Maintenance Update (bracket, police, relief, supporters)

Saturday 21st
I was a tad concerned that there might not be enough milk in the fridge for everyone who came to polish the loco today. I needn’t have worried.

There’s quite a list of issues raised by drivers during May. Some say tha the new drivers have to make their mark …

10: Steel res[ervoir] pipe at rear of ash pan loose into one-way valve by reservoir. {Bruce & Gil inspected the pipework, tightened joints and added extra clips to the hose}.
11: Top isolating cock on gauge frame blowing. {This is a duplicate of issue 7}.
12: Fireman-side crosshead (bottom of) hot. {No one else has commented about this. We suspect the definition of “hot” is ill defined. We’ll keep an eye on it, but don’t believe there is a problem}.
13: Fireman-side injector steam valve nut on pipe leaking.
14: Brake whistle valve blowing past. {The springs on both whistles are not strong enough to fully return the valve to shut-off and always have been}.
15: Tender rear RH brake grease nipple loose; replaced but cannot tighten up. {A few weeks back, I discovered that the thread had gone in the hole. Still debating how this can be fixed}.
16: LHS injector steam valve leaking by nut on pipe to steam inlet. {Duplicate of issue 13}.
17: Gauge frame blowing top, drain, both nuts. {Duplicate of 11 which is a duplicate of 7. We have reported this to Boiler Responsible Person (because we are not supposed to fix this ourselves) several times}.
18: Driver-side injector front cap leaking. {Fixed by Bruce today}.
19: Clamp holding driver-side injector steam pipe loose. Needs spring washer? {Fixed by Bruce today}.

Gilbert joined us up until tea break then adjourned to Winchcombe to play with the siphon. He looked through the issues log (q.v.) and together with Bruce they fixed the clamp on the injector steam feed pipe [16]. The nuts were not fully tight.

Bruce tackled 18 & 19. Extra PTFE should stop the cap from leaking, but you can’t tell until there is steam up. At the other end of the same bracket, Bruce found that the steam heating pipe was also loose in its clamp. He bunged a rubber in to make it tight.

Stuart had emailed me to ask me to paint some of the cab sides where the number plates have worn away the paint. Getting the plates off is much easier now that the nuts are welded onto the inside of the cab. It is now (just about) a one-man job. It’s a challenge removing the last bolt and not dropping the number plate, though! I ran a die through the bolt holes, because a couple of them were very stiff to undo.

The railway has been approached by the Winchcombe Police Museum to have a small stand in there about the railway. Dave Staniforth got Stu to dig out a 1904 rail chair. Dave would like it cleaning & painting … plus a section of rail … for the display. So, Bruce & I tidied up the chair and found a two-foot length of rail. I surreptitiously replaced a wooden key from a siding with a metal one, such that the display would be more authentic date-wise. The use of wooden keys ceased in the 1930s.

Oh, back to the cleaning of the loco. New recruit Ian Boskett studiously crawled over the running boards with scraper, cloths and buckets of diesel, removing grit & grime. He said that he had to leave at 4pm, so wouldn’t get as far as cleaning the boiler and smokebox …

Ian has only been a volunteer here for a few months, but said that he is thoroughly enjoying it.

Sunday 22nd
Brian and Stuart put the finishing touches to the paintwork on 2807 ready for Monday.

Monday 23rd
See colour supplement (below).

Wednesday 25th
Well, there was just John G and myself here today. There was a lot of activity in the yard as locos were arriving for the gala this coming weekend.

Four boots scrapers had been sold by the cafes over the weekend, so it was important to restock them and get some more into the production line. I painted the lettering on five that were almost complete, and later fitted the brushes to them. Following an idea from John G, two BR(W) boot scrapers are painted in BR Green (commonly called Brunswick green). It seems to be the crimson and black ones that are selling at the moment, so I moved on to preparing half-a-dozen chairs and John primed the one already in the production line in black.

John commented on how shiny 2807 was on Monday … apart from the drain cocks. So, he went out armed with Brasso and polished the copper drain cock pipes and also the brass cylinder relief valves.

