May 2023

By Pete Maddicks and Tony Howard

Tony is making such a good job of the monthly updates that he is going to continue, but I will do the photos and a ramble at the start each month!

Another good month, chimney on, blast pipe in, vacuum pipe in the cab done and lots of paint!

Last month the first photo was of Pendennis Castle at Bridgnorth, a Class that is 100 years old and still running on the main line. This month the first photo is a castle class HST at Arley during the Diesel gala. Will a HST be still running when 100 years old!

Now over to Tony for the update:

Monday 1st May.
Bob L, Charles L, Peter M, Phil H, Steve M, Steve T, Tony H.
Crinolines sorted and fit perfectly. Handrails fitted either side of the smokebox. Clamps all modified for blanking off the superheater header. Clamp modified and fitted to hold the upright vacuum pipe. More parts painted, and just one more wheel centre to be scraped for ultra sound testing. The loco will have to be moved to do this one as the vacuum pump operating arm is in the way.

Saturday 6th May.
No work today as it is the Coronation of King Charles 111.

Monday 8th May
Bob L, Charles L, Peter M, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
The Blast Pipe was retrieved from the Fruit D and temporarily fitted in the Smokebox.
A big thank you to Gary Williams for operating the Crane.
The new boss was tack welded to the outside of the new top part of the vacuum pipe. This boss is for connecting the pipework to the vacuum gauge, and is drilled and tapped to 3/8" BSP. A drilling jig was made from an old pipe fitting and screwed into the boss. A 13.5mm hole was drilled into the new pipe

13.5mm is 1.5mm smaller than the tapping drill size for 3/8" BSP. The new top part was then tack welded to the rest of the pipe.
The boiler bands that secure the boiler cladding were bought into the shed to be painted into undercoat.
The large curved plate that is fitted to the crinolines and has a oval hole cut into it for the safety valve was also bought into the shed. This will have to be temporary fitted to check the two crinolines it fits to are in the correct position.

Saturday 13th May.
Bob L, Kevin S, Peter M, Phil H, Steve M. Tony H.
Tony and Kevin made a start fitting the firebox crinolines. Just three cross pieces to finish. Bob and Peter fitted the large plate over the safety valve to check the position of the boiler crinolines, it fitted perfectly. Bob then carried on scraping the paint off some of the beading. Phil cleaned up the faces of the Blast Pipe, then gave the faces a coat of Waxoil. Steve painted some more parts.

Monday 15th May.
Bob L, Charles L, Dave Mc, Peter M, Steve T, Tony H.
The last three pieces of firebox crinolines were fitted. A gasket was made for the Blast Pipe, and the Blast Pipe was bolted down. The chimney was bought from safe storage and put by the loco ready to be fitted next week. More beading was painted also the handrail.

Saturday 20th May.
Peter M, Simon B, Steve M, Tony H.
The vacuum pipe was seam welded, painted in Rustoleum, and trial fitted. It fitted perfectly. The internal splashers were painted into top coat. These are bolted to the water tanks when they are finally fitted. Pipework that is fitted to the vacuum retaining valve was looked at. We will have to some swapping around to get the right pipe in the right position.

Monday 22nd May.
Bob L Bryn T, Charles L, Dave Mc, Phil H, Peter M, Steve T, Tony H.
Charles fabricated the steel bar that secures the water tanks at the cab end. It has to have a piece of all thread welded on each end.
Bob painted the vacuum pipe that was welded on Saturday along with some more of the beading that fits to the cab and water tanks.
We borrowed a fixture from the 82045 group to lift our chimney into place. Using another fixture borrowed from SVR Engineering to line it up central to the Blast Pipe, we noticed that the fixing holes on the smokebox, some were a little close to the edge of our new chimney. We marked the holes from the inside of the smokebox and marked the position of the chimney onto the smokebox. The chimney was lifted back off and placed onto a pallet and put on its side ready for center punching and pilot holes were drilled.
A big thank you goes to Olly H for operating the Crane for this task.

Saturday 27th May.
Kevin S, Peter M, Simon B, Steve M, Tony H.
The allthread was welded to each end of the support bar, painted and put into the fruit D. The steel plate that the operating system for the drop grate was cut to size and the first two pieces were spot welded on. A bracket that supports the two steam pipes that feeds the injectors was found. We had been looking for this bracket since January and last week we decided to make a new one.
The boiler bands had another coat of paint.

Monday 29th May.
Charles L, Dave Mc, Phil H, Peter M, Steve M, Steve T, Tony H.
The 11/16" diameter holes were drilled in the new chimneys base. The chimney was lifted onto the smokebox and bolted down 7 of the 8 bolts fitted , just a little work needed on the last one.
Thank you to Gary W for operating the Crane.
The bracket that was found on Saturday was fixed in place. A heat shield that bolts on to it interfered with the vacuum pipe that we had been working on over the last few weeks. It was decided to cut a piece out of the heat shield. We were told that this heat shield has had to be altered on a number of Great Western Locos.