I popped down for 5 mins, and there a poor lonely soul called Paul, from Brierley Hill, who had come to work in the steam loco dept. The only problem was, there was absolutely no one there! Well, we did discover that Tina was in the mess coach, cleaning up. So, I stayed a while and set him (and me) on barrowing ballast into the puddles to make a land bridge through the lakes from the TPO to the loco shed.
Mon 6th
I spent an hour or two cleaning the tools that we'd used last Saturday. They were filthy, mainly because of the grot beneath the loco and the puddles through which the extension cables had run. I discovered that the big socket set box has got numbers (sizes) on it next to the socket holes ... and the sockets have corresponding numbers on them, too !!! There are 3 sizes missing and two extra sockets that didn't come from this set. The Draper spanners are all there (I think) though the roll that held them was so disgusting that I consigned it to the landfill bin.
Weds 8th
There was an excellent turn-out today, and a substantial amount of the remaining work was completed - helped by being inside the loco shed!
When I arrived (after the Tesco run) Geof was removing brake blocks, with the assistance of Dixie [Roger Dean] and Mike [Loco Dept]. These were covered in filthy grease [not the chaps, the bake blocks! ... no, the chaps, too!!!), and the split pins retaining the blocks' pivot pins proved rather obstinate. By lunch time, they had finished the RHS. After lunch I joined them, and we removed the RHS brake blocks, which (luckily for me) had R-clips instead of split pins; these simply pull out ... I say "simply" ...
Gil & David spent most of the time between the frames removing the RHS internal motion parts and the expansion link. This took them right up to 3.30, at which time the rain had set in outside, and other Loco Dept chaps working out there decided to pack in.
Dixie removed the operating rod that works the vacuum pump, though one bolt made a dash for it on the floor, and managed to escape.
At one point, the position of the coupling rods prevented Dixie from removing said nut, and also prevented Geof et al from accessing the brake block pins, so we had to move the loco by hand - it only took 3 of us with "pinch-bars" to move her back about 2 feet.
Oh, back to "when I arrived": since everyone seemed busy, I put the kettle on! After a cuppa, I volunteered to get inside the firebox to remove the fire bars. The two fusible plugs were still in the top of the firebox, and I was privileged to be permitted to remove these, though Carpo [Loco Dept's "Boiler Responsible Person"] did keep an eye on me while pretending to hold the torch! Getting the fire bars out of the grate is a two-man job - one to lift each bar and pass it through the fire-hole door, while a second person needs to grab it and move it to somewhere safe. In this case, Pete [Loco Dept] was the catcher, and he then passed each out of the cab to Bruce, who was stacking them neatly at the side of the shed. The grate has to be out so that the boiler inspector can inspect all of the rivets round the foundation ring.
After lunch, Pete was forced (by Carpo) to dismantle the gauge frame (as a training exercise). Carpo said, 'If you're on the footplate and the gauge glass breaks ...', striking said glass violently with a spanner, 'there's a cloud of steam. What do you do?' Luckily, Pete only had to imagine the cloud of steam, of course.
Sat 11th
Loco Dept pulled 2807 out of the shed over the pit. I had bought some Denso tape, which David & John T used to wrap round the eccentrics to protect the bearing surfaces from rusting. Aided by Gilbert, David & John then began to remove the one remaining linkage – the drain cocks operating rod.
Bruce removed the delivery pipes from the front sand boxes (which could also only be done from beneath.
Bruce and I then tackled the rubber hoses between loco and tender, disconnecting them at the loco side, and at the same time removing the securing pins from the two auxiliary coupling bars, such that only the main one remained in situ.
Geof began to steam clean the drain cocks rod and sand pipes. Afterwards, he carried the brass bonnet from the shed into the TPO for safety (and in the hopes that someone (i.e. me) will clean it).
Stu arrived and prepared some boxes ready for holding boot scrapers. Thereafter, he acted as Tea Lady and Washer-up.
Bruce and John moved on to hopefully resolving a vacuum leak issue. We have had reports of rapid vacuum loss under certain conditions. This led to the inspection, dismantling, remantling and head scratching about components in the system (most notably the vacuum relief valve). However, Bruce figured that a leak in the packing around the vacuum cylinder piston could explain the issue. Bruce and I released the necessary bolts, and then after lunch Bruce and John T fitted fresh packing. Here’s hoping!
By lunchtime, John G, Steve and Ingo all turned up to help.
Geof initially set John G on cleaning out the remaining 5 or 6 blocked tubes, but they gave up, because I had removed the fire grate, so Geof couldn’t get on top of the brick arch to access the tube ends in the firebox! However, John G was then set on to cleaning out the smokebox. This turned out to be much filthier than at first looked – much muck was hiding in obscure places. In fact, John was still cleaning up outside the smokebox by the time the loco had been shunted out into the car park at the end of the day!
Meanwhile, Geof drained the water out of the glasses in the hydrostatic lubricator, to avoid ice damage.
Since there was little more to do, I set to cleaning rail chairs. I completed 5 by end of play.
Ben [Loco Dept] fired up the 08 shunter and hauled 2807 off the pit, round the yard, down the loading line and into the car park, ready for Allelys to collect her on Monday morning. Gil, David, John T and Ingo were all involved in parting the loco and tender.
Then Ben moved the tender round to the old pit by the coal staithe. Because of the track layout, the shunter had to abandon the tender such that points could be switched and the tender moved by hand over the old pit.
Once there, the remaining coal in the tender was shovelled out into the JCB’s bucket, so that we can clean and paint the tender coal space.
David examined the old bell cover and the new one, and will take the new one home to finish off. It needs a lubrication hole in the top, and its “skirt” needs shortening by about ½”. Temporarily, a bucket is being used to protect the pony truck bearing.
Roger.
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