Maintenance Update

Monday 26th:
Eleven black bottoms.

Tuesday:
Eleven primed tops.

Wednesday.
Carpo had told me that he wanted to work on boiler-related issues on 2807, including change over the steam valves and fir the new square-section springs.  Carpo was actually driving.  Breweries sprang to mind.

Gil & Fred took the opportunity to pack up the spare scaffolding and cart it off to Winchcombe, where they played with the siphon restoration.  Also there were, Ann & Colin, John Tyler (the roofing material had been delivered) and John Giles.

Meanwhile, Bruce applied top coat to 7 of the 11 chairs, having mistakenly assumed the four lighter green (GNR & LNER) were in top coat already.  Then the two of us cleaned up a further 8 chairs, and Bruce blacked their bottoms, too.

John Mayell was working with P-Way replacing rotten sleepers on the main line, so he popped in to collect a black boot scraper that he had ordered.  Casually, he mentioned that if ever we came across a January 1947 one, he'd like it.  I searched the GWR pile (1947 would be GWR, or possibly LMS/LNER but we have very few of those) and found none.  However, Bruce checked the unsorted pile of recent deliveries and ... ;-)

Upon the point of departing, we had a visit and a further request for a 1944 boot scraper.  I laughed (expecting to get a specific year is a tad hopeful).  Bruce checked the stock in the TPO, and there was no 1944 ready.  I said it would be GWR if we had one, and once more began sorting through the pile of ("raw") GWR chairs.  Would you believe it?  The very last one that I turned over was 1944!  Lucky old David Mansfield!

Friday.
Lettering completed on GWR & BR (crimson) chairs.  Chairs with (dry) black bottoms inverted & sorted in case the Saturday chaps have chance to paint some tops.

Saturday.
Report from David:
We had a team working to repair the crack in the left hand running board support angle. This had been noted by one of the crews some time ago. I arrived and began removing the dome headed bolts and nuts which I had previously loosened and re-tightened. I was joined by Ray, who offered to assist and then by Matthew. Gilbert and Bruce also arrived and joined in.

The bolts were all removed, including some stubborn ones, which succumbed to a pair of mole grips with someone standing on them, whilst someone else turned the nut beneath. One particularly awkward one was half hidden by the firebox cladding, so this had its head removed with an angle grinder and then knocked through. Needless to say, this one was not replaced, but there are plenty others to fasten the plate. The oiling box and lamp support were also removed to release the plate completely. Unfortunately it could not be removed completely, as the splasher was caught by the wheel flange, so we had to settle for lifting it up as far as possible and supporting it with blocks of wood. Shaun, who hovered off and on all day, assisted with this part, as it was quite heavy.

Bruce then settled down to renovate all the nuts and bolts so they would refit easily. Ray and Matthew went to do other things and Gilbert did some work on the tender, not quite sure what. I ground out the crack and welded it, finally grinding it back to the original profile. Ray took some pictures for the blog. The strange thing about the crack is that it went from the edge of the angle to the bolt hole, then continued on the same line from the other side of the hole. Holes are usually drilled to stop cracks, and they don’t usually continue across holes. I have a suspicion that the crack might have been there in the original plate in some form, then opened up more subsequently – we will never know!

The welding complete, a coat of black paint was applied and a green dab where I caught the bottom of the firebox with the angle grinder (sorry Geof). It was all put together again, with Ray and Matthew helping. We put copper grease on the bolt threads in case it has to come off again in the future. The bolt heads were painted black and all was cleared up. Gilbert left before the rest of us to rejoin Fred at Winchcombe, where he had been working on the Siphon.

Sunday:
Took the last 6 chairs from Winchcombe to Todders.  Had to remove two loco buffers blocking the path to the TPO before I could get there with the trolley!  Noted that no one had had time to paint any chairs on Saturday.  Fitted brushes to 4 BR(W) and 3 BR (crimson).  Fed the mouse.  Collected money for 4 boot scrapers from the F&W.

2807 is rostered to be in service on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday this week.

TTFN

Roger