The first working party of June was on Saturday 11th when some work in No. 1 nose was carried out. The floor had more of the rust cleared and then the floor was painted with anti-corrosive paint. More work was carried out under the cab floor in No. 1 cab - mainly painting pipes in undercoat. A Class 47 NRN aerial was added to No. 2 nose to replace the hole that was previously there! The Class 47 aerial looks okay but not as good as a proper Class 37 vertical aerial would - any offers anyone? Sunday 12th saw four people on site working on '254 (Doug, Joan Chris and new volunteer Alan). More painting in No. 1 nose was undertaken including starting to paint some pipework in undercoat. Needle-gunning of one of the last bits of floor in No. 1 cab took place together with more painting of pipework in the same area. All but four bodyside filter trays were removed from the nose end side doors - one door refused to open and this will be dealt with at a later date. Alan assisted Doug with various tasks including maintenance of our working platform. Joan carried out the most important of jobs - that of feeding and watering the troops as well as some gardening work. Alan spent half of the day removing the sandite encrusted on the locomotive's underside. Doug commenced clearing No. 2 nose ready for work on the floor and pipework to commence. When the loco had been spray painted at Barrow Hill, the sight glasses on the exhausters had been sprayed as well so the paint was removed whilst Doug was in the nose. Monday 20th saw Doug, John and Chris up at C.F. Booth scrapyard in Rotherham, South Yorkshire obtaining parts from 37068, 37334 and 37344 which are on site waiting for scrap. We had arranged to visit on this day and were made very welcome by all of the Staff at C.F. Booth. A large number of parts were purchased and brought back to our site the next day. Saturday 25th was a very early start for Dan, John and Chris with them leaving home just after 02:00 to make a return visit to C.F. Booth scrapyard. Yet more parts were purchased including a urinal which will be refitted eventually - who gets to test that it works is still to be decided!! There was a working party on the loco on Sunday 26th with Doug, Joan, Alan, Dan, John and Chris on site - almost a record? Alan was working in Number Two nose cleaning the floor and preparing it for a coat of paint. Doug removed one of the broken sanding pipes and replaced it with one of the new sandpipes that we had just purchased from C.F. Booth. Doug also added more sanding equipment recently purchased. Joan did a superb job on keeping the site tidy and supplying excellent food and drink. John and Chris modified the storage container as well as re-aligning it slightly. John was back up at Rotherham again on the 29th and 30th removing yet more usefull parts. Thursday 30th saw the repaired heat exchanger returned from Serck - some minor work was perfomed to get it back to full health. Pictures from the scrapyard at Rotherham have been given permission to be published by C.F. Booth. Thanks to Doug for most of the shots for this month!

Friday 1st July saw John still hard at work at C.F. Booth's scrapyard in Rotherham securing yet more parts. Alan travelled up to Rotherham to give John a hand on Friday 1st and together they successfully removed lots of parts that we will probably need for future times to come. On Saturday 2nd, Chris drove up to Rotherham to collect John and the newly purchased components and these were delivered the next day to our restoration site. Monday 4th saw Captain Chaos and John getting the heat exchanger back into the engine room at the end of the day. John and Alan turned out on Tuesday 5th and reconnected the repaired heat exchanger including the newly-manufactured gaskets. John worked on the loco on the Wednesday and Friday on various tasks mainly in number 1 cab. The following week saw John working on the loco for the majority of the week with the end result being that things are starting to be put back on the loco in number 1 cab and John also painted some of the cab bulkhead. Sunday 10th had 5 people working on the locomotive on a very hot day. Adrian was stripping the paintwork off a lot of airpipes so that they can be prepared to go back in no. 1 cab, Alan removed the two water pumps for examination to see if any defects could be found what would cause the water to contaminate the oil. Dan stripped the ceiling in no. 1 cab of paint and then replaced all of the screws with the proper type. John welded up a couple of holes under the loco as well as assisting Alan with the removal of the waterpumps. Chris did general tidying up and errand running to keep the job running. After examination of the water pumps, one was found to have a defective seal and so will be sent away for repairs, the other water pump might possibly be sent away at the same time to ensure that both are perfect. Sunday 17th saw just Alan and Chris working on the loco. One of our spare lubricating oil priming pumps was dragged out and cleaned up by Alan ready for examination. Stripping of paint in the nose at no.1 end was started by Chris as when the loco was at Barrow Hill, all pipework and conduit was painted the same colour and a lot of the paint hadn't fared very well. The fire extinguisher guards were taken to the workshop for rubbing down then painting. The old notices were removed from the guards and will be replaced by new ones. The next working party was on Sunday 24th when John, Joan, Doug, Chris and Alan were present on a day when the weather couldn't make its mind up - one minute it was hot then the next it was torrential rain - good job we have our container! John continued working in no.1 cab sanding the ceiling down and the pieces of wood that Dan had removed. Joan tidied the stores as it was becoming difficult to find things and as usual cooked a splendid lunch for all of the workers. The defective water pump was reassembled by Alan and Chris on our newly donated heavy duty tables - thanks to Brian McNaughton for the tables and chairs - we seem to be getting civilised after so long having to stand up or sit on the grass! Doug assisted Alan with manufacturing a wooden strut to fit in the roof so that the electricity supply can be further enhanced. Chris and Alan inspected the lubricating oil priming pump that was cleaned on the previous Sunday and it looks a damn sight better than the one that is currently in the loco! We decided to make this pump as complete as possible so various bits were robbed off other pumps to make one complete pump. The other pumps will be kept as spares donors for the future. Monday 25th saw the water pumps that had been removed from the loco collected ready for delivery to a local company that overhauls pumps and other bits of machinery. The work on the water pumps will be funded by the donations the loco has received and through selling items on ebay - see link on front page and a big thanks to all who have donated money to the loco over the past two years! Saturday 30th saw the very, very long awaited arrival of two tool cupboards. With the cupboards came some electrical trunking that Chris had also purchased the day before. On the final day of the month, Chris installed the new cupboards and began to get some much needed organisation of the tools in the container. The electrical trunking was installed pending the installation of some new wiring for power points. A dedicated painting bench was built during the day and installed in the container at the end of the day. This purpose built painting bench replaces the previous folding tables that we had been using. With the new cupboards and painting bench, the container is now looking like a proper workshop - only a purpose built workbench to be constructed is basically all that remains to be done (our current workbenches are performing sterling work but they won't last forever).