Cleaning City of Truro – National Railway Museum blog
I was looking forward to cleaning City of Truro when it was put on display on the Great Hall’s turntable.
I last cleaned City of Truro at Tyseley in 2004 and I took it upon myself to get the loco looking how it should be once more; not as a mint condition static museum piece, but as if it was due to go out on a run – hence the operational stains left on its smoke box. If you look closely enough you’ll see I have left some patina on the underside of the loco’s copper capped chimney.
The completed City of Truro represents around 50 hours of cleaning. Rags, paraffin, emery cloth, wet and dry, wax polish, metal polish and a tender full of elbow grease and enthusiasm were used to get the loco looking its best. A final coat of clear wax polish was applied to the copper, brass and bright metal work. I think City of Truro looks quite a picture now, what do you think?
It’s not just City of Truro I’ve cleaned in my 24 years at the National Railway Museum. I’ve also had the pleasure of cleaning and repainting the likes of Duchess of Hamilton and the museum’s Support Coach.
What locos have you cleaned?
This is a guest post written by collections volunteer Ken Woods.
