Saturday was cancelled because 2807 was in service, and Monday was allocated for doing what we could while she was standing still .. though a shade warm! In fact, there was still 20 psi on the clock when we arrived this morning.
Bruce tackled the rear end covers of the injectors, which had been leaking steam slightly. A bit of PTFE should solve that problem [cue: me to buy some more].
David took a look at the guard/brake whistle bracket, which had come adrift. Below is a picky of the original (I didn't take one today!). The whistle chain passes through the pipe, which is attached to the cab roof. [Cue: me to buy a new ladder] Over the Thomas weekend, someone got a bit enthusiastic with 2807's whistle and managed to pull the pipe away from its base bracket! David took it home to fix - possibly to braze it on.
Another task for David concerned the regulator. Through wear & tear, it was beginning to override its end stop. So, David made a suitable lump of steel and welded it to the back of the regulator to make a sure stop. Thereafter, I painted the regulator handle red.
Gil & John spent most of the day playing with the LHS cylinder valve. Again, steam had been leaking past the rear gland. To gain access, you have to remove one panel of the running board. It is a filthy task, because oil gets thrown up all over the place underneath. [Cue: me to buy more gloves] Despite the fact that they wished they'd never started, the two of them did finish the new packing.
I began by examining the baffle plate (that fits inside the top half of the fire hole). It was reported as not fitting properly, and fouling the fire hole doors. This was just wear & tear, again. It has a rather primitive method of staying in place, which causes the front end of the bottom of the sides to wear down. I had a Plan A (which had been in my mind for years) to fit a more substantial bar along each side to take the weight better. Plan A failed because David couldn't weld a steel bar to the stainless steel baffle plate! So, Plan B was simply to make the two sides' bottoms parallel again. John gave me a hand during the "persuasion" phase, and then tested the fit: perfect!
2807 is in service all week, so Wednesday has been cancelled. She's likely to be in service over the weekend, too, though there is no roster yet posted. Anyway, Saturday is cancelled too! When she stands down for a week, we can tackle some of the jobs that were not possible because of the residual pressure in the boiler (and as David will testify, the pipes were bloomin' hot!).
Roger
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