Week Four

This week, yet more clever shaped cladding bits were cut out and bent

and more cones for the washout plug areas were made.

The driver’s side corner pieces have now all been made to below floor level so the end of this job is now in sight.  We also trial fitted a few bits we’d made some years back such as the quadrant cover to ensure nothing was fouling.  The safety valve bonnet was taken down so that we can fettle the delivery pipe covers to meet the clack covers neatly.

In preparation for the build of the 5164 bunker, the floor panel was turned right way up after last week’s welding, placed on girders on the floor, cleaned down and given a coat of paint.

On Sunday, the build proper commenced with the lower rear panel having the edges weld prepped 

before mastic was applied and it was placed in position and bolted to the inner angle.  After that, the side panels were bought in, 

mastic applied, the outer angle sections were then placed in position and then everything was bolted up i.e. inner and outer angles with the side and rear panels sandwiched in between.  The joining strips attaching side and rear panels were temporarily bolted on the outside.

This aligned the joins between those panels which were then seam welded on the inside and then ground back flush.

The inner, corner angle pieces that had been rescued from the old bunker were then welded to the floor and then bolted to the rear panel after which the front panel was lifted into place, bolted up and the angle pieces that attach it to the floor were welded in.

The holes around the bottom angle were reamed through as necessary 

after which we riveted through all the bottom angles 

with the job finished by the end of the day.

Week Three

It was so wet this week that the first job undertaken was fixing the leak in the roof right above where the 5164 bunker floor was being worked on.

With that completed, we finished the outstanding welding on the inner angle and the doubling plates for the water valves and then lifted and turned the sheet over.  The balance pipe mounting plates were then positioned and the remaining fixing holes drilled up through the angle after which the threads for the water valve fixing bolts were tapped into the doubling plates.  To ensure these are all properly at 90^o, a centre is held in the Magdrill to engage with the tap to keep it perfectly vertical.

Following that, the entire sheet was rubbed down and given a coat of black undercoat. 

On 4253, the team continued making complicated shaped, clever bits to complete the backhead infill cladding 

and made more cones to fit around the corner washout plugs.  The safety valve bonnet, clack covers and delivery pipe covers were loosely assembled to see how much fettling is going to be needed to get them to fit together neatly.

On Sunday. work centred around 5164’s bunker floor sheet with it getting lifted and positioned on its side so that we could start riveting on the inner side angles.

Once done, 

the countersunk rivets that sit under the balance pipe mounting plates were ground flush, the floor plate was then lifted again and put back on the trestles after which the mounting plates were bolted into position and then fully welded to the floor.

Then the welded areas and the rivet heads on the underside were all cleaned up and more black undercoat applied.

We also managed to squeeze in a couple of 4253 jobs; welding the new support rings for the wash out pipes onto the bunker 

and cleaning up the quadrant plates.

Week Two

Work on 4253 this week saw a start made on fabricating the cones that will fit inside the backhead cladding infill sections around the washout plugs to keep the insulation in place.  This involved cutting out the basic shapes

before bending into a cone and welding it up 

and then seeing how the finished product fitted before going into full production.

The smokebox got rubbed down before receiving another coat of heatproof paint 

and we started modifying the ashpan washout system.  Use of this system on other locos has shown that the sudden flow of cold water through the hot pipes was leading to fractures where the pipes were welded to mounting posts welded to the sides of the ashpan.  We’ve therefore cut through the welds to release the pipes, 

and then reduced the length of the posts by grinding them back.

We then cut up some round tube into inch lengths 

which will be welded to the posts and the pipes themselves will then by supported in the loose-fitting rings to allow for expansion and contraction.

The covers for the clack delivery pipes have also been measured and cut to length.

On the 5164 bunker, the rivet holes on the underside of the floor panel have all been countersunk to allow for where the bunker sits on the loco frames, 

the inner, bottom angles have been bolted into position ready for tack welding 

and the positions on the side panels for the steps have all been measured and marked.

When going to fix the doubling plates to the floor for the injectors we found that the 4 mounting holes did not line up with the holes in the floor panel with the PCDs being 1/8” out.  Having established from the original GWR drawing which was the correct PCD, we had to weld up the incorrect holes 

and then redrill.

Week One

This week saw the delivery of the curved covers that go over the delivery pipes to the clacks and, after checking for fit (which was excellent) they were given a coat of primer and set aside.

Work on the infill cladding around the backhead corners continued and, at long last, is coming down the home straight.

Work on the 5164 bunker included reaming the holes through the lower rear panel and the internal and external angles in preparation for riveting,

and drilling through the side angles into the floor plate.

The rear angles received the same treatment but, due to the lack of room, these had to be drilled by hand rather than using the far easier Mag drill 

and, once completed, the rear panel was unbolted and lifted away.

The inner doubling plates were cut to fit round the inner side angles, bolted into position 

and then fully welded to the floor.

All the angles were then unbolted and removed so everything can be deburred and cleaned of swarf, the floor panel was turned over and a start made on countersinking the rivet holes that will need to be a flush fit to sit on the loco frames.