I took my grandson for a ride on the train on Sunday and on the way back from Cheltenham, 2807 ground to a halt … twice … out in the wilds between Gotherington and Greet. Imagine my concern! As soon as we arrived at Winchcombe, we went up to the engine and I asked what had happened? It transpired that one of the crew’s hat flew off on the way down, and they were looking for it on the way back! Panic over.
Wednesday 20th
Bruce checked the special spanner that he’s making to tighten the top clack valves against the clacks on Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor. Although those on the latter had seen some rough treatment in the past, Bruce’s spanner head does fit them all OK.
It wasn’t practical to check those on 2807, as she was in service. However, he did manage to clamber under and measure the diameter of the flanges on the water pipe connection between loco and tender. They are bigger than on the drawing (not much of a surprise there): 5” as opposed to 4¾”.
Thereafter, Bruce move on to boot scraper production … as did Steve.
John G started by applying a top coat to the 4 green and 2 black rail chairs in the production line. He then moved on to tapping the new sleeves for the AWS conduit. These fittings are a shade tight on the pipe ends, possibly because they are galvanised, which has coated the threads. So, they needed a tap running through them to make them fit. At the end of the afternoon, John moved back into boot scraper production, applying black to fresh bottoms.
I messed around with rail chairs, too: needle gunned a couple; wire-brushed a couple; cuts bolts of several chairs. P-Way had delivered another pile recently - mostly GWR ones. Some, however, are “ought-ought” chairs for 97½ lb rail, which are really too heavy for boot scrapers. So, unfortunately I had to dump those in the skip. I did notice that one GWR chair seemed to have a date in 1900 and a manufacturer of PNB. I’ll be able to confirm once it’s cleaned up. This acronym means nothing to me - does it to you?
2807 is resting on Thursday and Friday, and back in service for the weekend. She is out of use then to the end of April; Thereafter there is no loco roster posted.
On the Issues Log, the following are recorded:
06: Tender and Loco brakes adjusted. We did that and we logged it as done.
07: Top gauge frame klinger blowing. No adjustment left. I had noted a fizz from the top valve of the gauge frame when lighting the warming fire last week.
08: Left-hand/right-hand cylinder oil feed tap passing, leaking. Not at full adjustment. That’s on top of the hydrostatic lubricator; it’s a selector for which condensing coil to use.
Clive [Loco Dept] also mentioned that the centre left drain cock is still leaking steam. Gilbert thinks the spring might be too weak. We’ll have to take another look.
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| Photo courtesy of Steve Price |
Roger
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