Sunday 18 October 2015

Maintenance Update (reverser, shackle, meeting)

Saturday 10th
Bruce checked the issues log, and there were no issues from Friday's Fire & Drive.  So, there was not a lot to do.  However, Bruce did remind me that various crews had felt some sort of knocking from the loco.  I had heard a knock once, when walking along side as she was being shunted in the yard.  So, John T and I decided to clamber over her looking for "shiny bits" (i.e. where something might have been knocking or rubbing against something that it shouldn't).

Despite a good crawl inside & out, the shiniest thing we found was a rubbing wear on the right-hand lifting link.  It is clear that the bolt through the forward eccentric rod does catch on the lifting link.  However, there appeared to be a gap of about 1/8 inch.  We waggled the reverser; we heaved on the rods; but we couldn't move anything significantly.  There is a gap at each end of the reversing shaft, where there is a collar to limit the sideways movement.  Could this possibly move enough to cause the bolt & link to collide?  Bruce didn't think so.  Maybe it's just one of those things - when hurtling along at 25 mph, things oscillate and sometimes do 'high fives' with one another?  Either ways, when she's near to a power supply, we'll grind a bit off the end of the bolt.


We think that there is a need to walk along side (as I had done previously) and listen to where this knock is coming from.

Eleanor (not my daughter) had cleaned out the smokebox and the grate.  It was too hot to get inside the firebox and clean the grate properly.  The Wednesday gang will have to do that.

Bruce was giving Eleanor a lesson in vacuums as I clambered into the cab.  I distracted him, and we took a look at the copper pipe with a crack in it.  There was no pressure on the 'clock', though some steam would pull through the whistle.  Guess what?  There were drops of water oozing out of the crack in that pipe!  This despite that coil being closed off.  The consensus view is that the packing in the Y-splitter expands/contracts dependent upon steam pressure, and under little pressure it allows steam to squeeze past the on/off cock.  Once pressure rises, it seals.

Bruce investigated making a new pipe.  There is no point in trying to silver-solder the outside of a pipe that is under boiler pressure.  The ends of the pipe are formed (swaged).  We have the technology, but not the pipe.  I asked Gil to order some 1/2 inch thick-walled copper pipe.  He things it comes in ten-foot lengths.

In odd moments, John cleaned up a couple of rail chairs and chopped the bolts of many more.  I applied a top coat to 7 in the production line, and then did some tidying up of the pile of rail chairs awaiting attention.

Fred, Gil, Geof and Bill were all working in the siphon.  Geof & Gil were forming the joints (tenons) in the new door frame.  Bill was painting the metalwork of the ceiling.  Fred was doing something on the outside!  I was only calling in to get Gil's autograph on the cheque for our 100 Club winners.  But guess what I spotted … two LMS chairs and one LNER ….

Sunday 11th
… which are now in the pile at Todders.

Down there on crossing duty at the Diseasel Gala, I realised that (yet again) no one had put the cap on the chimney!  So, I did, of course.

Wednesday 14th
There was only Bruce & myself today.  We decided to try to fix the bolt (strictly, it's a tapered pin with a castellated nut on the end) that is making the shiny mark on the hanging link.  Bruce connected up the power - we had to run the 110V from the end of the pit down to the loco, which was well past the pit.  Then he read the notice that says not to use the 110V in road 8, so he had to move it to road 9's pit.  Finally, after covering everything with cloths, I was able to angle-grind a smidgeon off the end.  Bruce, being today's gopher, brought the red paint, and I applied a little to the end of the bolt and to the hanging link.  We'll find out on Saturday (after Friday's Fire & Drive session) if they still have a spatial coincidence problem.

Gil arrived, partly to deliver an invoice to me and partly to bring the newly-purchased adjustable reamer … and then discuss with Bruce the plan of attack.

Meanwhile, I painted lettering on seven boot scrapers and fitted a brush to each of six.

Gil buzzed off to Winchcombe, so Bruce & I decided to wend our ways, too.  Bruce went home … to do some homework; I boxed up the six boot scrapers and adjourned.

Today we had to say 'farewell' to a faithful friend, who has faultlessly carried out its duties for some 30-odd years.  Someone noticed that the shackle that has helped heave many an item up, in & out of 2807 is marked "for recovery use only", so we are banned from using it to lift anything!  So? … We were only "recovering" the valve rods from the cylinders …


Saturday 17th
Today was a 2807 Board Meeting (which means that little work gets done!).

Bruce & David struggled past us in order to get some jobs done.  They began by preparing and welding the seam of the toolboxes on the tender.  These had been coming apart for a while.  Having been spotted wielding a welder, David was then co-opted into doing some welding for Dinmore Manor!

Bruce move on to removing the flange from the out-flow side of our blow-down valve.  JC had asked to borrow this in order to make a pattern for it.

There will be a period of silence on the 2807 updates, because I am otherwise engaged for a bit.  Rest assured that I have not forgotten about you!


Roger

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