Industrial Loco Updates

Bagnall 2746 The Duke.

We are pursuing "option c" set out above through David Wright and Locomotive Maintenance Services at Loughborough.

Preparation work continues, the boiler team are drilling out the copper lap seam rivets around the firebox tubeplate and punching out the remains. Also the crown stays are being ground back flush against the outer firebox wrapper. The outer firebox is to be renewed for around 4 stay rows up from the foundation ring; the stay heads are burned away inside the firebox and there is saucer corrosion around the outer stay heads. In theory this could be repaired by welding but there is some detectable grooving around the foundation ring and the cost of a fundamental cure in new material is not much more than that of a "patch up" with doubtful life expectancy.

Elsewhere on the loco, the front face of the cylinder block has been cleaned up with a die grinder and needle gun to remove all scale, and conserved with copperslip grease, which makes it look pretty; the front area of thje frames up to the bufferbeam has been cleaned down and primed. The cylinder end covers have been cleaned and painted and the extraction threads re-tapped. Next job in this area is to get hold of the gasket material and then thoroughly clean out the bores.

Vulcan

Began its 2015 season at Barrow Hill on 14th March. Activity over the Winter included casting and fitting new brake blocks and new firebars; we now have the patterns in stock for future replacements.

Tim

 

Bagnall 3o61/1954 "Empress", a long-time Mangapps resident, has been hired to the Lavender Line, where it arrived yesterday. It will remain at Isfield for the 2015 season.

 

Bellerophon successfully returned to traffic on Easter Monday following winter maintenance including all the valve gear bushed and re-pinned and new die blocks. She will be appearing at the East Lancs Railway in a couple of weeks for their small engines weekend and is also booked to visit the Midland Railway Centre in August.

 

Hi Flaman. Could you possibly give us any news on how the overhaul of "Hastings" is progressing?

 

This post comes with a health warning. Those of a delicate disposition and whose interests are purely steam orientated, should read no further.

Progress on "Hastings" has been slow over recent months, due to it's owner, Martin, having concentrated on his "31", "Sister Dora". (Yes really, a diesel!!!)

However, now that the 31 is running reliably and the worst of the body rot has been dealt with, I'm assured that there will be more activity around "Hastings" this summer.

 

My only experience of this type of loco is with 2680 at Ribble, if Empress is comparable in terms of strength, steaming, economy and ease of operation, all I can say is what an excellent choice!

 

Bagnall 2746 The Duke

Back off 2 weeks holiday last Saturday to find the boiler team hard at work. The crown stays are being ground off flush with the outer wrapper ready for drilling out; two rows done so far. Firebox tubeplate rivets drilled and punched from 8 0'clock to 4 0'clock, the remainder will hold the tubeplate steady while the throat stays are drilled out, Mick Clarke has made a drill jig stand to hold things steady while these stays are drilled out and this is going well. Two rows of stays cut out around the lower side of the outer wrapper. The firebox crown has sprung slightly away from the tubeplate following removal of the rivets, so getting the tubeplate out should not be too difficult and we can then move on to needle gun the inside of the boiler.

Tim

 

Hunslet 3193

We've got a really good piece in our local paper today :-

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/six_yea...t_disused_railway_yard_near_dereham_1_4031536

For anybody local, the print edition of the EDP has a more expansive piece, running pretty well to two pages with more photos of the gang grunting away inside and outside the firebox

You can follow our loco on Facebook at :-

https://www.facebook.com/Hunslet3193

 

Just to let you all know, Andrew Barclay 2138 "Swordfish" Passed her steam exam and the ticket is now ticking away! Her boiler will return to the S&CR very soon and we hope to start work on her final touches. Exciting times!

 

Bagnall 2746 "The Duke".

I have not been able to work on the loco as much as I would like in recent weeks. I swore to behave myself and concentrate on the job in hand but...the fact remains that The Duke requires a shed, the shed requires a siding and once upon a time getting hold of sidings was my sort of business, so I agreed to put my influence on the problem. For some time I have been plying my old trade and lifting disused sidings which have been donated to the EVR and others; the next part of "Memoirs of a Railway Volunteer" will be along in a little while.

