For anyone thinking of visiting the Alan Keef Open Day on September 24th the following information has appeared in the Hereford Diocesan Magazine as part of the village notes for Lea near Ross-on-Wye. As can be seen the new Corris locomotive No. 10 should be in steam, although its entry into traffic on the CR will depend on continued fund raising to complete the construction work including fitting of buffers, sanding gear etc.
Alan Keef says:
“It’s been four years since the last steam-up and so this year’s event is going to be very special, especially as we also celebrate our company’s 50th Anniversary! For everyone that is new to the village or new to this event, it’s when Alan Keef Ltd open their doors, steam their own and visiting locomotives, welcome hundreds of visitors to see what they’ve been working on and invite you to enjoy a ride or two behind one of the engines. Alongside ‘Woto’, one of our other engines, ‘Taffy’, is currently being worked on and will be returning to steam for the first time in over 12 years. We’ll be welcoming the steam engine ‘Peter Pan’ too, alongside a brand-new steam engine that we’ve been building for the Corris Railway and which will be ready for its first public steaming. Steam trains to ride behind, a look around the workshop, trade stands to browse; garden to relax in, hot and cold food and, hopefully, a fine and sunny day – come along and enjoy the Steam-up and help us to raise funds for Lea Church. You can’t miss us at the top end of the village – parking in the field alongside, or why not enjoy a walk up the new footpath through the fields to reach us?
Please – no dogs though!“
The address is Alan Keef Ltd, Lea, near Ross-on-Wye, HR9 7LG.
Is it really worth being forward the Falcon’s boiler ticket expiry by a year or two (or more?) for Keef’s visitors? It seems rather odd – I thought the usual idea was to delay steaming a new boiler until the last possible date to get maximum use it of it?
Thank you for your enquiry.
The answer to this question exercised us greatly and was an important consideration when planning the completion of No. 10. Other matters that needed to be factored into our decision making process were:
• the length of time remaining on No. 7’s boiler ticket – It expires at the end of 2024 – we need to run a steam loco for our passenger services – No. 10 has to be completed before No. 7 goes out of ticket
• we would prefer at least one season running two locos to allow for running in, fault finding etc.
• we would prefer that the greatest possible distance be left between the expiry of the boiler tickets on the two locos.
Considering all these factors and matters of finance and morale it became clear that we needed to complete No. 10 as quickly as possible.
In this instance and possibly counter intuitively, the hydraulic test on No. 10’s new boiler became a positive action and is a good indicator of the progress that we are making. The loco will, hopefully, be in a condition to be steamed in September and then the final aspect of the build, including painting, will be completed allowing the loco to go into service in 2023.