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
Week Four During the week there was much drilling of angles for the 5164 bunker after which they were all removed to clean out the swarf, de-burr the holes and bolt it all back together again. The last of the curved joining angle pieces that we need were finally extracted from the old bunker after putting up fierce resistance. Many of … Read More
Week Four Work on 4253 this week has been exclusively cladding with the bits welded together last week getting dressed back and painted, more retaining bands being cut to length and the end brackets cold riveted on and the backhead jigsaw having more bits cut and added. At least with the departure of the 541 tender tank there is more room … Read More
Final Week During the week, the filters and operating rods removed from Gervase last week were cleaned up, the drive chain was removed and, together with the engine sump, was steam cleaned to remove all the muck. Ther mesh screen above the sump was partially blocked by white metal that had dropped on it from a run bearing some years … Read More
Week Four As well as the usual three working days this week, four of us travelled up to Leeds on Monday for the funeral of our old friend and colleague Dick Weeks. RIP Dick, you will be missed. Work on Gervase is progressing with the roof section bought in out of the rain so it could be cleaned, the flaking old … Read More