Meanwhile back at base the boiler gang have been steadily hacking away at the firebox. The palm stay rivets are being very carefully burned out and drifted through. The problem is that these are tapered and therefore must be collapsed before being driven into the boiler barrel. This involved using a burning torch uphand, with a bucket of water for the slag to fall into. The remaining firebox tubeplate seam rivets are also being removed. Also, after some debate we have begun removing the central part of the bunker floor which was distorted by corrosion. This has revealed a great deal of scale as we suspected, and we may decide to remove more plate from this area.

If any NatPres members are around we will be at Bakewell model show next weekend.

Tim

 

Bagnall 2746 The Duke.

The salvage project is going well; three railways are sharing 7 turnouts and 3/4 mile of track. Demolition is complete, so I had the chance to spend a relatively leisurely day on "The Duke" on Saturday. The first job was to prise up the remains of the smokebox floor plates and deliver them to Twiggs at Matlock to be copied. No problem and would I like to collect them on Tuesday? A very useful firm, and their work is very reasonably priced. After that I concentrated on getting up the bunker floor for further attention while the 8F gang fought it out with the firebox; the foundation rivets are giving trouble, the holes in the ring are suspected of being a little off centre with the holes in the plates, which makes them difficult to drift out; the drift tends to bite on the ring and not the rivet, so the 8F team plan to make a special drift. The copper for the new tubeplate has arrived.

Tim

 

Peckett 1567/1920 'Ackton Hall No.3' arrived at Foxfield yesterday from the National Coal Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery after negotiations that resulted in ownership passing to the Foxfield Light Railway Society. There are plans in place for a full overhaul and restoration to steam for this last surviving Peckett inside cylinder 0-6-0ST.

 

Deeply liking!!!

Cheers

Alan

 

From memory this loco has had a bodge job done in its firebox in N.C.B. days. New half sides fitted in the firebox might prove expensive to make acceptable to a boiler inspector.

Bob.

 

What 'bodge job' did the NCB do, then?

 

Bagnall 2746 "The Duke"

To Messrs Twiggs of Matlock for steel plate. They have made a really beautiful job of plasma cutting the two halves of the smokebox floor in 10mm plate, complete with bolt holes. We still have to cut the outline of the main steam pipe as there was not enough left of the original to show the pattern. This cost less than £100; I dread to think how long it would have taken us to cut the same profile from a blank manually. The 8F gang have decided to leave the extraction of foundation rivets to Mr Wright and have contented themselves with cutting off the rivet heads and removing sheared studs from the backhead. Further preparation of the bunker floor. Meanwhile the cab sides have been set up for attention.

Tim

 

Today Andrew Barclay 2138 "Swordfish"'s frames will be reunited with her boiler when it returns from Hatch engineering this afternoon. Another step closer, hopefully she will be steaming in a few months time. I will also post some pictures of today's events.

 

Some RSR updates:

Grant Ritchie 272/1894 passed its hydraulic test last week, but still a long way to go.

Progress also being made with Peckett 1999/1941 'North Western Gas Board', mainly on the frames, but again still a long way to go.

Andrew Barclay 1147/1908 'John Howe' now static in museum (although was exhibited in Prestons Flag Market over the w/e https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJEHTIfWsAAfB53.jpg:large) - future overhaul status unknown.

Andrew Barclay 2343/1953 'British Gypsum No4' & Andrew Barclay 880/1902 0-4-0CT Crane 'Glenfield No1' on their way soon having been bought by a private owner after being hidden in the shed at Carnforth still for the past couple of decades. Obviously they're going to need overhauling, present condition unknown.

 

I thought that 'Glenfield' and 'British Gypsum No. 4' had been stored recently at Chasewater. 'Glenfield' was certainly at Statfold for a while, and hasn't been at Carnforth since approx. 2000.

Must try to visit the RSR sometime soon - the collection of locos and stock is becoming increasingly impressive.

Andy

 

You could well be right re. their present location, it was more assumption I think that they were still at Carnforth. A date hasn't been confirmed yet as to when they're arriving at RSR, but I know it's sooner rather than later.