Mid-Hants Railway Loco Shed

Recent News

Recent News from Ropley Motive Power Depot: showing work-in-progress of interest to the steam railway enthusiast
Reports and photos by your webmaster, or by others where acknowledged

Follow our restoring of heritage steam engines from Barry wrecks to high performance, mainline certified steam classics

1st February 2005:

Neil and Bert have been busy, as evidenced by the mounting pile of crown stays removed from 9F #92212

The work on #92212's boiler

Photo (1st February 2005): Tony Wood

28th January 2005:

Original bogies for Bulleid brake carriage #4211 were both re-wheeled (see also 20th January 2005, below)

The 45-ton steam crane is a chunky piece of kit and behaves like it, but it can raise or lower its hook with surprising delicacy and is ideal for the tricky business of fitting the horns over axlebox horn-guides.

They're waiting for me to man the other axlebox

In the shed, Neil Davis has constructed the chill for moulding white-metal to Bittern's driving wheel axleboxes to the correct form. A ring of burners is being specially made to heat the boxes evenly.

Each axlebox will be soaked in hot caustic-soda solution to de-grease it, then metalled ready for machining and hand-finishing

Restoration of Gresley A4 #60019 Bittern (index to pages)

Canadian Pacific's boiler has been re-tubed. This is the smokebox end (detail)

The firebox ends are ready for welding - see also report below (20 Jan)

Three photos (all 27th January 2005): Tony Wood

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'Diesel Corner'

	20th January 2005: Duncan has repainted Bulleid brake #4211. Later, he and Jim Lawrence applied the side and end transfers. Externally, it just needs the battery-charging electrics finished, and the bogies replaced with the originals. The Vintage Carriage Group have been renovating the interior
Work on #92212's boiler	.
	Outside, we were removing a piston from rebuilt J94 Douglas #10 for his pre-Footplate Experience season examination. He is ready for his boiler exam next week
Andy has been busy up the yard in the Boiler Department Repair on #35005 Canadian Pacific by bushing tubeplate holes has been agreed and completed*. The boiler will have its new smoketubes fitted soon
*Smoke from the fire goes through tubes the length of the boiler from the firebox to the smokebox, then up the chimney. The ends of these tubes are expanded tight into holes in a tubeplate at each end to stop water at boiler pressure from leaking. At the firebox end, these tubes and the tubeplate are in a very hostile environment and suffer problems far more than at the smokebox end. If a boiler is heated slowly from cold, the parts all expand in the heat at the same rate: if there is any sudden change in temperature, mechanical stresses are created when some parts expand or contract faster than others. Any bad practice by firemen (e.g. allowing 'holes' in the fire, or allowing cold air through the firedoor to chill the tubeplate) will cause leaks between tubes and tubeplate. The tubes are then expanded again to cure this. If the holes are enlarged, and this enlargement goes beyond specified limits, the expanded ends of the tubes can be so thin as to suffer early failure. This may have been the cause of CP's tube failure, but I'm not qualified to say. CP's firebox tubeplate holes were oversize beyond tolerance, and a repair has been approved: fit steel bushes in the holes to bring them to the correct internal diameter. Because the inner firebox is steel, the bushes and internally-expanded tube-ends will all be welded before the boiler is tested hydraulically and then steamed for its certificate. You can see the bushes in the above photo, which also shows the thermic syphons which give Bulleid locos their excellent steaming qualities. The centre section of 'brick arch' (refractory concrete, these days) has been removed for access. ... tw
	Ian (Trigger to his friends) up the yard in the Boiler Dept., was needle-gunning inside the rather smaller boiler of Thomas Photos (20th January 2005): Tony Wood