Next to John was … Hey, Guys! Guys! You’re supposed to light the fire in the other end!

Ron [workshop] had finished off the bronze flanges for the new “standardised” loco ~ tender water connections.

No workday on Saturday 28th May because it is GWSR Gala Weekend.

Monday Supplement
Just a few snaps of the Supporters and the Special:

Peter Todd took this one of Jeff Lacey shunting stock out of platform 2 at Toddington.

There was quite a throng on Platform 1. Bob Mack is looking happy!

Lots of people wanted a photo of 2807 carrying The Cornishman headboard, so she pulled back for people to get a good photo:

Here she is leaving Toddington station with almost 150 supporters on board:

Note the Express Passenger headlamp code, appropriate to The Cornishman!

Peter took this one of 2807 approaching Hailes:

And here she is arriving at Winchcombe:

There were 10-minute footplate rides for the lucky few who got their requests in early:

Many thanks go to Jeff Lacey (Driver) and John Pedley (Fireman).

Back at Todders at the end of the day, there was additional interest for people, as Erlestoke Manor was being off-loaded. What’s that odd-looking loco in the background, I wonder?

Roger

Maintenance Update (Winchcombe, doors, guillotine, innards)

Saturday 14th
With 2807 in service, it was not surprising that only John T and myself turned up at Todders. I had sprained my back doing gardening last week, so I was limited in what I could do. This amounted to some tweaking of the conduit and painting some brushes for boot scrapers. Bruce had commented that the one joining sleeve that we had fitted looked a bit cumbersome, and offered to “adjust” it with an angle grinder. However, I looked today and found that we have 5 of the original type of joining sleeve. So I replaced the one we’d fitted with an old one. I cleaned them all up, too, ready for use.

John T had already started cleaning rail chairs before I arrived. He pressed on with this on his own, completing five by end of play - including painting their bottoms black.

I nipped off to Winchcombe to get signatures on 100 Club winners’ cheques, but when I arrived at the siphon, there was no one there!

So, I thought I’d at least take a couple of photos of the doors. There’s the one that still needs refurbishing …

And there’s this one that is complete all but for a lick of paint …

Note the deliberate hole in the door. This is for putting one’s hand through. On the inside there’s a guillotine …

No, seriously, it’s a sliding plate to keep wind & rain out (though wind is a bit pointless as the van has slatted sides!) and allow the door to be opened (but the handle doesn’t seem to have been fitted yet). Either that, or it was intended for when the siphon was used as an ambulance train, and the hole is to pass food through to infectious patients …

Monday 16th
I had to pop down to Todders briefly. Coincidentally, it was the grand celebration of P&O finally hauling passengers. I figured that every photographer and his dog would be out snapping away. So, when I saw the zebra crossing, I thought that would be amusing - albeit nothing to do with 2807.

That incidental loco in the shot was only running on three cylinders, apparently. Sounded most odd!

Wednesday 18th
Confused? You will be ….

… Bruce told me that last Thursday something was playing up on the vacuum system. Mark Y had investigated, checking everything on the loco that was connected with vacuum, and could not find a cause. Judging by one small pipe below the cab floor appearing to be at an odd angle (i.e. not straight) MY assumed that to be a possible cause. He rang Gilbert to alert him, and Gil rang Bruce.

On Friday, Bruce & Gil went along to investigate. Search as they may, they could not find a leak. The only thing they found was that one lengthy pipe under the loco was clamped at one end but not at the other. Bruce used rubber and jubilee clip to clamp it to the train pipe to prevent it from oscillating. While under there, Bruce noticed that the piston beneath the vacuum cylinder on the tender was stuck right up at the top of its travel. The new brake blocks had obviously worn more, and so he & Gil adjusted the brakes on the tender and also on the loco.

Back to Wednesday: With 2807 still in service, and the weather being really teasing (you get the chair cleaning equipment out … then it rains … adjourn for cuppa … sun comes out … dash out and start cleaning … rain … inside for early lunch … sun … out for cleaning … Between Bruce & I, we managed to clean just one rail chair! In fairness, Bruce did manage to get to the loco to see if today’s crew had experienced any issues. They hadn’t.

