Whilst Llangollen Railway was hosted the Thomas the Tank Engine specials, a number of 6880 members were busy working away in the C&W sheds. The aim of this working weekend was to prepare our recently purchased box van for outside storage, as at present it is not in the best of condition. The Van was moved down from the loco shed to Pentrefelin Shed by Quentin and Graham Hoyland during the previous week.

On Saturday Mick, Jeff and Q started by removing all the remains of the old roof canvas. There were numerous old nails to be removed before the roof boards were ready to be sanded down. Two boards had sprung and required coach bolts to pull them back down. Once the roof had been sanded, a sealant was applied.

The two sliding doors required repairs. A new set of T&G boards were cut and fitted to replace a poor set on one door. The frame on the other door required two new main timbers. The same gang, now assisted by Richy P and myself fresh from Thomas duties, and Hank, did this on Sunday. Due to the joints this proved a lengthy job but was completed by the end of Sunday. Further vertical planks were replaced and a start on sanding the remaining planks down prior to painting was made.

Next working weekend we plan to fit a new roof canvas and make a start on painting the exterior and fitting of shelves inside.

Below is a brief history of this van, courtesy of Steve Best from Preserved Railway Stocklist. http://www.preservedrailwaystocklist.org.uk/

Box Van 30454 was purpose built for the MOD by Chas Roberts in 1940, and is loosely based on a LNER diagram 094 box van. 30454 is its ROF Glascoed ID number, & wouldn’t have had a ‘M’ pref. They were also 10t not 13t as in your photo. It was registered by the GWR in the 85xxx range as all privately owned wagons, MOD included, were registered by one of the main operators in pre nat days and later by BR. The registration would have been plated on the frame. These were not the running number the owners applied. In 1994 the Van was purchased by a Mr Mimms and it moved to the Dean Forest Railway, where it was used as a stores van. The 6880 Society recently bought the wagon from Mr Mimms and intend to use it for storing all the parts for 6880 that they have acquired over the last few years.

Jon

5952 Cogan Hall is now at Llangollen, and we have added a page for the Hall on the site.

Dragbox and Step. Photo, Mick Prior.

Fitted Cab Step. Photo Mick Prior.

We have now had all the riveting completed to attach the cab steps to the main frame, and the completed the fitting of the rear dragbox, rear bufferbeam and buffer plates including the riveting. 6880 volunteers have marked up and drilled out all the holes over the last 12 months.

Front saddle. Photo, Mick Prior.

Fitted Saddle. Photo Ashley Broomhall

The saddle plate has also been successfully riveted into place after being built and marked out by Ian Massey last summer. 6880 now awaits the arrival of the extension frames which will be riveted in front of the saddle. It is hoped for these will arrive later this year.

Jonathan Kerr, 25th April 2010.

The Board of 6880 Betton Grange (Society) Ltd are pleased to announce that they have been successful in purchasing 5952 Cogan Hall together with a substantial amount of spare parts. This is a strategic decision which will substantially reduce the time and cost of constructing Betton Grange.

In the medium term we propose to refurbish the bogie and later tender from Cogan Hall for use with 6880. The cost of a new bogie alone would be in excess of the purchase price for 5952. In addition the time required to refurbish the existing bogie will be substantially less than manufacturing and assembling from new. Refurbishing the existing bogie will also assist in providing information and experience necessary to construct a new bogie for Cogan Hall in the longer term.

We must stress that we do not propose to dismantle Cogan Hall to provide parts for 6880 or any other projects. The longer term desire is to restore Cogan Hall in its own right. This will be subject to separate fund raising. There has already been significant interest expressed by several of Betton Granges supporters in restoring 5952 by once 6880 is completed.

We must record our thanks to the Board of the Llangollen Railway for their agreement in allowing Cogan Hall to be moved to the railway. It is expected that 5952 will be moved to the Llangollen Railway before the Spring Gala 23^rd to 25^th April.

