Just me, today. I got on with boot scrapers - cleaned & prepared six, and then painted their bottoms.
Just as I was packing up, John Mayell turned up ready to help do some boot scrapers! Excellent timing. :-)
Tony Goddard called in to buy a 1911 GWR boot scraper and to order a GWR 1933 one for next week.
The Coffee Pot had sold 4 and the F&W had sold 2.
Colin B. also popped in, but only to collect a pressie from Stuart. BTW: Stuart has now moved to Lancashire. He will continue running the 100 Club, but we now have no-one to coordinate sales & stall activities !!!
Colin reports:
" Ann and I went to help on the siphon on Weds. We had a really positive day Ann painting the outside of the ends of the coach . Me helping Fred remake the back corner post we found some rot in the solebar so were forced to grid out the bolts but it was not as bad as it looked and should be easy to fix.
I also helped Gilbert in fixing the support brackets which hold the sides in, and that means that we are quite close for the roof fixing just one new bit being made by C/W to go. All in all a good day
By the way the idea from Stu about internal fittings and dummies for siphon I should have said we were going to beg or borrow the stuff we need rather than pay overpriced antique type set ups. Just thought I should say that.
After work the dog was platting his legs by the time we got home. All these people on the road should be stopped! "
Bruce commented:
"I was at home doing my homework - making the spacers for the safety valves. I finished them off on Thursday".
Wednesday's rumour: They've just changed another spring on the Turkish 8F.
Thursday 17th
I nipped down to Winchcombe and acquired half-a-dozen Midland Railway chairs, circa 1900. Took them to Todders on the workbench, in anticipation.
Gave a guided tour to three people, one being a P&O advocate up visiting from Kent. No kind donation received. :-(
Friday 18th
I compiled a new 2807 noticeboard for Toddington yard.
Saturday 19th
Gil passed through, principally to deliver the machined die block (the photo hardly shows how sparkly it is!). David is going to take this home and get two side-plates made for it - laser cut. He's also going to make the four rivets to sandwich the block between the plates.
Meanwhile, David cleaned an injector drain; made the split pins & nuts for the lifting links, and then spent the rest of the day playing with a tapered pin whose end had been abused to the point where there was extremely little metal between the hole for its split pin and the end of the nutty bit.
Dave decided to add weld to the top, building up the metal. A five-minute job, of course, that needed all of the welding gear to be got out and set up. Much welding and slag-chipping too place and then he could angle-grind the weld into something resembling a circle with a flat(-tish) surface. The weld, of course, had bunged up the hole for the split pin. So, David attempted to drill it out again. This nearly worked, but the drill bit broke .. and the hole appeared to go sideways (not straight-through)! David decided that the only solution was to angle-grind a wedge down to the hole, and weld it all up! This did show that there may have been two holes originally - one bearing slightly to the left (as it were). So, with a big V in the top, David began welding it again!
By the time he had welded it up, chipped off more slag, angle-ground it to shape, and drilled a proper hole … it was time to go! But we all had a cuppa first.
Bruce had finally decided on the optimum hole-cutter and density of felt for making the lubrication pads for the eccentrics. Thoughtfully, he made lots of pads rather than just two. He finished off making the mesh dome (that improves the flow of oil behind the pads). He'd also bought and brought some O-ring seals for the injectors, and fitted those.
I took the new noticeboard, fitted it in its case, and the chaps assisted me in erecting it in the car park.
Thereafter, I prepared six Midland Railway chairs 1899 ~ 1901 that P.Way had found for us.
On the way out, Bruce spoke with John Whatsisname, who just happened to have been at Tyseley yesterday. They are still working on the centre two axles, but the axlebox slots in the frames have been squared up and aligned, and they are white-metalling the bearing surfaces of the boxes. It doesn't look as though 2807 will be back with us by end of April, though!
We all agreed to take a week off (next weekend being the Wartime Weekend, and car parking is on the field, only, which is much too far to walk!).
Roger
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