John G had a more successful day, as he had been painting rail chairs inside the TPO!

Mike-the-Lamp popped in to check our loco lamps, as they will be needed for the gala in another week’s time. The three white loco lamps are all OK (though we don’t have a red screen for any of them … not that that should matter to the loco). However, the innards of our gauge frame lamp have gone AWOL. Mike seemed to recall that there had been a visiting loco whose lamp innards were faulty, and ours was “borrowed” to enable theirs to be used. It seems likely that our innards went back with their lamp … which is a bit of a bind.

Mike is now responsible (on behalf of the railway) to replace our missing innards.


Roger

Maintenance Update (stamp, thread, align, action)

Wednesday 4th
Having made the special spanner for the top clack nuts, Bruce decided to stamp the size on it: ¾ AF. Not a problem, you would think. Well, the solidus (“slash”, to you) proved an issue - there wasn’t one in the kit. So, a number 1 had to suffice. But it was not happy at being used thus, and when Bruce hit it with the hammer, the stamp flew across the work bench, passing me (I was painting a boot scraper at the time) at infinite speed, smashed into the wall and dropped to the floor … behind the bench!

There was no way of getting to it other than reaching down the back. Even Gilbert’s arms were not long enough to do that, so I suggested dangling a magnet on a string. The stamp struggled hard to stay where it was, but eventually, Bruce managed to manipulate it into a position such that the magnet could take over, and the stamp was hauled up!

For the rest of the day, Bruce and Gil seemed to hide beneath the loco, which was outside over a pit, as it required a warming fire during the afternoon ready for service on Thursday. They were comparing the loco ~ tender pipe connections. Having obtained a diagram of how they should have been, B+G were now trying to fathom out how they could be rearranged to fit the diagram as closely as possible. I’m not one for following drawings - our loco & tender fit together, and all of the pipes work, so what’s the problem? Bruce did point out that as things are, we would not be able to use anyone else’s tender if we had to take ours out of service, nor would anyone hire our tender if it wouldn’t fit their loco.

There were a number of boot scraper chairs in the production line that required the lettering painting on them, so I started the day by doing that.

Once John G had arrived, we decided to turn our attention to the ATC conduit once more. We fitted it all along the loco side, from the front as far as the cab. This enabled us to play with the front curved section and decide how to tackle it. In the original, the pipe bends under the running board at the front of the loco, to cross to the centre and reach the shoe mechanism that triggers the bell or horn. We don’t have that shoe - it is not feasible to fit them these days, because they prevent the loco from being loaded onto a lorry - they hit the ground! So, John suggested simply cutting our pipe off immediately after it turns left to head under the running board.

John is seen here forming a thread on one end of the front section, with Mike filing off the burr on
the other end. The loco is to be in service on all of our working days this month, so we shall now
check the joints in the conduit; clean and paint it, and then we can fit it on at the beginning of June.
Once the main run is in situ, we can see how the rear section that we do have can be modified to fit
our loco!

Friday 6th
I was volunteered to light a warming fire in 4270. The actual lighting of the fire takes just minutes …
it’s everything else that takes the time! Firstly, you verify that the loco is OK to be used. Then you
check things like water level in the boiler; that no leaks are visible (from plugs, stays, superheater);
that mudhole doors are secure; and the state of the grate and the smokebox. In 4270’s case, the
smokebox was full of ash and the firebox full of clinker! In each case, there’s no option but to
clamber inside and clear it out. That took an hour! Checking that all controls are ‘safe’ (e.g. reverser
in mid-gear; blower off; handbrake on; dampers closed; drain cocks open; etc., etc.) only takes a few
minutes, and finally you can lay a fire. A warming fire is relatively small - just in the centre of the
rear section of grate. A few small lumps of coal; a couple of pieces of wood, then rags suitably
soaked in paraffin or diesel. Dump the burning rags on top, and then pile on more wood plus a few
lumps of coal. Retire for tea and biscuits. Return to add more coal, and retire for more biscuits.
Once the coal has got going well, it is best to leave it for a while before finally banking it up with
anywhere between 20 and 40 shovels of coal - depending on things like: is the boiler already warm;
is the weather warm/cold; how big is the boiler/grate area.

