Week Four

Over the last two weeks we’ve had a major clear up and rearrangement of the bunko booth

so that we could clear a sufficiently large space in which to build the crinolines and cladding sections.

We were given a damaged sack barrow so that was stripped and cleaned prior to having the broken section welded up 

after which it was painted and reassembled and is no ready for reuse.

4253’s ATC unit was stripped down, cleaned out and checked over 

after which it was painted and returned to storage.  We’ve also cleared a space outside the booth as we’ll need somewhere to store the rolled cladding sections that are presently on order.

The overhaul of the Railway’s plate rollers has now been finished with the last of the safety covers screwed back into place.

Another job we are doing is making a new header tank for the GWR Railcar so the steel for that has been cut and other, shaped sections ordered.

This Sunday, we refitted the valve rod crossheads

followed by barring the loco backwards and forwards a considerable number of times to take various measurements as the first step in setting the valve positions.  At HBSS the various internal steam pipes have been fitted 

with this shot showing the ends prior to being cut back and expanded.

Week Three

No updates this week. Sorry.

Week Two

On Tuesday, the cladding sheets cut out last week had the edges cleaned up and repainted, the studs holding the valve piston rod packing glands were removed and the threads recut with a die as the retaining nuts had felt too tight on them.

The front running plates were trimmed back slightly so they are more easily removable for access to the valves 

and the valve crossheads were cleaned up ready for fitting.

On Friday, the new control panel for the plate rollers was installed and all the wiring completed so that piece of kit is now fully operational once more.

The extra steel sheets from which to make the cladding arrived and were cleaned down and painted for protection 

and then the hunt began through our rivet stocks to find ones of a suitable size and length for attaching the smokebox to the boiler upon its return.  Luckily we came up with sufficient that we don’t need to buy any more.

On Sunday, the new steel sheets were marked out and the remaining cladding pieces cut 

after which all the parts were labelled and put aside ready for rolling.

The final bit of build-up welding on the frames adjacent to the driver’s side cab entrance was undertaken and is now nearly finished.

Week One

This week started with searching out all the odd bits of steel sheet we have in storage so we can start making bits of cladding as that job will need to begin on the boiler’s return.  A couple of near complete 8’ x 4’ sheets made a good start and these were cleaned up and given a coat of primer.

Other work included fitting new studs to the brake cylinder bottom plate, 

repainting the area of the frames that had received a bit of building up with weld

 and packaging up a length of copper pipe needed by HBSS in Liverpool as one of the internal steam pipes was found to be in less than perfect condition.

On Sunday, there were two main jobs to do.  Marking out and plasma cutting the steel sheets to produce the sized cladding pieces we needed with the minimum wastage

and removing the valve pistons from the loco to begin the task of taking measurements to set the timing.  This involved first removing the front tunning plate access panels 

followed by the cladding, insulation and front covers so measurements could be taken 

before everything was put back together again.  

Another job completed was drilling the new nuts for the brake cylinder to accept split pins.