Members Monthly Bulletin September 2022

Engineering

Over recent weeks management work on the planning and arrangement of important next steps for the chassis reassembly at West Shed has been unavoidably restricted by staff availability and unscheduled operations for 6233. However a West Shed team meeting this week agreed a set of actions, including progressing detailed arrangements for component testing with Boro Foundry and for wheelset assembly at South Devon Railway Engineering.  Arrangements for dragbox and rear cylinder cover replacement were also approved. 

We previously reported that machining of the new wheels was in progress: all the wheels have been fettled and inspected and sent to Cook’s Manchester premises for machining, however the foundry needs guidance on wheel configuration to complete the machining process: we plan a site visit next week for this purpose, and to inspect the work carried out and to agree delivery timescales. Meanwhile work is in progress at West Shed dismantling the original wheels and salvaging reusable components.

A new contract has been negotiated with PRCLT in place of the 2020 version, which expired earlier this year. The new contract reflects changes in the roles and responsibilities of the parties and in labour rates.

Our Project Director Keith Riches has relocated from Shropshire and is now living within easy reach of West Shed. This is now allowing much more frequent and regular contact and interworking with PRCLT, as a practical basis for improving our project management.

Finance

Another in the occasional series of ‘Treasurer’s top tips’ is on cheques, which cost us £51 in charges in June, whereas bank transfers cost us nothing.  So whilst payments by cheque are still welcome – all income is good income! - please consider bank transfers instead, if it’s practicable for you. There is a note in Warrior 54 of the information we need for bank transfers. However, where you wish to pay for 2 items by cheque e.g., raffle tickets (£20) and membership renewal (£25), one cheque for £45 would suffice and we will do the rest.

We received a donation of £29.17 from Amazon on 16th August. Many thanks to all of you who have nominated the project when purchasing from Amazon. Keep smiling!!!  We have also received a donation of £33.49 this month from easyfundraising. The total so far donated from this source is £841.89 from 39 supporters. Again, my heartfelt thanks to all who use the site. It is so easy to use.

Finally the interest rate increeases recently have upped our investment income from CAF - £317.29 credited on 26th September.