October 2019

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As the first real signs of winter begin to bite, the intrepid crew and volunteers of the Steam Tug Kerne carry on regardless!

On the first weekend of the month, Joanne and staff at the Leigh Arms at Acton Bridge hosted their annual end of season Steam Party. Due to the on-going repairs aboard Kerne, she was sadly absent from the event, but a number of our volunteers were in attendance, together with our World War I exhibition and a model of Kerne in her Admiralty guise as HM Tug Terrier which attracted a great deal of interest from the general public and our Traction Engine friends.

At the event we were delighted to receive an unusual donation in the form of a very fine Worthington Steam Pump. The pump was acquired and restored by the late Walter Fitter for use on his 1910 Foden Traction Engine and was presented to us by Walters’ wife, and Lancashire Traction Engine Club President, Mrs Betty Fitter. The pump will be installed in the Boiler Room of Kerne as a boiler circulating pump.

A decent break in the weather towards the end of the month saw paint brushes drawn to paint new trims to the sliding windows to the wheelhouse and to angle iron bearers that will support the timber wheelhouse decking. Some further deck painting was possible and the deck lids to the coal bunkers were sealed for the winter to prevent water ingress. Also on the painting front, the sliding hatch to the Forward Cabin has received a number of additional coats of varnish prior to refitting.

Down in the Engine Room, the sad loss of Dave Lowndes who passed away in March is not only felt on a personal level, but also for the tremendous amount of work he did for the vessel. At the time of his passing, he was busying himself filing and scrapping the valve face of the low-pressure slide valve – a job that requires skill and patience. It seems most appropriate that Bill Darch has taken on the task of completing this work, as Dave and Bill used to spend a great deal of their time hurling good-natured insults at each other. If Dave was still with us he would be chastising Bill and telling him he was making a b***dy mess of the job!

Although this next statement is made with a degree of caution -  we do now seem to have cracked the job of re-tapping the boiler tube holes, and are now finishing off the gauging of the last of the tube holes to enable the threads to be cut onto the tubes themselves.  

Still a lot to do, but we are getting there.

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