Yet again 2807 was in service, and she is rostered to be in service over this weekend. There was a bit of a whoopsie on Sunday! When the locos were parked up at the end of the day, it appears that the rostered engine, Foremarke Hall, was left inside the shed, with the 42xx outside on the same track. When the lighter-uppers arrived on Monday afternoon to do the necessary, there was no one around to drive the shunter and get Foremarke out of the shed! A minor panic ensued, as nor was there any sign of a sheet with people’s contact details on. Eventually, someone was contacted and the decision was taken to run 2807 instead. Apparently, she still had 20 psi on the clock, anyway, from Sunday.
Out of the kindness of my heart, I printed off phone numbers, laminated them and pinned them up in the Ops office and in the mess coach for future reference.
So, back at the ranch today, Bruce, John G and I decided that there was little to do; similarly, there will be even less to do on Saturday. Gilbert & Brian had buzzed off to Llangollen for a chat to them.
There were three rail chairs awaiting wire-brushing (having been needle-gunned by John T last time), so Bruce did the brushing and John G painted their bottoms. I finished off some lettering on chairs in the production line, plus marked up a tool for JC.
Bruce fiddled with the knob on our pillar drill (it has always been the wrong-way-round: you turn it to the anti-clockwise symbol to effect the drilling of holes).
Then we decided to go home. Meanwhile, here is the list of outstanding issues with the loco:
1 J cocks are stuck [A last-year’s issue: We never did find out which J cocks were stuck …]
2 LH front & rear top mud hole doors & right-hand top blowing [Marked as “Monitor”]
7 Safety valves lift at 215 lbs [On Saturday, I checked them and they lifted at 210 psi]
8 Top front left hand mud hole door weeping [Repeat of 2]
9 Top front right hand mud hole door weeping [Repeat of 2]
12 RH piston gland packing blowing
13 LH pony axlebox losing oil but cool at the end of the day
14 Mud hole door RHS of firebox leaking [Repeat of 2]
16 Suspect broken leaf in LH trailing wheel [spring], 3rd or 4th leaf down.
17 RH trailing flange lubricator spring broken.
Saturday 29th
2807 was in service again today, so only John T and I went to play at Todders. Of course, there was little to do but prepare rail chairs. John was needle-gunning, and I was wire-brushing plus painting.
P-Way Rick has been after a Great Eastern boot scraper for years. I have not seen any GER chairs on our track, but managed to acquire one for him this week [thanks, Chris!].
Interestingly, John’s needle-gunning revealed the BSI kite mark on it - something I have not seen on any other chair.
We can also do door stops. This short piece of bullhead rail appears to have the date 1958 on it. See how the running surface has been rolled over by the weight of traffic. This end piece also had roll-over on its end - you can see where I ground it back.
Torquay Mike has ordered this, so I shall paint it, box it and pop it in the post.
JC (of Foremarke Hall) found another painting job for me to do for him. The chaps have constructed a bench on which to rest a valve rod, with the valve head roughly in the middle section. In the near end there goes a hydraulic jack which pushes the valve rod through to move or release the head.
It seems that people are not keen on turning their hand to lettering … except that the painted lettering on our boot scrapers is a bit obvious …
2807 is having a rest now, for a while, so we can tackle the issues list.
There were no new issues today (except that Driver Cliff told me that the drain cocks appeared to stick open at one point. They did right themselves and gave no further problems during the day).
Roger
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