MY [Loco Dept] did a spot of shunting, to arrange 2807 and 4270 over pits ready for the morning. The position of the coupling rods is quite critical to the driver being able to oil up the loco. The driver-side cranks should be at ‘bottom back angle’, i.e. a 45 degree angle between crank pin and wheel centre (green line in photo). Note the two corks (yellow arrows) that try to hide behind the slide bar mounting bracket and cause the driver to exclaim what a bother that is!

Saturday 7th
As 2807 was in service, no one but me turned up. So I went home again. Gil, Fred and Bill were
working on the siphon van restoration at Winchcombe. They have just one last double-door to
rebuild, and that appears to be all of the woodwork completed. The bogies need to be checked
over, though it is believed that they had been overhauled at Swindon shortly before we acquired the
siphon.

Tuesday 10th
It rained, so I went to Todders to cut some wedges for the boot scrapers. I prefer to use the band
saw when no one else is around to accidentally nudge my elbow as they squeeze by!

Adey told me that the painters who are doing Foremarke Hall comment about how “tight” 2807’s
boiler is - that is to say: no leaks, drips or dribbles. Praise indeed from external professionals.

Wednesday 11th
2807 still in service. Only two reported issues:

08: L/H & R/H cylinder oil feed tap packing leaking. Nut at full adjustment. [This is on the hydrostatic
lubricator in the cab]. {Feed taps stripped down and cleaned; new gland packing fitted.}

09: LH leading tender brake shoe loose when handbrake on. [We were aware that the new brake

blocks did not all contact the wheels. The only way to adjust their fit is to heat and stretch the
appropriate brake rods - so we’re leaving them to bed themselves in on their own!]

Bruce continued his investigations into how best to align the loco ~ tender pipe connections to
match the various diagrams and actual locos in service. There is no single solution! Whatever way is
chosen, a large bracket will be required to run across the loco beneath the cab to support the pipe
ends. A length of angle iron was delivered today for that purpose. [A length of same rests at the
side of the scrap metal skip, too … and has been there for a couple of weeks!!!]

John G and I sanded and painted the conduit that was originally used to hold electricity cables for the ATC system.

Bruce later attempted to cure a leak in out drinking water supply - but failed. It is where
two hose pipes are connected by a short length of copper tube. The jubilee clips are not man enough to hold main water pressure.

Here are some shots of 2807 in action :

Roger

Maintenance Update (bolt, nuts, spanner)

Wednesday 27th
I decided to have another go at the centre left drain cock, which continues to let steam pass even when it is closed. I checked the operation and found no problem: the plunger works; the spring springs, and there remains a 1/8” gap between end of plunger and the operating rod when closed. So, I took the innards out and examined the plunger. There were a couple of shiny spots on the face; I did think there was a crack, too, but after cleaning, this appears to have been a surface scratch.

But there was one small section that was rough, whereas you would expect the face to be smooth all of the way around. So, I spent the rest of the morning lapping the spindle in.

That all went fine until I found that the spindle was in contact with the operating rod - there was no gap left! Bruce couldn’t understand how I could have lapped off 1/8”. I thought: “I wonder if anyone has fiddled with the drain cock lever in the cab?” Sure enough, a certain person (who shall remain Gilbert) had pulled the lever back to balance a tin can on top of it, catching oil dripping from the hydrostatic lubricator!

Gilbert had been taking out the sight glasses from the lubricator and cleaning them.

Later, Gil & Bruce took more measurements of the water hose flanges between loco and tender, with a view to David coming on Saturday to work on these.

Bruce’s first job was keeping his bottom warm measuring the spacing on the safety valves. Since Carpo had adjusted the valves such that they blow off somewhat closer to the 225 psi than they had been, the spacers need reducing. The rear ones (which had previously lifted at about 210 psi) need 80 thou removing; the front ones only need 25 thou removing.

