MEMBERS MONTHLY BULLETIN, MARCH 2021

ENGINEERING 

At West Shed, work has been reduced with our agreement to allow essential maintenance work to take place on PRCLT’s 6233. However, a start has been made on new fittings for the cylinder covers.  Active dialogue also continued with Riley and Son over the re-assembly of one wheelset after the weld repairs.  Because of the pandemic, it has not yet been possible to follow-up with the South African manufacturer over delivery of the replacement axle material for the second wheelset.  

HBSS have continued to tool stays on the boiler.  Leaky Finders have fitted the intermediate buffer housing and the rear drag box top plate for the tender: the rear buffer beam has also been trial fitted successfully.

Discussions have started with our three principal contractors on the work needed to complete the locomotive and the dependencies.  The tasks have now been identified and will be worked into a programme. 

VOLUNTEER HELP

Big thanks go to those of our members who are supporting us with administration tasks. With their help we have got going with sorting out our digital documentation; and we have also received useful tips and suggestions on storing and accessing our documentation for the future, as we all work from home.  

FINANCE

Our Bank charges have crept into 4 figures this year. This isn’t helped by our bankers, CAF, increasing the monthly fees for cheque handling.  We are now charged as follows (the previous charges are in brackets):

Issuing a cheque -£0.50 (£0.00):

Paying in cheques - £0.60 per cheque (£0.40).  

Paying in cheques – Free allowance of 20 cheques (50 cheques);

When we exceed the free allowance, we are charged for all cheques paid in, not just those in excess.

These changes will be particularly significant when you return your raffle ticket stubs with cheque payments, so we would ask you to consider alternative ways of paying for your tickets. The cheapest way is a straight bank transfer (it’s free) but if you do not have online or telephone banking then payment can be made by card on our website or by ringing our temporary office number to make the payment, again by card.  If you can help us with this it would be appreciated.

SALES

At last, Spring is with us: but there is no sign yet of our regular sales stand activity being reinstated. Please do your best to support us via our on-line shop.  

LLANGOLLEN

After the last monthly bulletin, Members were advised that the Board decided unanimously to register a claim with the receiver appointed for the Llangollen railway on 1^st March. This was done (via the Llangollen Railway) on 5^th March.  We will report on how this process develops in these bulletins.