Week Four

This week started with taking apart the old ducket from 5164’s bunker which involved a lot of drilling, cutting, rivet removal and hammering before it surrendered.  We then offered it up to the new platework and it’s a decent fit that will just require a little trimming and fettling before we can integrate it.

Next job was fitting the stud mounting plates for the tank retaining bar to the inside of the tanks and, for this, our youngest volunteer, Jake, was pressed into service as he’s also the smallest and his joints still bend without creaking so was the obvious choice to be dropped through the tank’s inspection hatch.

The work on the boiler’s rear corner cladding continued with bits getting cut and 

bent to shape before being

spot welded together and offered into position.

On Sunday, the main job was to fit the safety valve unit to the boiler which first required the last section of the water trays to be fitted (seen below sitting on top of the boiler) and all the retaining stud threads run down and cleaned up.

We then made a new gasket 

before lowering the unit into place and bolting it down.

Other jobs included, rubbing down the smokebox in preparation for its next coat of heat-resistant paint

and measuring the position for the retaining stud bosses for the tallow tray before welding them to the boiler backhead.

Week Three

Tuesday’s main job was to get the ducket and rear/side beading from the old 5164 bunker to sit comfortably on the new platework as a previous offering up had shown it to have ‘sprung’ noticeably after removal.  We started by welding a length of thick angle between two study trestles to give us a platform to clamp the ducket to and also a reference as to how straight (or otherwise) it was.  Once in place, each end was heating in turn and then bent until it was flat against the angle whereupon it was clamped into place and allowed to cool.

It was then offered up again

to enable the final heating and ‘percussive adjustment’ to the height of the side beading to be carried out.  

On 4253, the tank tops were rubbed down and given a coat of paint while the smokebox received another coat of  heat-resistant paint.  The fabrication of the infill cladding between firebox sides and the backhead continued with pieces being measured, cut to shape

and offered up,

Friday started with turning the old 5164 bunker so we could better access the curved rear panel that sits under the ducket.  

It has been decided that, given the new panel is such a poor fit to both the ducket itself and the flat, lower rear panel, it would be better to reclaim the original and fit that.  A start was made with grinding flush and knocking out some of the retaining rivets.

On Sunday, the curved panel plus a couple of inches of adjoining platework was cut out of the old bunker so we could more easily access and remove the unwanted sections of internal angle.

This shot shows it coming away with a final push.

It was then the laborious task of grinding off yet more rivet heads 

and then driving out the rivets.

4253’s new rear tank holding strap was offered up and suspended in the correct position on ropes so that the fixing holes could be marked on the rear faces of the tanks 

after which they were pilot drilled and then drilled to full size with the air drill which just fitted in the space available.

Week Two

Tuesday started with rubbing down the smokebox and chimney ready for the next coat of paint 

plus drilling the holes in the front handrails to take the retaining taper pins.

Work on fabricating the corner parts of the cladding to join the firebox side sheets to the backhead panels continued with shaping and bending small sections, welding on joining brackets and sorting retaining screws 

before offering them up for a trial fitting.  Eventually, most of these sections will be welded together.

On Friday, the smokebox received its next coat of paint which was applied by roller and immediately followed by ‘pulling down’ with a brush to get a better finish.

The delivery pipes from the injectors to the clacks that pass through columns in the water tanks were dropped into position so they could be marked for where they need to be bent

and yest more pieces of corner cladding were cut and bent to shape.  For the 5164 bunker, the corner strips that will join the upper coal floor to the side/rear panels were heated up 

so they could be bent round a former to the correct shape 

after which they were cut to length and will be welded to the straight sections of strip in due course.

On Sunday, the new bar that holds 4253’s tanks together at the firebox end was prepped 

before the original end pieces were welded on 

and then the holes for the fixing bolts were drilled in the tank ends.  The chimney received another coat of heat-resistant paint 

and the joining pieces for the handrails were turned down to give a better fit.

On the 5164 bunker, the pre-drilled holes for the breather pipe in the upper coal floor were found to not match those in the original pipe’s flange so a new flange had to be cut from plate 

and then drilled to match the holes in the platework.  

The doubling plate that will be welded on under the floor was drilled and tapped to accept the retaining bolts.  The tops of the corner pieces were marked and cut back to match the side and rear panels 

after which the rear ducket and associated beading were offered up 

and, to no one’s surprise, this revealed that an amount of reshaping was going to be required. 

A job for next week.

Week One

Work started this week with rubbing down the driver’s side tank ready for painting 

plus a bit more measuring of the front cab panel for the position of the cover for the whistles.

Work also started in shaping the cladding sections to fit round the back of the firebox in the cab which involved each section having to be bent in two places to the appropriate shape 

which involved extracting our old plate bender and giving it a quick service before pressing it into action.

The position for the tallow tray was also measured and marked out.

The tank holding bar that goes across the back of the boiler was severely corroded and thin so we made a new one which needed to be heated and bent to the appropriate shape.

On the 5164 bunker, the second corner piece had all the retaining rivet holes drilled through 

after which the template was attached so that the diagonal line of rivets could be marked out.  We then realised that the pre-drilled holes for both the side and rear hand rails were all positioned too low so these needed to be welded up 

and then dressed back.  Once that was completed, the upper coal floor was lifted into the bunker and lowered into position so that we could start marking out the position for the side and rear retaining strips.

These will need to be welded on and then drilled through for the fixing rivets.