Restoration of the MHRPS
Stanier Black 5 #45379 at Ropley

From its arrival at MHR to November 2005

Continuation (from November 2005 to recent)

9th November 2005:

Bob Preston shows how the riveting inside our Black Five's tender frame members was performed (Movie, 2MB)

We needed to find a device for holding the snap-head-end of the hot rivets whilst the other end is formed with a pneumatic hammer to fix the inner frame to these members. As you can see, there's a clearance of only 6½ inches rivet-head to rivet-head, and you have only 8 seconds to work before the the rivet cools too far, which rules out hydraulic jacks, etc. Frank has managed to borrow (and repair) a "holder-upper" to fit in the confines of these tender-frame members of #45379 ... tw, Jan 06

These, at the rear of the tender, were no problem

(Photos and Movie, 3.9MB, 9th November 2005): Tony Wood)

2nd November 2005:

Very noisy in the shed today because we were riveting the tender frames of the MHR Black Five #45379
That loco's valve chests were being bored: movie, 347KB (see also below, 1st November 2005)

Photo and movie (both 2nd November 2005): Tony Wood

1st November 2005:

Machining the cylinders of the MHRPS Black Five #45379

Photos (1st November 2005): Ray Sully

9th September 2005: The yard was cleared yesterday afternoon ready for the lifting and despatch today of the boiler of our Black Five for restoration. Ray Sully's photos of the lift from the frames: One Two The 45-ton steam crane also lifted a carriage off one bogie and wheels were changed.
Photos (9th September 2005): Tony Wood

17th June 2005:

Colin Chambers sorts tackle for the lift of the new tender tank which arrived today for the MHR Black Five

Photo (17th June 2005): Tony Wood

Ray photographed the lift -

Four photos, above (all 17th June 2005): Ray Sully

Safe on timber blocks

Another section of our Black Five's tender chassis has been completed by Bob Preston from flat-pack profiles

Two photos (17th June 2005): Tony Wood

25th May 2005:

Bob is making progress assembling the Ikea flat-pack dragbox (Photo (tw): 13th April 2005) for the MHR Black Five's tender.

The original was cast steel, but the quality of Bob's fabrication work makes a very lovely job

Three photos (25th May 2005): Tony Wood

.	23rd March 2005: Painting the tender brake weigh-shaft bracket he made

18th March 2005:

Bob Preston is fabricating replacement tender brake weigh-shaft bracket. He's found Bert Hitchen's Five useful for comparisons.

Original and new: 'Bob the Welder' is so named from respect at Ropley for his work

Photos (18th March 2005): Ray Sully

18th February 2005:

Bob the Welder fitting a stretcher in the frames of our Black Five's tender

Photos (18th February 2005): Ray Sully

16th February 2005:

Work proceeds on MHR's Black Five:

These are new stretchers ...

... for the tender frames

The tender body goes soon to Derbyshire as a pattern for a replacement. The 45-ton steam crane is booked for 2nd March for this job, and for some coach bogie changes.

That piece of pipe in front of the sack-truck is from Tom's pipe-bending bench; he's making superheater elements for Bittern. I'll take his photo soon, when he's not looking

Photos (16th February 2005): Tony Wood