history

Our first locomotive has been acquired and is in temporary, secure storage at Thame, Oxfordshire. She is an Alco S1 switcher (works number 77777) built in Schenectady NY in 1950, in almost original condition and only (!) needs a new set of batteries to restart her. She is currently being cleaned and repainted by a small team. The Engineer's and Fireman's seats have just been re-upholstered through the generosity of a supportive local business man.

Through our good friend George W Hockaday we have located a source of parts from a loco apparently being broken up in Omaha, Nebraska. We have put in a offer for the couplers, coupler pockets and the distinctive journal covers; we believe it will be accepted.

Next problem - getting the parts to the UK. Another anonymous US benefactor has offered to ship the couplers and pockets gratis, if we can get them to Charlotte NC. We are negotiating with Consolidated Freightways' UK Agent to do this and get the journal covers to the UK.

She has recently received a survey from Jim Fisk of the EW&S. His verdict - there are no major parts missing so that she should start, subject to all the obvious maintenance preliminaries.

The prospects of some kind of life coming back to her have advanced with Jim's advice on connecting 'shore-side' air and electric power. This would be in advance of starting the prime mover.

Generous offers of transport help from US benefactors are advancing the possibility of obtaining the couplers we so desperately need. A small team is planning to go to Chicago IL and Omaha NB in early November, to advance this process. The scavengers will hopefully get a few other goodies along the way !

Work continues attacking our previously reported problems, with progress in some areas. The most noticeable, is in the appearance of 803. All the left-side hood doors have been coated with red primer and the first of the right-side, in grey. Why two different colours? To make it appear we have two locomotives! Seriously, it has been done to try to gauge what would be a suitable base colour when we decide her final livery.

All the door latches on the left side have been freed but a few on the right side remain obstinately seized. If you are a wiz with WD40, there is a job for you.

A small scavenging team visited the US last December and were warmly welcomed wherever they went, particularly by Alco operators KP&S and Belt Railway of Chicago.

Every Newsletter of organisations associated with railways contain appeals for assistance - labour, money, materials and services. Many recipients of these appeals would like to do something ons and it is frustrating not to be able to help. The barriers in most cases are the twin ones of Time and Distance.

If you are not a Member, you might try joining us and enouraging others to do the same; some organisations regard their passive members almost as parasites but their very membership itself, is an encouragement to those who are fortunate enough to be able take an active part in the project. If you ar in Canada, Mexico or the US, your membership would be particularly welcome.

An item which we urgently require, is a set of four step boxes to make for a more graceful climb up to 803. This is becoming important as we hope to be able to show her to local VIPs but from the ground to her bottom step is now about 2ft.

Suitably lettered (choose your own favourite passenger Limited), they will enhance the American mood. Your Editor tends to favour the Broadway Limited, the Century and the Super Chief as a start !

Soon, we will be ready to blow the horn but both the handles and ropes to the Engineer's and Fireman's sides are missing. Apart from anything else, it will give another touch of authenticity to 803's cab. Making the handles is a job for someone with word-turning capacity.

Here is a really novel requirement. 803s number boxes have been filled with blanking plates but the lamp-holders are in position and, if we could get suitably frosted glass lettered ‘803' that in itself would look good, but would be even better when we get shore-side power.

Like step boxes these could bring more atmosphere. We would like to hear from anyone who might like to undertake the manufacture of this unusual item. Probably, not too many S1s carried drum-heads but, as they say in the modelling world, there is a prototype for everything.

Priming of 803 continues on a regular basis and we hope to carry out a major operation to paint the cab roof and prime the top of the hood.

Every door on the hood now opens and all but a few of the latches have been freed. Having said that, it should be noted that the covers on the roof, accessing the sand tanks have defied limited attempts to open them; just what the state of the sand will be is anybody's guess.

We have just received the sad news of the death of 'Mr ALCo'. We have no details but we will pass them along when we get them.

A contact tells us that George had locomotives and equipment located all over the North-East US and his family may not know of the location of it all.

This involved manufacturing the glass number plates themselves and obtaining the rubber mouldings to hold them in place.

Glass number plates are of two types - black numbers on white and vice versa; we decided that the former was the simpler option. After some difficulty we obtained two pieces of 'sanded' glass (your correspndent, until now, has wrongly called it 'frosted') together with some self-adhesive numbers. This has resulted in a pair of number plates which will produce a satisfactory cosmetic solution. However the glass is not toughened but will suffice until 803 is operational.

Finding the rubber mouldings was an altogether different problem. Our first attempts involved phoning and visiting double-glazing manufacturers - this was the boot on the other foot !

A chance encounter with a replacement car windscreen company, resulted in the purchase of a Mini front windscreen moulding. Whilst a little thicker than the original, tests have shown that it will be acceptable until we can obtain the real thing.

Now we have to clean and paint the housing which hold the lights behind the number plates, check the wiring and fit new bulbs.

Removing the blanking plate from the right hand box has revealed a glass plate in position. As soon as the area can be photographed for record purposes, we will see what is revealed.

We have probably reported that the front headlight glass was broken; in order to improve 803's 'face' we decided to replace it.

Removing the outer ring, which hold the glass proved not to be easy; in the event, we had to cut the pins on the hinges to get it off.

When cleaned, we were presented with a truly beautiful aluminium casting from which we were able to remove the sawn-off hinge pins. When we came to look at the remains of the hinge pins on the inner casting on the loco, it was obvious that this was a bench job.

This casting, together with the reflector and the lampholder, has been removed and is being prepared for cleaning. When the assembly has been reglazed and is back on the loco, we will put a photo here - watch this space.