Maintenance Update (brushing, rocking, manipulating)

Peter Radford alerts us to …

"I thought "you and yours (within 2807 circles)" might like to know that there are some nice pictures of 2807  in "Bachmann Times", Volume 16 Number 2 (Winter 2015), which I've just read (borrowed from Arthur Dransfield).
They were taken at the Bachmann Collectors Club Members Day on 5th September.
(Rather like Kings Place, they don't seem to bother with apostrophes!)"

Wednesday 13th

Gil, Bruce and Dixie got on with playing on the loco, but I was concerned that there are urgent jobs to do … but that can't be done until the pony is reassembled.  The result will be (he predicts) a mad rush in February … when I won't have time to build up boot scraper stock!  But first, I decided to slap some paint in the notice (display) board which suffers in the sunshine.  Barely had I begun, when Chris [Loco Dept] came looking for us, because an assignment of brushes had been delivered!  504 of.  "Where did we want them?"  Much re-arranging of shelves ensued!  Eventually I managed to stack the 21 boxes and finally clean four rail chairs …

Dixie spent most of the day trying to remove the RHS rocking shaft.  The intermediate valve rod is attached to the inside arm of the rocking shaft by a tapered pin.  This has to be removed in the inwards direction, but there is no room between pin and loco frame to, as Dixie put it, "Give it a wallop!".  All you can do is apply pressure and whack the arm, hoping to give it a big enough shock to break its grip on the pin.

Apart from measuring things (mainly holes), Gil also assisted Dixie.

Bruce also did some measuring, on the pony frame.  He's trying to ensure that the top of it ends up horizontal!  Our pony doesn't match any of the formal diagrams (gosh, that's a surprise) so Bruce is struggling to make sense of the actual dimensions of ours.

Bruce also spoke with JC about the steam heating connection between our loco & tender.  We are getting new connections so that they fit a standard BR hose, rather than the narrower GWR hose.  JC is having them made.  There is some debate as to the angle that the connections should be pointed at!

Also, Bruce borrowed a swager from JC for the end of the new bit of copper tubing between Y-splitter and condensing coil (in the cab roof).  He's decided to make one that is a better fit for our tubing.

Late in the day (3.50 pm), I thought the chaps had given up, so popped into the shed to take a photo.  Then all three of them materialised as if by magic!  Gil & Dixie explained how they had been unable to get the rocking shaft out of its cradle as there is insufficient height to raise it up (to do so invokes a spacial conflict with the boiler).  So, I demonstrated that with a long bar and a fulcrum (block of wood) I could raise it out of its cradle.  Gil & Dixie (with encouragement from Bruce) then manoeuvred the rocking shaft towards the rear of the loco (i.e. not vertically upwards) as I held it above the cradle and its nuts.  So, in a very short while the whole thing was out, split and tidily laying on the running board.

At first sight, the brass half-shells seem fine - no scoring or anything.  The cradle top & bottom seem fine - no obvious sign of wear.

Thursday 14th

One boot scraper order (for delivery to Devon!).  Had to dash over to Todders and paint some bottoms, quickly!  Slapped an additional coat on the display board while I was there.

Sat reading, for a while, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new mouse (family).  Not a sound!

Friday 15th

Just an hour applying the primer coat to the tops of the four rail chairs.  Paint on the display board frame not dry yet!

Saturday 16th

The pony axleboxes received some attention: It had been noticed that the lubrication was previously suboptimal, in as much as oil was not readily both sides.  So, David made a second hole, including a spot of welding, to remedy this.  John T cut four pieces of metal to use as straps to hold the underkeeps in position.  This is only necessary because the castings are not designed for a 28xx and the bolt holes would be in the wrong position … so we cut most of those lugs off (other than enough to prevent the underkeep from sliding sideways) and fix them up using two straps.  John also cut felt pads and tidied up some errant white metal.

The RHS rocking shaft was next.  Gil cleaned the rocking shaft and noticed a mark, where paint had been chipped off, indicating that the outside arm hits the running board when in full gear (which is rare, but may be used when starting off).  You can see the spot in the photo.

So, I toddled off to the shed to inspect the running board, and sure enough … the LHS is actually bent upwards where that shaft clobbers it!

I decided to try to tackle some outstanding issues on the log.  Issue 39 says that there is excessive play in the gradient pins.  Now, I hadn't a clue what or where the "gradient pins" are!  It transpires that they are the pins that hold two sections of coupling rod together.  The end of one is forked, and the end of the next one slots into the fork.  It took me a while to understand the limits & fits data, but eventually (with guidance from Gil, Bruce and Adey [Loco Dept]) determined that the limit of sideways play is 25 thou.  There are two of these on each side, and the play in ours ranges from 80 thou to 130 thou.  Whoops!  'Twould appear that we didn't re-bush these when we assembled the rods.  It'll have to wait, because we don't have time to remove the rods and fix them - mainly because of the pony work (and not being able to move the loco at the moment).

While I had the measuring stick out, I checked the big ends (Issues 29 & 30 said that both on sides there was excessive play).  For a 2-8-0 loco 185 thou  lateral movement is allowed (because of the need to get the long wheelbase round corners), as opposed to 125 thou for a 4-6-0.  Ours measure between 85 and 145 thou - well within tolerance.  So, these two "issues" were written off!

Bruce had been measuring the bearing shells in the rock shaft, and trial fitting implies that they had not been clamped tightly by the cradle.  So, David has taken the top cover home to skim a shade off and thereby create a firm grip.

Bruce turned his attention to the little pony oil delivery pipes for which new, large discs had been made (by David).  Bruce assembled the RHS one and we drew straws for who would crawl underneath; lay on their back and remove the LHS one …I lost!  It was a struggle, but with Bruce holding the oil pipe back, I had just enough room to unscrew the thing.  Bruce toddled off to fit the large disc.  Meanwhile John offered assistance as I fitted the RHS one.

David & Gil decided to re-fit the RHS valve rod, which is a heavy beast, and would cheerfully slide out of the pulley chain and cripple someone, given half a chance.  Having given up waiting for Bruce to come back with the other oil thingy, I joined in along with John.

The first valve head goes in easily, but then as it passes through, you have to align the rod with the hole in the bush at the far end.  You can only do this by manipulating the rod at the front end (because the far end is inside the cylinder, of course).  We have a long pole, suitably angled to enable the rod to be manoeuvred.  Try as we did, though it started to go into the bush, it stubbornly refused to pass through it.  We waggled it, thumped it, twisted it, swore at it … but no joy.  After half an hour of trying, we decided to give up for the day.  Carpo passed by and, being something akin to a magnet, everyone turned and attracted his attention.  I picked up the pole, again, and said something along the lines of, "come on you thingy valve, you; get in that hole!"  Rotating the rod in a screw fashion, and pushing at the same time, it finally gave up and slid quietly into its hole.

Meanwhile, Bruce had had a spot of bother with the LHS oil delivery thing.  The pipe is narrower than that on the RHS, so it was loose in the hole in the new disc, plus the spring was wider than that on the RHS and doesn't fit in the recess in the new disc.  Aaaagh!

Time to go home!

P.S.

I found another spring that fits; Bruce found a new split pin that holds it in place … but we still went home!

Roger