Bruce’s homework for today was to take the tapered reamer to JB Toolgrinders Ltd at Tewkesbury for sharpening. We need it doing fairly urgently so that we can finish and refit the rocking shaft.
Wednesday 1st Feb
Bruce was up on top of the boiler again. Having machined the clack valves, Bruce refitted them. He is well pleased at how they remained steam tight after the previous machining, a couple of years back. Here he is fitting the brass bonnet back over the clacks.
He also measured the new pin for the rocking shaft and checked the dimensions of the taper within the rocking arm. The tapers must match exactly.
John T continued with the gadget for lining up the three drag links. This is very much a trial and error exercise. Having fitted the links back into the tender, the centre one is higher than we expected, which means another mod to the gadget’s design!
John G began by painting a couple of rail chairs and then intended touching up paintwork on the cab. However, there was so much condensation, that all he could do was clean and prepare the surfaces.
Brian began by refitting the two eccentric rods between the frames.
John then assisted Brian in removing the LHS front cylinder cover. This is so that we can check the internal condition for wear. To get the cylinder cover off means removing the cylinder cladding … which necessitates removing the rear section of cladding, too!
Luckily, it didn’t mean removing the valve cladding because that means having to remove the valve rod lubricator … Did Churchward ever work in the loco department, or just in the design shop???
You may spot that the piston head was right at the front of the cylinder, which meant you can’t measure the internal dimensions or check for wear! So, Brian found a pinch-bar; I found a length of wood, and together we pushed the loco backwards a couple of feet. It all looks very smart inside there (fortunately!).
John & Brian cleaned up the faces of the cylinder and its cover.
The gleaming gauges are another example of John’s handiwork with the polish.
Fitting these back on was a task allocated to me by the supervisor (Gilbert). Apart from that, I continued where John left off, painting rail chairs.
I had been advised that for the Wartime Weekend, there will be 2,000 campers in the field at Todders, so I should build up stocks of boot scrapers! Also, there is to be a Spitfire in the car park and for a fee you might get a chance to sit in it - but you have to pre-book. So, reserve April 22nd/23rd …
Saturday 4th
The sun shone (which meant I could work outside) so I prepared six rail chairs for boot scrapers. I also painted the gold lettering on those in the production line.
John T was busy: He began by measuring the cylinder bore on the LHS (under the supervision of Gilbert, who was in some pain during the day). John then checked the piston head diameters, and discovered that there has been no appreciable wear since last measured. John assisted Bruce in removing the cladding from around the RHS cylinder with a view to that cover being removed for inspection. The block & tackle was moved across and attached to the cylinder cover, but the decision was taken to leave it for Wednesday.
Bruce played with the new pin and the rocking shaft, ensuring that the parallel section of the pin is parallel and ditto the hole in the rocking shaft arm, which Bruce had to ream out a little. He can’t finish the pin/arm fit because the tapered reamer is away for sharpening. Bruce then cleaned up the injector innards ready to be fitted back in their bodies.
Pete [Loco Dept] replaced the packing in the LHS cylinder gland (photo right). He was also quite anxious to get in the firebox and remove/replace fire bars … but it was later than he thought!
Roger
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