Locomotive News

Deputy Under Scribe Colin on duty today – Dave is brushing up on his Spanish in Barcelona

All the usual stuff to start the day; weather, chat, banter, tea, etc, then along came Frank and spoiled it with a list of things to do.

Ian joined us a couple of weeks ago – he was an engineer in the Merchant Navy and lives in Wokingham so shares the journey with Jim and myself.  Ian not only knows how to tackle some tricky engineering stuff but he’s also a bit of a weight-lifter so he’s quite handy when there are large lumps of metal that need shifting – more later on this.

The first job for Ian and I was to adjust the brakes on Lord Nelson, which was in steam on the pit and ready to go off shed for its first train – so no pressure there, then.  It turned out to be a fairly easy job to adjust the tender brakes – slacken off a couple of big nuts, undo the pinch bolts, wind up the adjuster, check brake block clearance and tighten up.  The loco brakes were a bit more exciting with burning embers from the ashpan and emissions of steam and water around us. The loco brakes were similar to the tender except for a co...

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“Cheltenham” made her first appearance outside on Friday as she was pulled out by Knights Rail’s 07 shunter. This was the first time our valve gear had gone around. We found the rear end to be a bit low, but otherwise the shunt went fine. Upon arriving in No.4 bay we found that we had the luxury of a pit for the first time in the overhaul. She was back in the same bay that she was built in back in 1934. A hectic Saturday and Monday then followed, which allowed us to light the warming fire on Monday afternoon as planned. Thanks to Nigel at Arlington fleet services for pulling us out with his diesel. Smoking-out the works would’ve made us very unpopular.

On Tuesday the pressure was gently raised to 100 psi, and she went back inside briefly for a repair to a vacuum train pipe. Further jobs were carried out to correct leaks etc. We managed to do most of the steam raising by burning scrap wood from around the site.

On Wednesday the MHR Foreman Boilersmith visited, and set the safety valves. The main steam pipes in the smokebox were pressurized and found to be steam tight. Both injectors work, although the pep pipe cock has a leak from the suppl...

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75079 Blog – 29 April 2012

Progress on the society’s Standard 4 continues to move forward thanks to the efforts of the Thursday night and Sunday contingent.

The efforts of Malcolm, Roger and others continue on the fabrication of the crinoline to surround the boiler.  The rings around the barrel are complete with work now focused on the firebox fittings.  Roger was busy today creating a new joint ring that will sit on top of the firebox.  It forms a long section that the crinoline fits to around the firebox.  Tom has been busy making the first of these sections; it’s slow work, as the curves need to match exactly the profile of the firebox but the required distance from.  It’s slow but steady progress.

Much work has been done on the running plate.  This is all being created from scratch so there is quite a lot of work involved.  Focus at the moment is on the Driver’s side with the fall plate now in situ and the first section of horizontal running plate now offered up.  This section incorporates a nice S shape (see picture) that looks very nice, but requi...

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We now find ourselves doing things like receiving a coal delivery, putting water in the boiler, collecting the nameplates,and fixing a date for the lorry to take the engine to York, so we must be getting near the end. The engine is taking shape, and many extra hours have gone in recently to ensure that we meet our target of appearing at “Railfest” in York on the 2^nd of June. Knights Rail have recently allowed us to work on Saturdays, and this has really helped progress since we get people who are unable to make it during the week.

The boiler cladding is now all fitted. This has enabled the lubrication pipes to be run down the outsides, and also for the clacks, handrails, blower and boiler bands to go on. In the smokebox the petticoat pipe is fitted, along with the blower ring, concrete floor, and steam pipes. One steam pipe had to be cut and re-welded to get it to fit the engine. The fit of the blower rod collar on the square blower valve shaft was awful, so we chopped it off and Simon turned up a new one.

The “Cosmetics Dept.” have been busy, and now the cladding has been flatted, filled , spot-primed, undercoated, and now...

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Well, the garden needs it, I suppose. And we do have a hose-pipe ban, so the pouring rain that greeted us today at Ropley was good for some, if not for us working in it! My day job has me working outside in all weathers but I somehow don’t expect it when I’m working “for pleasure!!!”

Just back from China, I’m still a bit jet-lagged too, so although firing on all cylinders during the morning, after lunch has me feeling my age a bit... (34; ha! I wish!)

Anyway, excuses over, it’s off to work after usual cuppa and banter; two main jobs for us to sort among ourselves see us split into two highly skilled groups working on the Black five and the Harry Potter bridge..

The bridge, as mentioned several times over the last few weeks has had to be tweaked to suit our particular use of it. Two weeks ago, when I was last here, Bob the Welder and a few of the others were engaged in cutting a section from the middle of one of the spans which meant a lot of drilling and knocking out of large rivets. This section is now finished with the two halves skilfully re-welded by Bob. Another identical section was today receiving the same treatm...

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