Progress August 2020

The usual three working party days this week with most of Tuesday’s work being restricted to indoors given the amount of rain falling.  Fortunately there were plenty of bits of trim and angle that had been removed from 5668’s bunker that could be cleaned up, painted, labelled and stored away.   The refurbishment of the forge was completed, the rivet rack was moved into the boiler room and the contents sorted and machining began on the rocking shaft bearing cap for 4253.

Friday was mainly a clean up day with all the sundry detritus cleared off work benches etc and put away or binned – we suddenly have far more working space although that’s unlikely to last more than a week.  Sunday was dry so we got back to stripping what little was left of 5668’s bunker which involved cutting off the remains of the sides and back

and then grinding back and removing the rivets to release the bottom outside angle.

Meanwhile work on the fireman’s side tank for 5668 continued with the assembly being stripped down again so that more holes could be marked and drilled, the rear outer side panel feathered back where the front panel will overlap it.

and the inner angle section ground back to accommodate the drain flange in the floor.  

Also, plenty of marking out was done which will provide the Tuesday guys with a few more holes to drill.