John G was on chair painting duty during the morning, then he and I trail-fitted the conduit for the ATC. It did prove a challenge to cut a thread on these steel pipes, but we managed by about 4.30 pm. The conduit needs cleaning and painting, and then the main run can be completed. Still the two ends to do.

Saturday 30th
John T and Gilbert reamed and fitted the 4th fitted-bolt on the RHS rocking shaft mounting. The hole for the bolt has to be something like 1 thousandth of an inch less that the bolt itself. This means that it takes a lot of whacking to get the bolt into its hole.

Whacking the bolt from outside the frames is a problem, as lots of things are in the way. So, David made a gadget that slips over the bolt head and allows the bolt to be bashed on the head from outside the frames. Washers hold it in place on the bolt head.

David was in welding-mode today. The first task was to weld the nuts that hold the cabside number plates onto the cab sides. This makes it considerably easier to remove the number plate when one needs to. Otherwise it is a two-man job!

It is particularly troublesome on the driver’s side, because a panel has to be removed from the reverser to be able to access these nuts! David very professionally lined up the slotted screw heads (on the outside) such that the slots are all horizontal when tightened up. The reason for going to this trouble may become clear at the GWSR Gala, 20-30 May.

David also welded up Bruce’s special spanner (for fitting the top clacks). Once more, most professionally, David tidied up the weld to make it look the part.

Bruce felt that he’d been the gopher to David during the morning, and did a few minor jobs thereafter. Some days are like that - time goes and you wonder what you’ve achieved!

On the way to the railway, I called in at the local blacksmith and collected the short front section of the trunking for the ATC equipment pipe that he’d shaped for us. It needed its end thread cleaning up. Thereafter, I applied top coats to 4 crimson plus one LNER (Darlington Green) boot scrapers.

Other interesting things around the yard included the arrival of a class 20 diesel to be broken up. Very odd colour scheme.

[it's been working in France - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/pinzac55/21763253 - Steve]

Plus work on the yard water tower is nearing completion.

Roger

Maintenance Update (clack, scraper, klinger)

Sunday  17th 
I took my grandson for a ride on the train on Sunday and on the way back from Cheltenham, 2807 ground to a halt … twice … out in the wilds between Gotherington and Greet.  Imagine my concern!  As soon as we arrived at Winchcombe, we went up to the engine and I asked what had happened?  It transpired that one of the crew’s hat flew off on the way down, and they were looking for it on the way back!  Panic over.

Wednesday 20th
Bruce checked the special spanner that he’s making to tighten the top clack valves against the clacks on Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor.  Although those on the latter had seen some rough treatment in the past, Bruce’s spanner head does fit them all OK.

It wasn’t practical to check those on 2807, as she was in service.  However, he did manage to clamber under and measure the diameter of the flanges on the water pipe connection between loco and tender. They are bigger than on the drawing (not much of a surprise there): 5” as opposed to 4¾”.

Thereafter, Bruce move on to boot scraper production … as did Steve.

John G started by applying a top coat to the 4 green and 2 black rail chairs in the production line.  He then moved on to tapping the new sleeves for the AWS conduit.  These fittings are a shade tight on the pipe ends, possibly because they are galvanised, which has coated the threads.  So, they needed a tap running through them to make them fit.  At the end of the afternoon, John moved back into boot scraper production, applying black to fresh bottoms.

I messed around with rail chairs, too: needle gunned a couple; wire-brushed a couple; cuts bolts of several chairs.  P-Way had delivered another pile recently - mostly GWR ones.  Some, however, are “ought-ought” chairs for 97½ lb rail, which are really too heavy for boot scrapers.  So, unfortunately I had to dump those in the skip.  I did notice that one GWR chair seemed to have a date in 1900 and a manufacturer of PNB.  I’ll be able to confirm once it’s cleaned up.  This acronym means nothing to me - does it to you?

2807 is resting on Thursday and Friday, and back in service for the weekend.  She is out of use then to the end of April; Thereafter there is no loco roster posted.

