Week Three

Tuesday started with stripping down the partially trial-assembled 5164 bunker so that the angle pieces positioned on the inside of the front and side panels could be laid down and drilled through.  

While apart, the floor panel had the paint ground back where the angle for the baffles and a couple of strengthening doubling strips are to be welded on. 

There are still a few curved joining strips we need to extract from the old bunker, but the retaining rivets are proving extremely reluctant to shift so it looks as if we’ll need to drill them out.

We also got Gervase into the shed and under the crane hoist so that the boiler could be fully lowered into position which needed considerable care as there is almost nil clearance for the blow down valve studs as it passes through the floor.

Friday, and the cladding team were hard at it marking out more holes to be cut in the upper firebox sheets for the mud hole doors

although, after this was done, we found that a couple of the hinged covers had mounting holes that were excessively worn so these were all welded up and will now need redrilling.

The lower panels were drilled for the joining strips to be riveted 

and, on the bunker, the side panels were put back up and the front panel readied for attaching.

The first job on Sunday was to cut and weld on angle pieces to the lower sides of the bunker front panel, 

mark, cut back and notch the upper side angles to fit around the horizontal top edge angle 

and then lift and clamp the panel into position, drill through a couple of holes into the side angles and bolt them together.  The remaining holes will all be drilled during next week when we also hope to receive the replacement upper rear panel (hopefully with the correct radius bends this time).  The sections of angle for the shelf on the bunker were cut to fit and marked out ready for drilling the rivet holes next week .

4253’s backhead cladding is coming down the home straight with the majority of the joining strips riveted into place and the countersunk ones ground back.

One additional job this week was to chisel out a section of the floor and make and fit some wooden shuttering as we need a lay a raised, level concrete base on which to mount a secondhand pillar drill we’ve bought.  

Week Two

The week started with cleaning up the second piece of bottom angle from the 5164 bunker after which it was given a coat of primer.

As many of the new bunker panels were showing signs of surface rust, we rubbed them back and primered them as well.

There are still some usable sections of curved joining strips we need to remove from the old bunker so the grinding back and knocking out of rivets continued.

The 4253 cladding sheet team were working away on one of the firebox sections with a hole being measured, marked and cut out to provide access to the top mud hole door 

after which the cover was trial fitted.

Next, the bottom section was cold riveted on – we now have to repeat this for the other three firebox sheets.

An additional job was helping the Wednesday Working Group to repair some of the Railway’s queuing barriers to save the expense of having to replace them.

On Sunday, some of the team worked on the backhead cladding jigsaw with the first of the joining strips getting riveted on.  These rivets are so small it’s just a case of heating them up 

and then knocking them over with a hammer.

For the 5164 bunker. here was much inspection of drawings, 

measuring, marking out 

and then trial fitting various parts to gauge the overall fit.

We have found that the upper rear panel is incorrect which will delay progress until we have the replacement to hand.  However, we can start drilling the angle pieces to join the front panel to the sides so these were positioned and clamped into place and will be next week’s first job.  Various lengths of angle and reinforcing strip were cut and their position marked on the floor ready for welding,

Week One

On Tuesday, Gervase’s overhauled boiler was returned and lowered onto blocks within the cab.  Final fitting will have to wait until we can get the loco into the shed and under the overhead crane as there is so little clearance where it passes through the floor.

Meanwhile, the cladding team continued with their measuring, marking 

and cutting of steel sheet.

More rivets were ground flat and knocked out of the old 5164 bunker on Friday

and the centre, rear support stut that was removed last week was dismantled.  This took some time as it’s two pieces of angle rived together with one of the water space baffles sandwiched between them.  It required grinding flat of the rivets, drilling a pilot hole 

and then fully drilling out the remains to separate the parts.  

After that the two pieces of angle were cleaned up and given a coat of primer.

On Sunday we concentrated on removing the main angles that fit on the floor panel around the rear and sides of the bunker as these are to be reused.  This involved the grinding off and knocking out of a great many rivets and required the pneumatic rivet buster to be called into service,  

Even so,  a number of the rivets needed a pilot hole drilled through to enable them to slightly collapse while being forced out.  Eventually, the two pieces were removed 

and the first piece cleaned of all the old paint and rust

after which it was offered up to the new panels and fitted without problem.  

Luckily, both pieces are in surprisingly good condition.  Finally, the last of the steps and the lamp brackets were cleaned up, repaired as necessary and given a coat of primer.