Once the Spoorijzer gearbox had been put into position, the new chains were installed and then the Farymann engine was lifted into place.

A part of the footplate and chainguard was missing on the loco so this had to be fabricated from a piece of chequer plate obtained from a local scrapyard. The pieces were clamped together ready for welding up.

At this stage the only work required (in theory!) to complete the loco was a fexible connector to connect the gearbox spindle and the engine which had also been missing from the loco when obtained.

An autumn scene with No.12 brought out to do some movement of timber.

Each year the farm track from the main road gets too muddly for the feed delivery lorry so the railway is used to move the deliveries to the stables.

October saw the last of any serious work completed on the Motor Rail, with more bits removed and some more of the platework cleaned up to take red oxide primer and provide better protection over winter.

With a heavy duty rachet set, the nut holding the fan assembly in place finally loosened off and allowed the Motor Rail radiator assembly to be slowly taken to bits. One awkward job was to remove a large nest from inside the top water reservoir!

Although the radiator was tested, surprisingly only suggesting a couple of minor leaks, but after removing the elements one by one, the reason for the apparent good condition of the radiator was the most of the tubes were blocked, so were not even drawing water down their length. Most of the rubber seals/grommits needed replacing, and fortunately Alan Keef still had a ready stock of these.

The outside was given an initial coat of paint with the elements removed, then after they were all replaced a second coat of paint was follwed by highlighting of the lettering in white. At this stage although there had been a water test done when half the elements were in place, but the final test was yet to be done.

The two wooden bodied side opening wagons had been built about 4 years ago, and were in need of a bit of TLC. Also the frame had not been cleaned up and painted at the time, so separating the body from the frame allowed the work to be done over the next month.

The final delivery of loose rail from the collection purchased last year was recevied and after sorting, it needed moving out of the way.

The movement of the rail was completed over a couple of weekends and the job was shared between the W&R loco and No. 12.

A few times a year the old timber is pulled from the edges of the fields and with the occasional trees coming down in the winter gales, it requires the use of the railway to haul the timber back to the yard for cutting and stacking.

Over 6 months since work had started to clean up the frames, the many hours of effort started to feel worthwhile when the Spoorijzer frames were pushed out into the open and the results could be seen in natural daylight for the first time.

Next, the gearbox was reunited with the frames and the new drive chains fitted.

Pushing the two full wagons out from the siding, they are coupled up to the W&R battery loco.

The short train then makes it's way to the muck heap for emptying.

Once at the muck heap, it typically takes 30 mins of shovelling to empty 2 wagons.

The large Allens skips were too large to use at Springfield, so one by one they were sold to raise funds to restore the Motor Rail.

Once the Spoorijzer loco was in the garage, a closer look at the frames and bodywork, confirmed the work required to refurbish the loco. Up to 6 layers of old paintwork was slowly scraped off.

The frame was then jacked up to release the wheels, axleboxes and springs for stripping and painting.

After many months of work the frame was finally clean enough to start painting. After the second coat of Red Oxide Primer the frame is already starting to see a distinct improvement.

Grey undercoat started to cover the red oxide one month later.

The large gearbox was also scraped clean of it's previous blue paint, and seen here with it's first coat of primer.

Once cleaned back to bare metal it was easier to see the condition of the Spoorijzer backplate and the edge of the platework has corroded back around the edges. A steel strip was bolted in place, and filler used to seal a number of cracks.

Although far from perfect, the reverse of the backplate was looking much improved with just the second coat of primer.

Over winter the side track to the stables had become too muddy for the delivery lorries with the horse feed, so the railway was often put into use again moving the feed and bedding the the stables.

Another trip to the driveway to collect, hay, straw, and other bags of feed.

After the short run to the stables (this time in Dec 2012), it is easy enough to move the feed to the field shelter.

In January, when moving around the locos in the shed, gave the opportunity for a quick pictutre of the Motor Rail, at this point, the radiator had been removed, and some cleaning up of the frame had started, but little else.