Week One The first job this week was giving up on the gazebo that we’d been using to store the boiler cladding sheets given we were fed up of the wind repeatedly blowing it over despite the ever-larger weighting down. The old sales trailer was therefore bought down the field and pressed into service instead. After that, it was more swapping … Read More
Week Four This week has mainly been about ashpans. 4270’s damper doors were given a coat of paint now they’ve been straightened again and lengths of reinforcing box section welded onto them. On 4253’s, it was again lowered into the frames to check the fit but there was still some fouling at the top of the axle horns so, after a … Read More
Final Week This week started with shunting both 4253 and 4270 out of the shed to make room for the road-railer to get in there to pick up and remove the P class driving axle. Once they were both back inside again, the sections of crinoline round 4253’s boiler that occupy the position where the lifting strops will need to … Read More
Final Week (30th) This week it was the turn of 4253 to have all the boiler cladding removed starting at the firebox end and moving forward until it was all off, marked up and stacked in the boiler house. This enabled the holes to be drilled for the injector pipe holding brackets plus the final bits of trimming back that … Read More
Week Four The stripping down of 4270 continued this week with the superheater header getting the one remaining sealing ring removed after a bit of a fight followed by cleaning it up and then giving it a coat of heat-resistant paint. After that it was a case of checking the studs and running a die nut down them all to clean … Read More
Final Week The last bit of welding up of 4253’s steam pipe covers that could be done with them bolted in place was finished after which they were taken down, the final bits that couldn’t be reached were welded and then it was all dressed back and, later in the week, refitted once again. The Lobo platforms round the loco … Read More
Week Four On 4253’s front end, the brackets that hold the plate sitting above the superheater header were modified as we need to lower the plate to avoid it arguing with the steam pipes from the regulator box and the external steam pipe covers had various lugs welded on to support the gland rings, holes drilled and then assembled on … Read More
Week 4 This week’s main job was riveting the floor plate to the outer angle on the 5164 bunker and then turning it upright so the rear ducket could be lifted into position and bolted to its brackets ready for final welding. After that, it was given another spray coat of undercoat. Meanwhile, another team was continuing with the fettling … Read More