Week Two Work on 4253 this week saw a start made on fabricating the cones that will fit inside the backhead cladding infill sections around the washout plugs to keep the insulation in place. This involved cutting out the basic shapes before bending into a cone and welding it up and then seeing how the finished product fitted before going into … Read More
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 … Read More
Final Week With the Santa Specials trains starting this weekend, the trailer was loaded up with all the Sales Stand gear and moved up to Tenterden where our new gazebo was erected, the raised floor installed and all the tables, wiring etc. set up ready for the weekend. Typically, it rained for most of Saturday which always adversely affects how … Read More
Week Four The long job of fabricating all the joining pieces between the shoulders of the firebox and backhead cladding continued this week with more bits being measured, cut, bent, screwed and welded together. The new oil lubrication pipe cover that fits on the smokebox side was trial fitted to mark the holes that need cutting out to allow the … Read More
Week Four This week started with taking apart the old ducket from 5164’s bunker which involved a lot of drilling, cutting, rivet removal and hammering before it surrendered. We then offered it up to the new platework and it’s a decent fit that will just require a little trimming and fettling before we can integrate it. Next job was fitting the … Read More
Final Week An extra day was worked on Monday this week with 4253’s cab and fireman’s side tank removed so a few rivet heads could be dressed back to prevent contact after which the tank and cab went back on. On Tuesday, the steam manifold was lifted into place so the position of the opening required in the cab front plate … Read More
WEEK FOUR This week, we started with accurately positioning 4253’s chimney so the fixing holes could be drilled through into the smokebox. The chimney has to sit directly vertically above the blast pipe, hence the making of the two ‘spiders’ previously. These ‘spiders’ have a machined boss at their centres through which passes a closely fitting steel rod. One is placed a few … Read More
Final Week This week’s main task was drilling all the holes in the coal floor support strips for 5164’s bunker and there were a great many of them. A diagonal line all along the side panels and another line all along the rear panel. The cladding team continued fitting the mud hole door covers to the top firebox cladding sheets with … Read More