Week 2

Work on the boiler’s elephants ears continued with sections being trial fitted, 

marked for trimming 

and then having the surplus bits cut off.  

In addition one needed a slight change of shape where it fits round the bottom of the firebox so was placed in the hydraulic press for a little tweaking.

The cladding section that fits over the front of the throat plate was drilled and tapped to accept holding brackets,

At the smokebox end of the loco, the covers for the main steam pipes were marked out for cutting where they will meet the curve of the smokebox.  A job that took some considerable time to get absolutely right using the plywood template made last week.

For 5164’s bunker, it was time for it to be moved outside so it was jacked, placed on machinery skids and manoeuvred towards the double doors where, having taken measurements, we were confident it would just get through.  Unfortunately, those measurements were taken prior to fitting the rear handrails so we had to take them off again whereupon it fitted with literally less than 2 inches spare per side.

Once out, strops were placed through the lifting eyes and it was taken into the field 

and then placed on its front to give access to the floor panel and to enable us the rivet the floor to the bottom angles.  The belly tank section that had been welded in from the inside last Sunday was then welded along the outside seams 

and, in preparation for the water test, blanking plates were cut and drilled for the balance pipe and injector holes 

and then bolted into place with gaskets.

Finally, the belly tank area was cleaned down and given a coat of paint.

Week 1

The primary job on 4253 this week was the fitting of the elephants ears sections of cladding on the front corners od the firebox.  After some measuring, the first trimming cuts were made 

and, after a bit of offering up and more trimming, the upper section on the fireman’s side fitted very well.

Next it was the lower section which, after the initial round of marking out and trimming, 

was found to be sitting a little too far away from the boiler.  To rectify, a number of slits were cut into the sheet 

which, when closed up, resulted in  it sitting correctly.  These slips will be welded up in due course.

While all the fill-in sections of cladding between the backhead and the rear of the firebox were off, they were all strung up outside and given a spray coat of paint with this shot showing the complexity of shapes involved.

At the other end of the loco, we were making templates for cutting the outside steam pipe covers to the radius of the smokebox.  This involved starting off with cardboard shapes 

before transferring them to plywood.

On 5164’s new bunker,  the entire outer surface was cleaned with a tacky cloth to remove all traces of dust after which it received a second spray coat of green undercoat.  

The corners of the lower coal floor were welded to make watertight after which the panels that shape the cut-out at the front of the bunker were offered up with the triangular side pieces being tack welded into place. The sloping closing panel was found to have quite a pronounced curve to it so was taken into the main workshop where it was placed in the hydraulic press and carefully bent straight again.  It was then transported back to the bunker, 

placed in position and tack welded in.  After everything was deemed satisfactory all the panels were fully seam welded.