February 2024 update

By Pete Maddicks and Tony Howard

This month's work on the fireman side tank has moved on, with the riveting on the fireman’s side all but complete. The welding is under way. Investigation work on the ash pan lower door is underway to make this door safer to operate, this door is for emptying the ash out at the end of the day. Tony will bring you up to date on this month’s activities.

Saturday 3rd February.
Dave Mc, Kevin S, Peter M, Simon B, Tony H. Jack K (Boilershop staff).
Jack showed us what he needed to be done in readiness for the next phase of welding the left hand water tank.These parts had the paint removed. We then started to reassemble the back plate that fits at the Cab end, as well as the long angle that runs practically the length of the tank, and the two reinforcing plates that the lifting eyes are bolted to.

Monday 5th February.
Bob L, Charles L, Dave Mc, Peter M Peter D, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
Tony and Phil tried the new 1 3/4" Whitworth nuts on the new spring hanger bolts for the radial truck. Some were a little tight. We tried to remedy this by using a button die, but not successful. We needed to use one of the lathes to screw cut them.
We borrowed a Whitworth tungsten carbide tip and rectified the offending threads. Meanwhile, in the boiler shop more work was carried out on the left-hand water tank, and welding will continue this evening.

Saturday 10th February.
Peter M, Simon B, Steve M, Tony H.
(Ian B & Gary W.) Full time staff.
The Job for today was fitting the new spring hanger bolts to the radial truck. We have made a few changes to the original ones so they can be changed if or when necessary without taking the bunker off. The new ones have been made a little longer, so we measured the rear ones
and found that we needed to cut off 50mm.We then fitted it in place, along with a full nut and marked where the hole was needed to be drilled for the split pin. This was done on the vertical milling machine in the machine shop. The back two bolts were both fitted. The front two bolts caused a problem, despite being made longer they were not quite long enough. Luckily we still have enough steel in stock to make two more to the required length. The two that were not long enough will be put back into stock as replacement bolts whenever the rear ones need replacing.

Monday 12th February.
Bob L, Charles L, Dave Mc, Jack K, Jordan T, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
Tony cut the two lengths of steel we needed to make the new spring hanger bolts on the bandsaw. Phil , Steve and Dave got the chimney on a pallet by the loco and fitted the new copper cap. There is still more work to do on the chimney before it can be finally fitted. Tony Dave and Jordan looked at the ashpan to see where else it could be fouling the pipework and brake rigging. These areas were marked out and will be cut out once the boiler is lifted back out. We got the door out of the Fruit D and marked its position ready to be welded on. They then looked at the vacuum retaining valve and marked where the connections went to.
More work was done in the boiler shop by Charles, Steve and Jack.

Saturday 17th February.
Kevin S, Simon B, Steve M, Tony H.
Job today was getting the ashpan (oven)door into the correct position for welding the hinge and catch mechanism onto the front of the ashpan. The door is quite a heavy item to manipulate so three G clamps were needed to achieve this. Once we were satisfied the door hinge and catch were correctly positioned we marked ìt all out ready for welding. We then drilled the end of the hinge pin to take a split pin, also the catch mechanism. While Kev, Si and Tony were doing this Steve was painting the long lever that operates the front sand boxes.

Monday 19th February.
Bob L, Charles L, Dave Mc, Peter D, Peter M, Steve T, Tony H.
With the loco shunted off the pit, we couldn't do any more on the ashpan door.
Dave Mc, pointed out this door on another loco had swung out as soon as the catch was released and injured the crew member. We did not want this to happen with our door, so we looked to make modifications. We have come up with a solution to avoid this happening.
More work was done in the boiler shop on the water tank. The large floor plate in the cab had the angle iron re fitted and put back in place. We have found a solution to fitting the other parts to the copper cap on the chimney.

Saturday 24th February.
No work today.

Monday 26th February.
Bryn T, Charles L, Dave Mc, Peter M, Si B, Steve T Tony H.
Practical all the riveting has been done on the left-hand water tank, just three mis matched rivets to be drilled out.
The back plates were bolted on to check that all the bolt holes were in line, and the baffles.had not gone out of line due to the riveting and welding. Luckily they had not.
We also temporarily fitted the overflow pipe at the front of the tank, and also the large pipe that the the smaller water pipe runs through that feeds water to the boiler via the injectors and the clacks.