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Industrial Loco Updates

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by AlistairS, Apr 17, 2008.

  1. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke

    Regulator support bracket removed from inside the boiler, Mick has made a start on cutting out the sling stays and stay support brackets. Eccentric straps fitted with locknuts and cotters, a start made on evaluating the big ends for wear. The last of the crown stay ends are being ground off by our new recruit John. Cab sides rubbed down and in second coat primer, start made on smokebox door. Next weeks shopping list: oxygen, grinding and sanding disks....

    Micky Thomas came to visit recently and asked with a suspicious glint in his eye if we knew where he might find a 4" gate valve for a water column he is planning, so we pulled one out of our stock and cleaned it up. He also asked if we knew the ideal depth of a loco ashpit. My reckoning is 4@ to rail top, does anyone else have any ideas?

    Vulcan

    Due in steam at Barrow Hill 25/26/27 September, the LMS Gala, so I believe there will be a few other supporting attractions. We will be having a sales stand by kind permission of BHESS and look forward to meeting any Nat-Pres members who call by.

    Tim
     
  2. sweetktg

    sweetktg Member

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  3. oldmrheath

    oldmrheath Well-Known Member

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    Robert Heath No.6 : motion has been removed for cleaning and painting. New pins and bushes being made and fitted as required. Activities being led by the loco's former owner who has recently got involved again

    Jon
     
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  4. 4468BenV

    4468BenV New Member

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    Dome for AB 2343 currently sitting on my dining table. I just need to remove the last of the paint off it and get it primed up and stored.
    The next thing to come off is the cab. The rear wooden section of cab broke off fairly easily with a bit of persuasion. That will be completely replaced with one made of hardwood eventually.
    Going to have a day of attacking lots of parts with spanners and other tools very soon so that access to the bottom end can be gained.
     
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  5. GWR4707

    GWR4707 Nat Pres stalwart

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  6. Bramblewick

    Bramblewick Member

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    The planned loan of 'Haydock' to Beamish has fallen through because of the costs involved in getting her out of Penrhyn Castle.
     
  7. sweetktg

    sweetktg Member

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    Glenfield No1 arrived at RSR today - they're collection of ex-Steamtown tanks is growing :) The low loader that brought it will be leaving with a DP1 bogey bound for the NRM, that's if they ever manage to get away today!
     
  8. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke.

    I seem to have had a few distractions over the last month or two, what with Spondon and other things. No sooner was the track salvage operation there completed than the EVR started using the stuff, laid down an extra siding and moved us into it, so we have had to get used to our new home next to the maintenance facility. The doors on the palvan are getting a little past it, so we are making a pair of new ones - these will probably cost almost as much as the van itself by the time they are done. The first door is assembled ready to fit and the other is not far behind.
    Mick has got all the crown stays out and is working to salvage the crown stay nuts and palm stays. John is working on removing condemned side stays. Simon and Alen have carried out a test re-assembly of the big ends and it is clear that the bearings have become very worn; in fact they rattle against the big end strap and the sound is horribly similar to the distress noises which the locomotive was making during its last period of service. This led us back to Mr Wrights emporium for the discerning austerity locomotive owner at Loughborough, where there were two sets of big end bearings on the shelf. Not any more.
    The big ends are likely to go to Loughborough with the boiler some time before Christmas, and we are doing as much preparation work as we can before it goes. I spent part of one Sunday inside the boiler barrel shovelling out the scale, apart from Mick I must have been the first person that far inside the boiler since Stewart "Pycost" Howard sawed up the remains of the old tubes in around 1984. From this angle the damage done to the firebox by over-rolling tubes is painfully apparent - you can see the crown sheet bending upwards at the front. A job for Mr Wright and his team in due course. One job on my list is to get back inside with a long handled patio wire brush which I intend to use to get between the crown stays and clean up the crown of the boiler.
    Fortunately, the income side is doing quite well. We had a particularly good result at the Wirksworth Model Railway Exhibition on 17th/18th October when there was a sudden influx of extra passengers on the Saturday, in fact it was our best sales event ever. Must comb the loft again.

    Tim
     
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  9. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    "Oh, Hi Stewart, I need a hand here. Can you fetch a pycost please.

    What's a pycost?

    £2-50 with chips. Here's the cash"

    (Martyn Ashworth)

    Tim
     
  10. GWR Man.

    GWR Man. Well-Known Member

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    AB 1219 on the WSR is nearly finished and is been re-assembled

    all sorts 001.jpg all sorts 002.jpg so will be moving under its own power for the first time for over 60 years in the very near future.
     
