Saturday 31st
John T and Bruce tackled more boot scrapers (as there
was nothing to do on the loco). John needle-gunned and wire-brushed six
chairs; Bruce applied top coat to eight that were already in the
production line, and then slapped black on John's six bottoms.
Wednesday 4th November
Gil, aided by Jeff L [Loco Dept], removed most of the mud-hole doors and boiler wash-out plugs.
John P & Martin C [both Loco Dept] removed the fire bars from the grate.
Bruce stripped and lapped the safety valves.
All of this was in preparation for a boiler inspection next Monday.
During
the morning, I needle-gunned and wire-brushed three rail chairs that
were boot scrapers back in for refurbishment. After lunch, I was giving
Martin a lesson in lighting-up. It was a bit tricky, as most locos had
had their grates removed, and some locos kept moving about! What we
decided in the end was that next Wednesday 2807 will need a warming fire
lighting in readiness for a steam test on the Thursday … Martin can do
that!
After
the lesson, I returned to the TPO to black the bottoms of the three
that I had prepared, plus pick out the gold lettering on six that Bruce
had top-coated.
Saturday 7th
John
T cleaned the wash-out plugs and the mud-hole doors. Then he applied
primer/undercoat to 7 rail chairs. Finally, towards the end of the day,
when the last few plugs were out, he cleaned these, too.
Gil
removed a small cab floor panel in order to gain access to a ferrule
that was fouling a wash-out plug (that needed to come out!).
Bruce & Gil cleaned up the safety valve components, ferrules and gauge frame.
The
plugs inside the smokebox were determined not to come out, so Ben,
Cliff and Andy B [all Loco Dept] tackled these tough ones. Even then,
two plugs are still refusing to come out! … one in the smokebox and one
on top of the boiler, I believe. Let's hope the Boiler Inspector will
let us off those two!!!
After
lunch, Bruce was commandeered to help with 4270 … and Gil got swept up
by it too. They assisted in removing plugs and mud-hole doors, but
couldn't remove them all because the boiler had not yet been drained.
In fact, because the loco was in the shed and not near a drain, they had
to manually bar the loco along to reach the drain! Bruce clambered up
to remove 4270's safety valves, too. Their brass bonnet is held down
using round-headed brass screws, and one of them ….
… proved too tough for Bruce to undo on his own!
Anyway, I think we are pretty much ready for the inspection on Monday, now.
Family
chores held me back today, so I only did the afternoon shift. I
assembled 4 boot scrapers, sanded and stained 10 brushes and finished
off applying primer/undercoat to the last two chairs in the production
line.
Loco Allocations. 2807 is scheduled for the November race trains with No 4270 as a backup.
Nos 5542 and 7820 are scheduled for the Santa Specials.
Roger
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