Cutting Thread Tap
10th January 2022
Our workshop at Churston is very fortunate in having a lot of old original railway tools acquired from Swindon Works and Newton Abbot Shed. Many tools were made by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and were specifically designed to enable fitters and engineers to carry out all sorts of maintenance and repair jobs on the locomotives. The majority of these tools are stamped GWR or latterly, after 1948, BR (W) which stood for British Railways (Western region).
However, we recently discovered a thread cutting tap in one of the drawers at the workshop and noticed that it was stamped B&ER. This stands for ‘Bristol and Exeter Railway’ which was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel using his famous broad gauge track and which fully opened in 1844. The B&ER was eventually amalgamated within the GWR in 1876 - meaning that this tap is at least 146 years old!!!
Reviews
- Brilliant day - Very pleasant day out, VERY well organised and friendly teams (train and ferry, especially in social distancing times). Would do it again and add the boat cruise.
- Trip back in time - What a fantastic experience. The train ride from Paignton is a gentle trip with stunning views. Arriving in Kingswear you can almost imagine how people in days gone by must have felt. A short ferry ride takes you into Dartmouth which is a stunning little town.
- Fantastic visit - We chose to do the steam train and river cruise and it was fantastic. The staff were very helpful. After using the ferry to cross the river we went to find somewhere to have a snack before getting onto the cruise. The commentary was brilliant and we were pointed out different landmarks throughout the cruise. Thank you Dartmouth Steam Railway.