Per Mare, Per Terram (By Sea, By Land)

I'll start this weeks blog with a couple of pictures from our friends in Uppsala, the Lennakatten

The Roslagsbana used to be a much more extensive network covering Roslagen, north and east of Stockholm, and even extending west as far as Uppsala.  Another group have preserved 33km of this network between Uppsala and Faringe, where they have their engineering base.

During July and the beginning of August they have mid-week running and, if I time it right, I can coincide with their train on my way home from work.  Last Thursday, their impressive Tp class from 1953 was in charge of the 1710 departure, the first carriage is one of two sister carriages to our own 880

This is a real working loco, and probably hasn't seen a true overhaul since it left commercial service.  A lovely example of the buildup of grime for the modelers!

Back in Stockholm, Lasse has continued chipping and painting the brackets for the steps and the area behind.

This is the brake pull-rod for B-end.  It runs down the outside front of the cab from a hand-wheel inside. There is a screw-thread under the lower brown sleeve which draws up the black block (behind the black bracket).

The lugs on the block engage into the two links lying on the floor, and the sharply curved link transfers the motion around and under the headstock.  This is currently apart for painting and fettling.  You can also see the connector for the electric train heating cables and one of the airbrake pipes, stuffed with rags to keep muck out while we work

Over on the other side of the tracks, work progresses on the dry air blower with the sensor probe mounted on the opposite side of the bulkhead and ducting being installed for the device itself

Micke made up this contraption (and left it lying around the paintshop - so I painted it!)  This will fit over the air output to distribute the dry air around the interior of the carriage a bit better

We took full advantage of the lovely evening (and the lack of traffic on the Roslagsbana during renovations of Stockholms Östra!) by hauling a table over to sit outside our motorwagon shed for coffee.  Very pleasant!

And by way of something a little different.   This weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the launch of St. Erik, Stockholm City's icebreaker.  To celebrate, the Maritime museum held a steamboat festival to which myself and my other half happily attended.  St Erik herself (himself?) is still operational and can be called upon to keep the sea lanes around Stockholm open if needed.  For this weekend they only had one of 4 boilers lit and kept the main engine, a massive 3 cylinder compound, turning over slowly.  A very impressive site to be in and around the the engine while it was operating.

The museum also invited 7 other operational steam boats and ships from around Sweden.  The oldest, Gerda, was 150 years old yesterday!  We had a very pleasant trip around Stockholm harbour on her.

as ever, best regards from Sweden, George!