With regard to 6880 significant progress is being by Dave Owen’s team in completing the riveting of the dragbox and progressing with the horn guides. In addition the patterns for spring hanger brackets have been made and the brackets cast. The curved foot framing which will be fitted below the cab has been manufactured.

The Society is indebted to Pete Simpson from the Severn Valley Railway, for producing drawings for the new extension frames. Costs are currently being obtained for their manufacture. It is anticipated that an order will be placed for the extension frames before the summer.

We now have three membership options:

Foundation, City and Express.

The sign-up page has been updated to show the features/benefits of the three schemes.

Please take a look.

Now available for download, Newsletter 13.

All the latest progress on 6880, and future plans.

The 6th Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 10th October at 11 am in the Henry Robertson Suite at Llangollen station.

We would like to encourage as many members as possible to attend this year. We will be explaining our plans for the next year which should see significant progress being made with the construction of 6880 Betton Grange. There will be opportunities both before, and after the meeting, for all members to visit the locomotive works to view the work in progress.

We have arranged for the Great Western Engineers Saloon to be attached to the Llangollen Railway service trains on the day exclusively for our use. Members are invited to join us on either the 13:00 or 15:00 departure from Llangollen.

Our sales stand will be open with our full range of merchandise.

6880 news

Well it’s been a while….

But at last we seem to be out of the coma called the “Steel Steam & Stars II aftermath” it is time to get back into the groove, namely building 6880. We will again be spending time adding to what has been built so far.

There will be a full gala report in the next newsletter, and a web update, but I can say, yes it was successful, yes it raised a significant amount of money and without doubt raised the profile of Betton Grange and Llangollen Railway even further. The downside  is lack of real progress on the construction of 6880 due to the Gala taking up so much time, but now we are in possession of a healthy bank account we can now make some progress, as I  will now explain;

We are in the process of placing orders with Llangollen engineering to:

• Fit the dragbox permanently along with the back buffer beam, rubbing plates and the two pressed steel brackets. This will all be riveted, but all the parts have been trial fitted and drilled.
• Fit all the Hornguides, Hornties, rear stretcher tie bolts, pins etc to the requires standards.

The extension frame drawing has now been finalised by Pete Simpson. Discussions are due to take place on methods of construction during the next few days. The original was a forging, and to adhere to the original it is is the correct method, but at a cost. Cutting it out of high-grade steel and fabrication may be a better present day alternative.

As soon as we have a clear path on the best route the order will be placed, but to assist with the speed of construction most of the components that fit round the extension frames have already been made or are about to be ordered.

We are putting together an order with Angle Ring in Tipton for all the curved sections of footplate angle (eight in all), also the last two pressings for the front dragbox. There are also  a few other components on the list.

With a bit of luck we should have enough cash to finish the frames front to back, albeit without wheels cylinders or bogie.

Not a bad achievement considering it is ALL new.

As mentioned a while back now the NRM has given up all its drawing secrets we are in a much better position to be able to order what we need, when we need it, something that was not always possible even a short time ago.

We are looking to step up the progress at the working weekends as there is much input we can now make.  No doubt I will be cracking the whip and requesting sick notes for lack of attendance!

The last working weekends have seen the cab dismantled as it is now in the way and needs to be in dismantled in order to be fitted. There is quite a bit of preparation work ready for September.

Working on the cab

The sales and promotion stand is visiting the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry Great Garret Gathering, with Quentin, Phil Macey, Jon Kerr, Mick, Emma, Richard Cadge and myself. There is also a planned Members Weekend on October the 10th, more details to be announced as we put this together.

Sales Stand

I hope this post addresses the balance of news, without a Gala to plan, run, and organise it leaves us with time to concentrate on what this project is all about, building the 81st Grange

Thanks for you patience and support.

Will Naylor

The Gala DVD is now available and can be ordered from Belhurst Productions via www.steam-railway-videos.co.uk, or through our shop.

The dvd has 4hr 45mins of footage! It consists of 2 main discs and a bonus disc and it is narrated by Danny Hopkins, editor of Steam Railway magazine.