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  11. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke

    Preparation work on the boiler is steadily advancing, despite part of our labour force diverting to Loughborough to work on 48624. Mick and John have been extracting the throat stays which have mostly wound out very neatly with a stillson wrench once the riveted ends had been cut off flush and partly drilled out to break the seal. The price for scrap copper has fallen quite dramatically to £1500 per ton, in fact the chap I took the old stays to said he wasn't buying steel at all. The main yards are said to be paying £20 per ton for mixed steel, £30 for castingsWe are keeping our fingers crossed for a slot undercover in the near future which will make re-assembly of the motion much easier and protect the bearings over the winter.

    I did go through the loft again and found a very old unmade kit for a James Bond Autogyro, a Christmas present from around 45 years ago which fetched just over £100 on ebay - a small boost but very welcome! Wonder what else is up there?

    Merry Christmas

    Tim
     
  12. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke

    Locomotive restoration is often a noisy business, but the sweetest sound is the pattering of rain drops on a roof overhead. We turned up last Saturday with the intention mostly of swapping cards drinking tea and watching the crowds on the Santa Trains. What we found was the EVR operations team preparing for as mega shunt to get a freshly overhauled Grampus wagon out of the maintenance facility, which left an austerity sized gap on N0.2 road, so in went His Grace. We had been expecting this, but not so soon. Now we can get cracking on the motion. Mick and John continued their work on the boiler.
    Dear Santa, please may I have a new cylinder of oxygen, some halogen workshop lights and two hundredweight of green moulding sand.

    Tim
     
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  13. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke

    Our first working session of 2016 has been very productive. Mick has broken into the new oxygen supply and is cutting out more crown stays. He has also been cleaning up the threads on the palm stays. The rest of the gang were in the "maintenance facility", out of the prevailing damp. The first task was to fit up the workshop lights while Simon took down the valve connecting rods followed by the rod guide as we suspected wear in the phosphor bronze bushes. They all came apart very easily in the morning and after lunch we again borrowed the use of the LMSCA press which made short work of pushing out the bushes; when closely examined these were definitely worn; present advice is that hollow bar PB2 will be the cost effective solution. The rest of the frames have had a general clean up, and a start has been made on cleaning out the insides of the cylinders and valve chest.

    Tim
     
  14. Rosedale

    Rosedale Member

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    According to a piece in Heritage Railway (for what that's worth) the ex-Wallsend Slipway Borrows well tank is due to leave the Tanfield for overhaul. Anybody know any details?
     
  15. Steve

    Steve Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Does that mean the ownership has been sorted out?
     
  16. Rosedale

    Rosedale Member

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    That's what I'd been wondering. It's mentioned in HR by the way in a brief throwaway paragraph at the end of a story about the two Borrows WTs at Preston.
     
  17. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Bagnall 2746 The Duke

    Mick continues cutting crown stays; some of them had corroded through entirely at the base. At one point we thought he was beaten as the 8F cutting torch would only reach so far; David Wright at LMS promptly loaned us a longer torch so Mick should be able to cut the lot shortly; three rows left to do. David was also very helpful in recommending potential sources of supply of hollow bronze bar. Leeds Bronze gave the lowest quote and delivered very efficiently, Simon is now machining the new valve rod sleeves. Both cylinders have been cleaned, polished and greased ready for fitting of pistons, while the top of the cylinder block has been cleaned up and painted with aluminium paint. The inside of the boiler barrel is getting a preliminary clean, the stubborn bits will probably require needle gunning.

    Tim
     
  18. Robkitchuk

    Robkitchuk Member

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    Bowes loco uupdate: Number 22 has no problems currently so it's drained for the winter. Merlin is currently being jacked up to alow attention to one of the axle box, which has run hotel a number of occasions this year. Finally WST remains in storage until funds can be raised for its new steam pipe and tubes.
     
  19. pmh_74

    pmh_74 Well-Known Member

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    Can only presume that that axle box is Fawlty...
     
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  20. oldmrheath

    oldmrheath Well-Known Member

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    Robert Heath No.6.

    Keith is continuing his work on the frames with degreasing now complete ahead of refitting the eccentrics complete with their new shims. The steelwork supporting the smokebox is badly wasted and will be replaced.

    Jon
     
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