On the Issues Log, the following are recorded:

06: Tender and Loco brakes adjusted.  We did that and we logged it as done.
07: Top gauge frame klinger blowing. No adjustment left.  I had noted a fizz from the top valve of the gauge frame when lighting the warming fire last week.
08: Left-hand/right-hand cylinder oil feed tap passing, leaking. Not at full adjustment.  That’s on top of the hydrostatic lubricator; it’s a selector for which condensing coil to use.

Clive [Loco Dept] also mentioned that the centre left drain cock is still leaking steam.  Gilbert thinks the spring might be too weak.  We’ll have to take another look.

Photo courtesy of Steve Price

Roger

Maintenance Update (snow, TPO, BSP, AWS)

Wednesday 13th
With 2807 still in service, there was little to do but boot scrapers (again). There was only Bruce, Gilbert and myself here, today. Gil spent some time searching through drawings. I think he was looking for pipe arrangements twixt loco & tender.

4270 had broken a spring. The new one didn’t quite fit at the ends. There’s a hanger that fits between two forks, and it didn’t quite go in its slot correctly. Bruce lent the guys our large angle-grinder, for them to widen the gap.

Apart from that, we all worked on boot scrapers. I did some painting and finishing; Bruce set about cleaning more rail chairs; and Gil had the privilege of painting bottoms black.

Gil then dashed off and cadged a ride on the footplate down to Cheltenham and back. Bruce & I wrapped up and went home.

Friday 15th
I was on light-up duty. I arrived at Todders just after 3pm, and 2807 still had 15 psi “on the clock” after the Fire & Drive on Thursday. The pre-light-up checks went OK. A couple of mud-hole door nuts were loose (which is commonplace). There’s a fizz from the top of the gauge frame, which we were aware of - the valve needs re-packing. There is also a fizz, gurgle and drip from the blower ring (in the smokebox). This implies that the blower valve is letting steam by, which is surprising because Bruce put a lot of effort into getting the seat near perfect.

It was a tad warm inside the firebox, as I raked out the clinker and ash. Indeed, there was still 10 psi as I lit the fire at 4pm. I tentatively banked up the fire at 6.30 pm, hoping to get a balance of keeping the boiler hot, but not raising steam in the middle of the night.

Saturday 16th
We had a snow storm during the morning, between 7am and 9 am.

And my fire was clearly OK, because 2807 was making her usual storming departure from Todders.

Gilbert spent the morning searching through drawings, particularly looking for anything showing the water connection between loco and tender. Together with Bruce, a butcher’s at other locos on shed simply showed that no two are the same! So, they are aiming to get as close as possible to a fit that would probably enable our loco or tender to connect to another tender/loco (as appropriate).

The snow soon melted, and left a few lakes around our TPO, so Bruce & I barrowed heaps of ash round and spread over the low spots.

It was great to have John T back with us, after a painful period of having a trapped nerve. He soon got back into the routine of painting rail chairs, though admitted having forgotten how heavy they are!

I had bought a bag of ¾” BSP connections for the AWS system pipework. They proved to be a tad tight on the old pipes, and though I did clean up the threads on the pipe ends with a die (bottom of photo), the new sleeves all need the tap running through them.

We all agreed that there was little we could do; it was not warm, today, and there is a reasonable stock of boot scrapers, so John & I toddled off; Bruce went to watch 2807 depart (again), and Gil cadged a lift to Winchcombe on her … again!


Roger

Maintenance Update (heating, conduit, block)

Wednesday 6th
With 2807 still in service, there was little to do but boot scrapers. But Bruce did take advantage of the lunch-time lay-over at Toddington, and check out a few things:

We were convinced that no one had set the Mason’s Valve (for steam heating) to a correct pressure. After fitting a new diaphragm within it, it does need testing & setting (which can only be done when in steam). So, Bruce checked that. Sure enough, crews had been ignoring the valve and just turning steam on/up/down using the on/off handle! Bruce set that to roughly 35 psi. The relief valve blows at 40 psi, anyway.

