Tuesday 19th
I
popped down for a while to complete the four boot scrapers.
Wednesday 20th
Bruce
brought in the piece of test pipe and the gadget he made to swage the
end. The new pipe has a much thicker wall than the original (top in the
photo) so Bruce did two tests - one to swage out the pipe as is; and
then he drilled out the other end to the same wall thickness as the old
pipe before swaging that. Needless to say, the latter was the easier to
do! However, The Oracle was not happy with the drilled out idea.
Bruce decided to make a Mk II (shiny silver) piece to make the opening
out easier to do.
Bruce's
other job for the day was to finish off the sides of the newly machines
underkeep such that it slides smoothly in the axle box guide.
Basically, it was taking off the high spots. Photo shows it in place
beneath the axlebox. We need the second one doing before we can fit the
wheelset back in the pony.
Gil
cleaned up the face of the RHS rocking shaft cradle - there appeared to
be some minor high spots around the bolt holes. Then he spent the rest
of the day reaming out the one fixing bolt hole into which we are using
a fitted bolt (to try to stop the unit from moving when the loco is in
motion). We don't have time to do all four bolts at the moment.
I
removed the top cover of the LHS rocking shaft and inspected the
cover. With Gil watching carefully, I waggled the reverser to & fro
to see what sort of movement there was in the brass bearings. They
only seemed to move up & down (caused by the lack of top cover plus
the direction of force from the intermediate valve rod). Dixie cleaned
up the nuts, bolts and stud; I ran a flat file over the surfaces of the
top piece and bottom piece to check for high spots, then Dixie and I
reassembled it. There had been no observed issue with this side in
service, and nothing visibly amiss now.
Dixie
has already extracted the studs from the RHS and cleaned those, which
is why he was into cleaning the threads on that side .. and subsequently
on my side.
John
G was quite keen on painting the entire pony truck, but I persuaded him
that the front buffer beam is more visible and in need of touching up..
John had a go at cleaning the paintwork but then decided that it really
needed touching up .. which he did.
For
a while, I had been 'bugged' by the fact that our AWS unit in the cab
(kindly bought & donated by John G) is eye-catching, but not
connected to anything. We would like to have (had time to) fit some
pipework to make it appear to be fully connected. I had an inkling that
the original pipework is on the ground beneath our TPO. John had a
look; then went looking at other locos, but found that no two are the
same (surprise, surprise!). So, he's going to look at the photos of
2807 in Barry to see if there is one showing the position of the pipes.
Thursday 21st
Gil & Geof went to Buckfastleigh (via Torquay to deliver a boot scraper) to collect the pony wheels. Rob Le C had emailed:
"Hi Gilbert,
There
is good news and bad, the good news is they are ready for collection
unfortunately they went a bit over budget as the tyre width was way out
of specification at over 6” so we have had to machine the front of the
tyres as well as profile them therefore the final cost is £720.00
Hope this is ok".
They
arrived back at Todders circa 5.20 pm, where Carpo and I were ready and
waiting! We unloaded the wheels (in the dark); packed up, and G&G
drove the truck back to Winchcombe station yard.
Saturday 23rd
Lots of people here today (seven), all beavering away at something … apart from me!
John
T cut the straps to width, for fitting beneath the pony underkeeps
(i.e. to keep them up!). David has taken them home to trim up the
edge.
Later, John joined the team fitting the valve cover back on the
RHS.
In
the dark on Thursday, it was a 50-50 chance that the pony wheels were
the right way round on the track … they weren't! Adey S [Loco Dept]
used the fork lift truck to turn them round for us. Brian then cleaned
up the pony wheels. SDR had coated them with waxoil, which Brian
removed. He also removed flaking bits of paint from spokes and hubs;
then he applied a primer to the outer face of tyres and the hub, ready
for painting black next time.
Interestingly,
the wheels have things stamped on them: 90T 75DG and PA4027. The
latter is probably a part number, and the former may be 70 tons pressure
required to fit wheels to axle. What's the 75DG, then?
Alistair
measured the coupling rods again, as Gilbert had brought a diagram with
dimensions on that were legible. Alistair's measurements confirmed
that there is too much play, and our rods are not quite (!) to diagram.
JC advised us to re-bush the inner rod end when we have time - not
urgent. Alistair went on to assist with the valve cover (it is a shade
heavy and awkward to fit into place). Finally, he assisted Bruce,
fitting the little cross-head thingy for the RHS valve rod to fit in to.
Bruce
began by fettling the underkeeps to ensure that their bottoms were not
proud of the axlebox itself. The straps must not be tight enough to
force the underkeep to press upwards onto the axle, but must not be
loose enough to let it waggle about. There is also the need to make the
"hole" the same size as the axle.
Later in the day, Bruce moved on to
the RHS valve; in particular fitting new packing in the gland.
David
spent much of the day with Gilbert reaming out the one hole for the
rocking shaft bracket. David had skimmed a shade from the rocking shaft
cover, and these and their brasses now fit tightly together. We
decided to get four new bolts made for this bracket, such that in due
course it will have fully-fitted bolts to ensure that it cannot move at
all. David finally made a jig for the loco-to-tender steam heating
connection. New connectors are being delivered (of a diameter that
suits BR hoses) next time, and David will cut & weld the pipework to
fit these.
I
did little things, to little effect! The electrical conduits on GWR
locos for connecting the ATC shoe to the battery box and in-cab
equipment seem to vary from one to another. Gil thought there might be
some of our conduit in the siphon, so I zoomed off to Winchcombe for a
search. There is one piece, about 10 ft long! However, it gave me a
chance to say "Hello" to Fred and Bill, who were busy painting pieces of
wood inside the siphon. Fred introduced me to Horace and Doris, the
resident robins, who were generally keeping an eye on what Fred &
Bill were up to! Unfortunately, I hadn't taken my camera along …
David Moore writes:
" Fancy a private reg for your car?
‘2807 JB’ is being auctioned on-line by the DVLA but the reserve is £1500! Pass on if you think anyone else interested.
Check out www.dvlaauction.co.uk to view."
Roger
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