Final Week

This week, Tuesday involved manning the sales stand at the Santa Specials, Friday was Boxing Day, so only Sunday was an on-the-tools day and, although we only had four people for that, it was a productive day.  We started off by constructing a building bench for 5164’s bunker so we could work on setting out the floor panel, lifted the floor panel onto it and made sure it was level.

We then lowered the bottom section of the rear panel onto it followed by much measuring and marking to ensure it was in exactly the right place.

The centre join was then welded up 

and dressed back.

The rear inner angle and corner sections were then added and bolted to the back panel,

the position rechecked, and then the angle was tack welded to the floor to give us the first datum point.  The rear panel was then unbolted and lifted out of the way so that the back edge of the angle could also be welded to the floor.

The rear panel was then replaced, the position of the holes in the angle where the bunker will eventually be bolted onto the frames were measured and marked and then the centre angle was positioned and welded on followed by the three flat strips that form a strengthening frame where, again, the bunker is bolted to the frames.

Next, the inner side angles were positioned and four anchoring holes drilled and bolted in each to secure them to the floor so the remaining holes can be drilled next week.

Additional pieces of angle were cut to fit on the front of the floor panel either side of the coal hole 

and, by close of play, this is what it looked like.

Week Three

Another week of three days on the tools and two days on the sales stand at the Santa Specials.   During the week, yet more work on the cladding infill pieces with bits bent, welded together, bolted together

and, finally, trial fitted.

The pressure and steam heat gauges holding bracket was put up on the back head in preparation for running  the pipework to both gauges.

The 5164 bunker had the last holes drilled for the toolbox shelf 

and the bottom internal angle for the rear panel.

After that, the bunker was unbolted and taken apart 

so that all the sections can be de-burred where necessary, cleaned up and painted before we start putting it together for real.

On Sunday, we started measuring and marking the bunker floor sheet for positioning the bottom angle and establishing what needs to be done for fitting the balance pipe doubling plates.

The making of pipe holding brackets for all of 4253’s pipework continued which, once again, is a very time-consuming task.  Firstly, a former has to be fabricated around which the steel strip is bent to the correct shape with each diameter of pipe requiring its own former. Essentially, this is a short piece of angle with a bolt shank of the required diameter welded on the end.

A length of steel strip is then clamped to the former, heated and then hammered around the bolt

after which it is cut to the correct length, drilled and the end ground to a radius.

This shot shows one of the finished brackets

There are a great many of these required with some needing to hold more than one pipe side-by-side and not always of the same diameter.  Another job that takes many, many hours to produce parts that really go unnoticed.

Finally, we wish a Happy Christmas to all our volunteers and readers.

Week Two

Four days on the tools this week plus another two days manning our sales stand on 
Tenterden Station for the Santa Specials.  On Tuesday, the cladding team continued making and fitting odd shaped pieces to fit the rear corners of the firebox 

and the new ash pan’s watering cock holding bracket had the fixing holes marked out on the fireman’s side water tank.  The top hole was drilled and tapped and the bracket bolted to it followed by a check to ensure it was vertical 

before the second hole was drilled and tapped.

On the 5164 bunker, the inner angle between floor and side panel on the driver’s side was tack welded to the corner angle already in place 

after which a drill was used to mark it through the holes in the outer angle.  It was then removed and all the holes drilled through.

On Thursday, the same was done to the fireman’s side bottom, inner angle and the upper coal floor had its retaining strip fully welded up and then a start made on dressed it back.

On Friday, the toolbox shelf was lifted back into position on its brackets and marked out for drilling. 

A piece of angle was cut to size to form the inner floor angle at the rear which was then drilled though in six places so it could be bolted into position to allow the remaining holes to be marked and then drilled through.  The final bit of dressing on the upper coal floor welds was completed 

after which it received a coat of primer.  The cladding team, meanwhile, were still making in-fill pieces on 4253.  On Sunday, we addressed the gap between the bunker’s rear panel and the corner piece on the fireman’s side by cutting two pieces of heavy angle with holes drilled, 

welded one to each of the panels and then passed a length of studding through the holes, added nuts and wound them up to pull the panels together.  The driver’s side gap is fine and, oddly enough, we had to go through the same process, on the same side, when building 4253’s new bunker.  On 4253 it was another pipework day with the cab front drilled to accept the vacuum chamber release cock bracket

after which it was fitted along with the associated pipework (which will be polished up in due course).

The ashpan watering cock and pee pipe had the remaining pipes made and fitted together,

the pipe from the jockey valve to the lubricator was also connected 

along with the train pipe to vacuum gauge.  Also, many retaining clips were made including one to hold the tail cock drain pipe.

Week One

This week started with extracting 4253’s new ashpan from storage and getting it inside so we can finish it off as we’ll soon be fitting it to the boiler.

The rear damper door still needed some adjustment to the hinges to enable it to close properly and some of the operating linkage is still to be made.

We also need to revisit the water spray system we installed in light of experience of some identical failures on at least two other locos that have this fitted.  Yet more pipework has been made and trial fitted in the cab 

with the fireman’s’ side feed pipes to the rear axle having to be refitted to the oil pot to ensure that the new pipes cleared them.

The pee pipe cock has been fitted 

and the convoluted pipe made and run from the driver’s side injector.  This shot shows how complicated the pipe run is.

Another pipe will be run to the operating cock from the fireman’s side injector so that the pee pipe can work from either injector.  Work on the backhead cladding infill sheets is coming down the home straight  and holes have been cut in the plates for the lubrication pipes that pass through the cab front and run under the cladding from the hydrostatic lubricator and jockey valve to the atomisers in the smokebox that supply oil to the regulator box and the valves and pistons.

On 5164’s bunker, the upper coal floor has been stripped out for full welding of the retaining strips with a length of heavy angle being drilled and bolted to the long rear strip first to prevent distortion.  The lower coal floor was also removed  

together with all the baffles so we can work on the inner angle sections that join the floor to the side and rear panels.  The corner pieces were salvaged from the old bunker so we just have to make the straight lengths of angle for the rear and both sides.  The side pieces were put in place so the position of the holes could be marked after which they were removed for drilling.

Next, they will be bolted into position and then welded to the corner pieces.  On top of all that, we had a team manning our sales stand at the Santa Specials on both Saturday and Sunday to raise some more funds.