Concerning the audible hum from the pony wheels, Bruce examined the axleboxes - barely warm; underkeeps - not moved & not rubbing on anything; tyres are shiny down the centre (so pony is no longer drifting sideways). What he could see, was faint score lines across the width of the tyres. Almost certainly caused by “chatter” when they were machined. This could well be the cause of the hum. We listened as 2807 passed by, and Bruce reckons that the hum is still there, but fainter than it was. The net conclusion being that no action is necessary. The imperfections in the tyre surface will wear away on their own.

Skip to Saturday: Photo shows the LHS pony wheel. The jitter in the cutting is now clearly visible. It is largely worn away down the centre, which shows that the pony is running centrally now (thank goodness!).

Back to Wednesday: Bruce and I cleaned up 5 rail chairs (including an LMS and an LNER), whose bottoms John G subsequently painted black. John also applied Deproma (primer) to the top of three chairs from last Saturday.

John & I examined the AWS conduit at the front of 2874. We found that the front section is consistent with 2807’s. We don’t have the very front part, between detector shoe and the side conduit, but we were able to make a template from 2874’s. We have a spare piece of conduit that can be bent to shape, so I popped in at Dan (the blacksmith) to see if he can do that for us.

Over lunch, we mused about 2807 possibly being the longest serving GWR loco that is still extant. Running from October 1905 until March 1963 (nearly 58 years), is there any other GWR loco that could have been in service for longer? We thought not! It would have to have been “born” pre-1909 … but it turns out we were not quite right:-

• 2516: Dean Goods, built at Swindon in March 1897, withdrawn in May 1956 = 59 years!
• 2818: built December 1905, withdrawn October 1963 = 58 years;
• 3440: City of Truro, built May 1903, withdrawn June 1948 = only 45 in GWR/BR service;
• 4003: Lode Star, from 1907 to 1951;
• 9017: Earl of Berkeley was not actually (re-)built as such until 1938, so that doesn’t count!

Saturday 9th
2807 was out of service so that we could have a play. Bruce & Gil decided to examine the brakes. Those on the loco needed adjusting a little - which they did. The tender then took up the rest of the day! Two problems: The centre LHS brake block was jammed in its hanger, and not free to swing (as it should); the new brake blocks appeared to be scoring the tyres.

Gil ground off some of the heel of the errant brake block, to make it fit freely in its hanger. Our tender has 3 different sorts of hanger, the middle ones (both sides) are narrower than the rest.

There is a visible score line which we thought might have been caused by the new brake blocks not having been profiled to match the tyres. The blocks came square; tyres are not! However, we cannot prove that this is the cause. It would really make sense to ensure that blocks are profiled in future. It is impractical to profile them by hand - using an angle-grinder, for example!

How many people does it take to fix a brake problem?

Meanwhile, I busied myself with boot scraper manufacture most of the day. I did take a butcher’s at the AWS conduit, again.

The curved section ahead of the pony we do not have. I have asked the blacksmith to make us one.

The bit that we do have for connecting to the bell in the cab … is clearly not from 2807! It doesn’t reach.

2807 is now scheduled to be in service Tuesday 12th to Thurs 14th; then Sat & Sun 16/17; and then for the 40s weekend on 23/24th April.


Roger

Maintenance Update (valves, damper, hum)

Wednesday 30th
Graham B [Loco Dept] volunteered to raise & tend 2807’s fire. I thought it was to be a warming fire, but Carpo wanted to set the safety valves to something closer to 225 psi than the 200 at which they have been lifting. So, late afternoon, there was considerable noise, as the valves were lifted followed by Carpo tightening them down; then they lifted again and he tightened them down; etc. Finally, they are now set to lift at 222 psi (though they do ‘feather’ from about 210 psi).

Carpo removed the spacers from the safety valves. They will need reducing to match the actual settings.

During the calmer periods, Graham was assisted by Alex [Loco Dept] in cleaning various parts - the tender, while I was fiddling with it!

