2015 News Archive

December 2015

• The redecoration of AB Engine house ceiling has been completed.

November 2015

• The strong winds caused a bit of damage by blowing our yard floodlights off the wall, but the good news is that they were all still working. After a bit of TLC, they have now been reattached.

• The redecoration of AB Engine house ceiling has commenced. This work has been mostly funded by a Landfill grant.

October 2015

• A very successful event was held in CD Engine House - The Tamarisk Parents' Choir and The Magic Attic presented an intriguing, moving and amusing slide-show of photos from The Magic Attic archive depicting Burton from the dawn of photography to the present day accompanied by Tamarisk's choir's unique sound. The show was a sell-out. Photo-1 Photo-2 Photo-3

September 2015

• B Engine governor has been finished. Here is the complete governor in the engine house.

August 2015

• B Engine governor linkage is nearing completion. Here is the linkage before the balls are attached.

July 2015

• Much work on B Engine governor is continuing. Here is the column that will support the linkage and balls.

June 2015

• The replacement balls for B Engine governor have been machined. Here is the rough casting and here is the polished result.

May 2015

• The May Day steaming also proved to be a good event, despite getting off to a challenging start from a weather perspective. We also had the problem of a broken down railway locomotive that inconveniently blocked the railway crossing preventing access to the site. Fortunately it was a relatively short term problem with the locomotive managing to reverse back towards Burton. On the Sunday visitors were entertained in the afternoon by the harmonies of the Lichfield Lighthouse Company who provided a selection of sea shanties outside E engine house. On Monday there were a number of vintage cars on site together with model traction engines driven by members of the Black Country Live Steamers.

April 2015

• The Trust, together with Stretton Parish Council and East Staffordshire Borough Council held a steaming event to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign. Proceedings started with a Drum Head service which was lead by the Vicar of Stretton.
An exhibition was held telling the story of the campaign and commemorating the memory of the 48 men connected to Burton who died at Gallipoli.
The 'Birmingham Pals' WW1 re-enactment group marched up and down the yard and also put in some bayonet practice.
The skies cleared and the winds died down just enough to allow a fly past by a replica WW1 aircraft.

March 2015

• The Trust is embarking on an exciting new venture "Ratty Tails", with the launch of a children's book whose story features Claymills Pumping Station. The book is the brainchild of CPET Director Stephen Goodman and has been compiled by the "Steam Rats", a group that in addition to Stephen includes fellow director Lesley Hirst who wrote the wonderfully descriptive text that is accompanied by photographs of the narrative, featuring dressed up rat toys beautiful decked out by members Alison and Terry Leverett, photographed by Terry and Steve.
The official launch of the book will be at the Pumping station on Easter Monday and Lesley has featured on Radio Derby.

• The Activity Centre is nearing completion with the addition of guttering. The water from both sides of the building runs into the large 1969-71 concrete sludge collection chamber (just underneath the black rainwater down pipe) and this in turn runs into the beam engine cooling water culvert.

• Severn Trent have completed works to increase car parking space which was agreed as part of the Trust's lease arrangements.

February 2015

• According to Tripadvisor, Claymills is the #1 of 24 things to do in Burton upon Trent.

January 2015

• A chilly start to the New Year steaming as a visiting Foden lorry arrives in the mist.

• The Derby Choristers have come along for many years now to sing at Christmas but this was the first time that they have sung in the Activity Centre.