Saturday 18th July 2009

Attendance: 4

Like quite a few D8233 working weekends this year people also found time to do jobs on the Co-Bo. Adam Booth was first up when he decided to go into the Co-Bo to do some undercoating in the cooler group this had been drelled and primed by Rob previously and Rob wanted to get cracking with something so it was suggested that he continue the paint work on the radiator air chutes on the R/H side of the loco and this he did using the white undercoat.

Around midday Rob decided that it was time to refit the fuel header tank, this is mainly to get it out of the workshop where it has been taking up space ever since it was restored but now that the coolant header tank has been fully painted there is no reason why it can't go back on. As it is quite heavy and ungainly Rob needed to enlist the help of the whole working party to get it re-fitted, so Jason, Matt & Adam were all summoned to assist in getting the tank out of the workshop area in the support coach,

carry it the short way down to the loco and get it into the ‘Object' through the cab and then into the engine room. The tank was offered up to the mounts and bolts were put in but a lot of the holes did not line up at first, so a pry bar was used to get the holes across, four of the five mounts were put in but the last was being stubborn and no matter how hard they pushed, even using a crowbar against the roof brace it still would not go back, something was obviously stopping it, so the tank was unbolted and removed again and the problem with mounting bracket not sitting fully home was due to a blobby weld behind. The weld had been broken and repaired in the past and they had doubled up on the welds but this meant that the tank could not sit flush in the bracket so Jason suggested that the weld be ground out using a drill and grinding mandrill which was duly fetched from the coach and Jason spent some time grinding away at the weld eventually he ground down the weld until there was enough room for the bracket to sit home. The tank was offered up again and this time the bolts seem to line up much better, and eventually all the bolts were tightened up. Its good to get something back onto the loco and all the guys stood round to admire the achievement for a while before moving off to do their other tasks.

Adam however found that the undercoat he had painted on earlier to the R/H cooler group air scoops was now dry so he broke out the hemp gloss and continued to gloss paint the rest of the area and after a while he was done so that side of the cooler group is now pretty much complete. The loco was then locked up and the tarp secured.

The next working weekend is on 15/16 August. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton