Open Meeting 11th November

The day of our Open Meeting, Saturday 11th November was blessed with some nice warm sunshine after a chilly start.  Sadly, the M6 had one of its bad days with a one-hour delay.  Nevertheless a select group assembled in the ground floor room of the old Crewe North Box.  After the usual technical hitches connecting laptop and large screen, the presentation got underway.  We had a very good discussion, touching on frames, cylinders, bearings, the boiler and many other parts of the locomotive.

Afterwards we toured the locomotive with further discussions.  Even our LNWR tool box got a bit of attention, on its first day of duty as our small parts and tool store.

It was good to see the Coal Tank back in the Hall, only a few hundred yards from where it would have been built.

This coming Saturday is the day of the LNWR Society luncheon, which we will be attending.

In a short while we expect to announce our plans for some further work to be carried out on the locomotive.

Christmas is coming, please don’t forget to include a gift for Prince George in your shopping list.

Terry McMenamin

 

 

Meeting on Saturday

Tool Box partly cleaned

Our open meeting is this coming Saturday, 11th November at 2pm in Crewe Heritage Centre’s former Crewe North signal box.  The gate will be shut, please open it to drive in and close it behind you.  There are facilities to make hot drinks, and possibly if Heritage Centre Volunteers turn up, the maybe a small snack like a toastie.  However the Centre is not otherwise open to the public; so that might not be possible.  We owe thanks to the Heritage Centre for permission to use the facility.

Our LNWR tool box will be arriving on Saturday to use as our store for small items.  It’s got lots of battle wounds from its long life, and unfortunately I painted it in fading light which combined with my lack of painting skills resulted in curtains.  At least it’s cleaned up now, it was a mess as you can see on the left.  At least it’s now clean. as the photograph below.

I’m looking forward to  meeting supporters (and any friends who might like to come) on Saturday, answering your questions and having a good discussion about all things about the George the Fifth, also to show you round the locomotive.  We have some new information about the class relating to George Hughes’s period as CME, which will be part of the presentation.

 

Hoping to see as many as possible of you on Saturday,.

 

Terry McMenamin  Engineer

Tool box as repainted

Looking forward to seeing you

Our Open Meeting at Crewe is coming up fast, please come and join us if you possibly can.  It’s on 11th November at 2pm in the old Crewe North signal box in the Crewe Heritage Centre.  There will be a talk with Questions and Answers after, then a walk round the locomotive in the Main Hall.

Our LNWR tool box will be delivered that day having been stripped of the old flaking paint and painted with fresh black gloss paint.  With a sturdy lock on it it will serve as our tool and small materials store for now.

We hope to start setting up our new online Trust document centre in the next few days.  We will be using BOX.com, so we can keep all our records in one place and use its automated routines for authorisation of orders, payments and such like.  It will help us manage the Trust’s business and to be able to demonstrate to the Approvals body that we have followed the rules.  If you think it’s boring stuff, well yes it’s true but necessary.

Now I had better get back to that tool box and give it a coat of undercoat!

Hoping to see you at Crewe

Terry McMenamin

Engineer

A date for your Diaries

 

We will be delighted to welcome our supporters and friends at our open meeting at 2 pm on Saturday 11th November at Crewe Heritage Centre.  There will be a presentation and question and answer session in the LNWR Society’s room on the ground floor of Crewe North old signal box, followed by an inspection of the locomotive in the Main Hall.  The meeting will finish by 4.30 pm at the latest. 

This is an opportunity to meet the team and put your questions to them.  We would be delighted to welcome any new volunteers, and look forward to meet our friends and supporters. 

Thanks to our friends at Crewe Heritage Centre and the LNWR Society for use of their facilities. 

Getting there 

Address 

Crewe Heritage Centre, Vernon Way, Crewe, CW1 2DB 

What3Words: tracks.basket.sits 

By Train 

  • The Heritage Centre is about 15 minutes walk from the station. 
  • Leave the station via the Nantwich Road exit and turn left towards the Royal Hotel.
  • Cross at the pedestrian crossing and continue past the Royal Hotel until you get to the ‘Cheshire Inn’ public house.
  • Turn right and walk down Mill Street and Continue past Costa Coffee and Lidl.
  • Once under the railway bridge turn right at the roundabout and continue along Vernon Way until you see the entrance to the big Tesco.  Follow the sign into the Heritage Centre behind Tesco. 
  • By Car
  • From M6 junction 16 with A500 if coming from East or South. Take A500 west as far as the first roundabout , take the third exit to B5472 signed for Weston, Crewe Hall and Enterprise Park, At the next roundabout turn left onto Weston Road signed for Crewe Centre. At the next roundabout take the second exit to A532 Town Centre.  Pass alongside Crewe station on the left, at the roundabout take the third exit to Macon Way, signed Crewe Town Centre.  At the next mini-roundabout take the first exit left onto Earle Street, then second exit from the roundabout soon after, finally at the next roundabout turn left to pass alongside the big Tesco to the Heritage centre at the far end.
  • From M6 junction17 coming from the North  take the A534 to Crewe Green.  After about 5 miles take the fourth exit of the big Crewe Green roundabout on to Hungerford Road.  After about ¾ mile at the roundabout carry straight on to Earle Street A532, and at the two immediately following roundabouts keep on Earle Street A532, then immediately left alongside the Big Tesco to the Heritage Centre
  • From the Nantwich and West, use A500 Shavington Bypass to RB3 roundabout.  Take the first exit to Jack Mills Way and stay on this for 1¼ miles.  At the cross-road with Nantwich Road carry straight on into Mill Street A5019.  At the roundabout take the second exit to Vernon Way A 5019/A532.  You will shortly come to the Tesco roundabout, where you take the third exit and keep on to the Heritage Centre at the end.

 

A Nice Day Out

By way of a diversion, our engineer joined the Crewe Dinner Association for a beautiful Sunday afternoon out on the 1903 tug Daniel Adamson from Acton Bridge to Sutton Weaver.  Due to lack of parking at these places we went to the Anderton Boat Lift for a bus to Acton Bridge.  Arriving early gave me the chance to tour the boat lift, a massive piece of engineering.  It was built in 1875 to link the Trent & Mersey canal with the River Weaver.  Boats are raised and lowered in two caissons.  It’s very interesting and worth an afternoon out in itself.   On to Acton Bridge and the Danny Adamson, for a lovely gentle cruise in wonderfully warm October sunshine along the scenic River Weaver as far as Sutton Weaver near Frodsham.

What, you may ask, has this to do with the George?  Perhaps only a little: firstly the commissioning owner of the Daniel Adamson was the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Company, which just happened to be owned by the LNWR.  She was originally named the Ralph Brocklebank to honour an LNWR director.  She was renamed for new owners the Manchester Ship Canal Co.  The second connection is through the Crewe Dinner Association.  Originally this was for Crewe premium apprentices to enjoy a formal dinner with the  senior management.  Our engineer attended some 1960s dinners in London’s Cafe Royal, with such grand personalities as Sir William Stanier and Lord Nelson of Stafford, of English Electric fame, as guests of honour.  Things have changed, but then it was about 60 years ago.

The pictures show the Anderton Boat Lift and the final approach to Sutton Weaver, with the overbridge of the LNWR Chester-Warrington line ahead.

Now it’s time to get back to cleaning 100 years of paint off our LNWR toolbox before repainting it for use as our tool box at Crewe!

Crewe Heritage Centre – Exhibition Postscript

 

George and Terry at Crewe!

A great day was had by all with very many people coming to chat and showing great interest. Most were impressed by the SIZE of our loco!

We made many new contacts and hope some will support us either with donations or by offering their skills. WE ARE PARTICULARLY LOOKING FOR AN ‘IT’ PERSON TO HELP US WITH BOTH OUR WEBSITE AND OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – COULD THIS BE YOU?