and some finishing off of other jobs.
On the nice to haves, we've now somewhere to keep the fireman's shovel, and for somewhere to keep the long lance for washing the ashpan out. We also fitted a German made document and notices holder for the driver. It'll be used for things like holding the working timetable for the run or for special notices issued by Control.
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The long lance in its new
home (left) and
somewhere to keep the shovel (right).
We'd recently modified one of the rear sander nozzles so as it gives more of a fan shaped spread of sand at the wheel tread to rail head interface. This it to allow for the rear pony trucks lateral movement especially on curved track. With one fitted and tested on the fireman's side, the other nozzle for the driver's side's was prepared ready for fitting. We'll need to move the loco onto the pit for this and unfortunately we couldn't do that this weekend as the full time staff had been doing some work on a pony truck bearing and the loco was 'not to be moved'.
There were a few maintenance jobs done, such as attending to the ratchet for the steam brake's handle that was annoying starting to slip. Also fitted was a protector plate for the vulnerable bottom half of the firehole door.
We have a tender water level gauge in the cab at the fron of the tender and we'd been having problems with water getting into the gauge itself. In the hope of alleviating this we've now provided a breather pipe to the gauge column.
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The water gauge column breather pipe
One last otem to mention is that we went through the recently received 'kit of parts' to make our cab doors from. A couple of pieces missing but this should be ready for welding and painting shortly.
So that's about it - only three of us but a useful weekend was had.
February 2026 Update and Working Party Report
Another month and another working party. We're still at the stage of dealing with many of the winter work jobs and tidying up the loose ends from the experience of running the loco during the summer.
In the cab the rear protection windows have been painted by Ben one of our local guys (and a driver) and these were duly fitted by our other local Ben who had been 3D printing the mounting brackets required for them. This just leaves the lower folding half to the fireman's side protection plate to be fitted. This will be a folding arrangement that can be moved out of the way when firing.
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The fireman's side window in the down position.
Following
the alteration
to the front brake hangers at the last couple of working parties, Erle
duly fitted the brake shoes this month. He then continued on
refurbishing the hard grease pump. We'd found during the year of using
it that it was very tired and in need of some TLC. The main problem were
some
retaining screws for the piston were very worn and not holding the
piston correctly. Once these had been replaced we realized that the
piston itself was very badly worn and so a replacement
was made
this month.
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A new piston being made
for the grease pump (left) and
the completed ashpan drench cold water input and
valve (right).
One of the additions we'd decided to make following the year of running, and one that has been mentioned before and started in previous working parties, is that of adding and external water feed to the ashpan drench so as it can be cleaned out whilst the loco is not in steam. This was duly finished this month and so a standard hose claw fitting and control valve are now fitted.
We re-attached the pipework for the rear sanders as this had been removed whilst we investigated where (rain) water was getting into the sand system. Hopefully all should now be well and working correctly for next year.
Two last items to mention with the first being that of the cab seats. The frame and swivel for the seat top had been fitted at previous working parties however, as the padded seats we needed are still some time off we've fitted a couple of wooden seat tops as in interim measure.
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The fireman's side seat with its new (temporary) seat top in the folded down position.
The second is the boiler. Whilst we've had and passed the cold inspection and hydraulic test the steam test was due on the Wednesday following the working party and we're glad to report that we've passed this as well.
January 2026 Update and Working Party Report
Whilst people had been working on №134 on odd days at the beginning of the year, for the bulk of us we started with the main working party on the 17th & 18th January. And a good attendance it was as well.
One of the main tasks was to get all the washout plugs back in place following the loco's passing of its annual winter boiler exam. Before doing so however, and following a request from the boiler inspector, we also removed some more of the historic water treatment scale and debris that had fallen onto into the foundation ring.
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The washout plugs have
been refitted (left) and
new brake shoes waiting to be fitted following modification to the
hangers (right). The old unevenly worn shoes are furthest from
the camera.
The rest of the tasks really centred around the outstanding jobs and modifications needed following the initial trial running of the loco in 2025. The more complex of these was the realignment of the brake shoes for the Krauss-Helmholtz front driving axle. Whilst the rearmost brake shoes on the 3rd driving wheel were tolerant to the slightly altered gauge for running on the Welsh Highland Railway, those on the front axle with its sideways play for the Krauss-Helmholtz arrangement were not! There had been quite a bit of uneven wear so the decision was made to realign the hangers back to their designed position in relation to the wheel's tyre.
An ongoing job was that of the fitting of the rear cab windows. This follows on from the fitting of the side windows at the end of last year and should give much more protection during the bouts of less pleasant Welsh weather! With the rear windows now fitting as required they were then removed for painting.
We'd been fitting a water input to the drench system so as a water input hose could be used for cleaning out the ashpan when the loco is not in steam. This was progressed a bit more this weekend, however we were an adapter fitting short to be able to fully complete the job. A blanking plug was therefore made to cover the future water input so as the loco could still be steamed. Another mod being done was that to the rear sanders. After seeing how these performed during the summer a couple of changes/improvements have been made.
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The rear and side cab windown in place.
When we arrived on the Saturday we were greated by a shed full of locos, three NGG16 Garratts and our NG15 №134. The Garratts were №s 87, 130 and 143. On Sunday however, NGG16 №138 put in an apperance, however as the full sized version is currently being overhauled this was in the form of David Oates's 16mm coal fired model!
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Four NGG16s and one NG15!
Working party reports for other years going back to 2008 can be found in the Archive