December 2005 :: Fotopic.Net

December 2005

1st December 2005

Sunday 4th was the first working party of the month and featured Alan and Chris with a guest appearance from Pete of Carlisle! The day started off with constant rain which didn't stop Chris trialling the newly made pair of exhaust stack covers to ensure they fitted okay. Chris also performed some maintenance work on the turbochargers as did Alan. Chris also fixed the hoover (again) and had a good clear out of rust & rubbish from Number 2 Cab. Pete rubbed the exhaust stack covers down and painted them in primer.
This time of year slows down restoration work on the locomotive itself but the number of small projects being undertaken off site increases. An example of an off site project has been provided by Joan and Doug. They have been given various parts of the crew seats to renevate and re-cover where necessary. A couple of pictures of one of the armrests before and after restoration has been sent in.
Alan worked on his latest project on Tuesday 6th - the renovation of the fan room. There will be many days of scraping and cleaning ahead.
Sunday 11th saw Adrian, Alan, Doug, Joan & Chris on site for a very cold working party. Adrian and Chris worked in Number 2 cab removing yet more debris from the cab floor. As can be seen in the pictures, there is a massive amount of debris needing cleaning out including BR's expanding foam and numerous lightbulbs! Chris also painted the exhaust stack covers in undercoat. Joan cooked a wonderful lunch and weatherproofed the loco in three places on the outside. Doug cleaned the two fan covers that Alan had removed from the fan room on Tuesday. Alan recommenced his latest project which is the renovation of the fan room. Initially, Alan will be stripping all of the accumulated grime from all of the surfaces and preparing the surfaces for painting. Before any painting is undertaken, the lubricating oil priming pump will be swapped with the reconditioned pump in the store.
On Thursday 15th, the items from Number 1 Cab that we sent away for re-chroming arrived back with us. The items look absolutely superb and just like new (probably even better than new)! The handbrake wheel re-chroming was sponsored by Doug - thanks mate!
At last on Sunday 18th at 01:00, the painting of the exhaust stack covers was completed by Chris. The covers have been painted in bright colours in case we forget to take them out when we start the engine up - the theory being that you can see what tree they have ended up in - getting them out of the tree will be a different challenge!! Later on in the day, the stack covers were duly installed on the exhaust stacks. Adrian and Chris continued beavering away in Number 2 Cab whilst Alan carried on cleaning out the fan room as well as replacing the seal on the electrical box that sits on the fan room floor.
A last minute working party was convened on the afternoon and evening of Friday 23rd as Moff suddenly decided that he wanted to do some more welding on the headcode box at Number 1 end. Chris and Moff worked on the loco from 3 o'clock in the afternoon through to 10:15 that evening. New steelwork has been welded in and cut to the correct shape for the two lower corners. All that remains now is to cut out the rusted steel in the top left corner then weld new steel in its place and the sort out the metal where some of the holes that retain the plate that covers the headcode box have become deformed .

500x664 2_Cab_1.jpg	500x664 2_Cab_2.jpg	500x664 2_Cab_3.jpg	500x667 Adrian_at_work.jpg
500x667 Alan_Fan_Room.jpg	640x232 Armrest1.jpg	640x258 Armrest2.jpg	500x376 Chroming_1.jpg
500x573 Chroming_2.jpg	500x454 Chroming_3.jpg	500x664 Fan_covers_1.jpg	500x667 Fan_Room_1.jpg