Gil started by removing the panel on the side of the reversing lever frame, to see how easy it is to access the nuts that hold the number plate on (on the driver’s side). It’s easy!

Then Gil & I looked at the tender grease nipples, which had caused some concern. I removed all six nipples; cleaned them, and refitted them. In doing so, I discovered that the driver-side rear one had stripped its thread, and cannot be tightened. As a short-term solution, I wrapped some PTFE around the thread. Still not tight, but will have to do for now. The alternative is to drill & re-tap the hole to a larger size and either fit a sleeve or an adapter to bring it back to standard size.

John G began by applying a top coat to the 8 rail chairs that I had cleaned last Saturday (and subsequently applied a primer coat on Monday). I moved on to cleaning 3 more chairs, as the F&W had sold 5 boot scrapers over Easter. By the end of play, John had painted 5 green, 3 crimson and 3 black bottoms.

I had acquired a tad more conduit, and during the afternoon, John G persuaded John H [Loco dept] to apply some heat to the seized connections. This was 100% successful, and all of the sections are separated and the sleeves & nuts freed.

Gil clambered underneath (we’re over a pit) and checked the front damper, that he had noticed cinders falling from last week. The damper closes properly. It would have been open when in use, and you can’t stop cinders dropping out then. Whilst below, Gil checked the taper pin in the drain cock mechanism. David had well and truly persuaded that to stay in place … and it has. He also looked at the water connection twixt loco & tender, as we have a “proper” connection (as opposed to a plain pipe) that we shall fit when time permits. Finally, back up on top, Gil noticed that a patch of bitumen had been worn off the back section of the tender, possibly through coal falling onto it, so he patched that up.

No 5542 has performed her last duty of its present contract for the GWR today. She’ll be collected on Sunday evening.

Thursday 31st
Some of us just couldn’t keep away!

2807 approaching Winchcombe station

Rolling into Platform 1 at Winchcombe

“Right Away” and 2807 eases away from Winchcombe station beneath Greet road bridge

Friday 1st April
I was out for a bike ride (touched 45.7 mph down Snowshill!) and passed through Didbrook. There is a blacksmith, here, who has made a couple of brackets for the AWS conduit, so I picked them up. Didbrook is close to where Hailes Halt will be built later this year.

When 2807 first came into service, we had a full set of fireman’s irons made by this blacksmith. They must have been well made because several of them have mysteriously disappeared!

Anyway, his name is Dan Prendergast: didbrookforge@gmail.com
0798 308 1708; or 01 242 621 290.

Saturday 2nd
Not a great deal to do, with 2807 not standing still for long. However, on Wednesday, John G had heard a hum that sounded as though it might be coming from the pony truck. It was reported quite independently, that a “squeal” appeared to come from the pony. So, as 2807 pulled away from Toddington this morning, Bruce, Gil & I all stood listening intently. No squeal, though Bruce detected a hum. We listened again the next time, and even Neil (signalman) heard the hum. It sounds almost like a harmonic caused by marks or dips on the wheels. Curious! Hopefully it will cure itself. Brian visited us, and so went on the footplate to see if he could find out any more about the hum. Negative - but there was nothing warm that shouldn’t be.

Gil & Bruce had a butcher’s under various tenders to see how they had arranged their water connections twixt loco & tender. All different! We have the connectors, so will replace our straight-fit pipe ends with a correct one.

Gil buzzed off to Winchcombe, and Bruce decided to look at other locos’ clacks. He’s making a special spanner to fit the square nuts; one that can be whacked to tighten them. Guess what … here are the sizes of the across-flats of the nuts:

2807: 0.820 inch
5542: 0.835
7820: 0.750
7903: 0.745
4270: 0.687

So Bruce has decided to make one for ¾” and then reduce those on 2807 to match. That way, his spanner will at least fit three engines!

I played with boot scrapers, again.

2807 is now in service this weekend plus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Nothing is rostered beyond that yet.

On Monday 4th April P&O is scheduled to run up & down between Toddington and Winchcombe (provided someone remembers to tell the Winchcombe signalman!) for running-in trials.


Roger