Monday 22 August 2016

Maintenance Update (sorting, reservoir, lathe, rail)

Wednesday 17th
Well: Fred, John G and Bruce finished removing bits & bobs from the TPO. Bill came after lunch and joined in. Gil sorted through the filing cabinet and binned most of it - it was old paperwork. I pottered about during the morning, but decided it was time to begin the boot scraper production once more, as my visit to Winchcombe station on Tuesday revealed that they only had one left to sell!

Gil spent many happy hours sorting out the container and putting things in “familiar” places - that is, to replicate the layout as it had been in the TPO as far as possible.

2807 was in service because … well, I’m not sure. Foremarke was having a wash-out, 4270 was also in service, but why P&O was not in service I don’t know. Speaking with Andrew M [of P&O] he seemed to think that they had fixed their injector problem.

Bruce & Gil were discussing our issue with the rapid loss of oil from the cross-heads. Their feeling is that this is not causing the slide bars to become excessively hot. However, Carpo chipped in and suggested that the lower oil reservoir should not sit, unrestricted, directly over the felt pads.


See the lower cork? Oil in here sits in a small reservoir which simply has a hole in the bottom, beneath which is a felt pad that rubs on the slide bar. You can see oil dribbling down where it has been filled. You can also see a large amount already on the slide bar. Carpo thinks that there should be a vertical tube inside the reservoir, such that oil splashes into it and down to the felt pad. That would restrict the flow; in fact, it does make sense for when the loco is not in motion: no oil would flow. Technical drawing needed, to see what Swindon had in mind.

During the afternoon, I had rigged up a power supply and cleaned up seven rail chairs. When it came to figuring out where to put them to paint, the only sensible place was … inside the TPO! So, the chaps moved a table back in there, and put the rail chairs in, and then I went in search of the paint brushes … and the keys to the paint store … and my little painting turntable …
It took a while, but I found them all, and by 5pm had painted 7 black bottoms!

Thursday 18th
I decided that I had to put in some overtime, as the Coffee Pot at Winchcombe had only one boot scraper for sale on Tuesday, and the Flag & Whistle only have three left today! So, I popped down for an hour or so to apply the first (primer) coat to the rail chairs. While there, I thought I better take a photo of 2807 just so that you know we still have got her! She was just lounging in the sunshine, still cooling down after yesterday’s work schedule.


Friday 19th
Another hour-and-a-half overtime! Enamel coats applied to the seven boot scrapers.

Saturday 20th
John T arrived first and opened up. P&O’s injector had failed again, but fortunately Foremarke Hall and 4270 were fit, so 2807 languished in the yard.

David spent the entire day working on the lathe - not making things; improving things like its gears. At one point he dropped a locking pin on the floor. Three of us were down on hands & knees looking for this bit of metal that’s just 2mm x 2mm x 2mm. Even using a magnet, we couldn’t find it! David made a new one. David also mended the top drawer of the tool cabinet. A rivet had fallen out of one of the roller wheels, and the drawer would not close.

John spent most of the day cutting bolts off rail chairs in the pile. Also, there were a lot of “00” chairs, which are heavier than the standard 95 lb/yd ones, and these were relegated to the skip. Mike W gave a hand in heaving these off the trolley and into the skip. John finally cleaned up one rail chair before rain stopped play.

Bill called in (from Winchcombe) looking for some bitumen paint to apply to the siphon frames. Gilbert found him some.

Geof called in (from Winchcombe) looking for bodies to remove, check and fix the axleboxes on the siphon bogies. Not only did no one volunteer, but he was told to go away until mid-September! The loco gets priority.

Gil, however, spent most of the day contemplating the cross-head conundrum. He poked around in the oil feed hole to little avail. Apparently, corks have been popping out of the filler recently. This is a puzzle. Possibly the cross--head gets hot enough to cause expansion of oil (or air) in the pot and blows the cork out? Odd, though, because corks have breathers (canes) through them. With no suitably detailed technical drawing, Gil is lost. Anyway, Gil decided that the LHS cross-head is coming off again on Wednesday!

I began by cleaning up a pair of rails, three rail chairs and four clips - an order from a chap who wants to make a short length of track as a feature in his garden. He collected them by lunchtime, saying that his wife had finally agreed to it … but not to him erecting a signal post in the garden!


Why only three chairs? Because he’s already got one.

After this, I pressed on with boot scrapers, completing the seven by end of play. As some of the paint was not dry, they couldn’t go into the cafés yet.

Sunday 21st
Now the paint on them was dry, I could deliver boot scrapers to the cafés.

Andrew M [P&O] said that he thinks they have solved their injector problem. It’s all to do with a replaceable face in a clack valve. This face screws in … and it had been screwing itself out!

Shunting in the yard has moved the van that we are squatting in closer to the action. Thanks, Carpo!


Roger

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