Saturday 29 th Aug 2009

Attendance: 3

This day was a little bit special, 31556 a demic loco that is shortly to be departing the ELR for scrap, we had been granted permission to remove certain spares from it by the owner so the loco had been shunted into Castlecroft yard the day before and Chris, Jason & Jim now arrived to spend the day retrieving spares from it, the main focus of the work was to cut out a section of one of the radiator tanks as parts to repair one of the Rad tanks on D5705, also we wanted to acquire the Westinghouse exhausters from it for D8233 as well, this will require the use of a cutting torch, and the only person who had experience of using one was Jason, so he was nominated to use the gas axe, first task was to cut out the section of the rad tank, with this done Jason moved into the loco and there were some roof section bolts that would not come out and needed to be burnt out, after this there were a couple of small holes cut into the body side to allow access to the bolts that secure the lower exhauster to internal mounting frame, It had also been noticed that much of the original Vacuum system was still intact and this included 2x Snifter/Strainer Check valves and a Electro Vacuum cut off valve, these are brake bits required for D8233 so they were removed along with much of the 2" pipe work and associated elbows and pipe fittings.

By now it was lunchtime so we stopped for lunch, afterwards the roof section was craned off using the Coles 10 ton crane, then the way was clear to lift out the top exhauster, that was quite straight forward, however the lower exhauster would not be so easy, there is a metal support frame that stand over the lower exhauster that the upper one sits on, this frame had to be cut out, Jason used the torch to cut through the four legs but the frame was still solid and would not move, it was then found that it had extra support mounts bolted onto the body side behind, each with four large bolts that had to be burned away, it was tricky getting excess to the bolts but eventually Jason managed to get them all burn away and the frame was clear to be lifted out, that gone the 2nd exhauster could be lifted out, then the roof was put back on and a few locating bolts inserted to hold it on.

It had been a full and busy day, we had got a great number of useful spares for both D5705 & D8233, the exhausters and large 2" pipe sections were sheeted over on site the rest of the stuff was loaded up into our cars and transported down to Baron Street.

Sunday 30 th Aug 2009

Attendance: 5

Today had been arranged a meeting between the owners of D5705 and representatives of the C15PS to discuss matters concerning the ongoing restoration of the loco but as that was not until late morning, in the mean time Chris had been busy pulling the studs out of the radiator tank element mounting plate that had been cut out of 31556 the day previously, while this was going on Jason had been loading his car up with all the Vac brake equipment that had also been salvaged from the 31, Chris then moved onto cleaning up the rusty studs on one the Co-bo rad tanks, he had got a die nut for this purposes but unfortunately it was the wrong size so he asked Jason to drop into Castlecroft and fetch one when he went up to the store house, Jason then went to the store and dropped off the vac bits then proceeded to Castlecroft, there he got the correct die nut and had to cut up the 8x4 sheet of 1/8 inch steel that had been delivered there on Friday, this will be use to make the body work repairs on D8233 and D5705 but in its full sheet size it was to big and heavy to use, yesterday Jason had bought along his Petrol disc cutter to do the job but could not get it started, but today he tried again and got it running, after cutting the sheet into four 2x4 panels he loaded them into his car and went back down Baron street.

While all this was going on Rob, Dave G and Chris Tatton had arrived, We have recently had delivered a large ex-army tent that will be used a temporary shelter to go over the Crossley HSTV8 power unit when it arrives on site at Baron St when its moved from Castlecroft yard in a few weeks time, this tent came in a large box on a pallet and was dropped off in the loco works, we had to bring it into the coach so a forklift truck was borrowed to bring it out side where it could be unloaded and all the large canvas bags that make up the tent kit were loaded up into the coach and stored in the extra space in the workshop for now.

Rob refitted the now fully glossed mixer tank back onto its mounts inside the Co-bo engine room, Chris showed Mike Jacobs around the inside of the Co-bo explaining to him the restoration work done so far, after \mike departed Chris went back to working on the Radiator tank, Jason had given Chris the die nut he'd requested and he now used it to clean up the threads on the element mounting studs, after this noticed that the element mounting faces were quite badly pitted with rust, Jason suggested he use the mini drill with a sanding drum to smooth off the mounting faces and this did sorta work, but it really needs a more specialist sanding disc attachment that we will have to get for next time.

Meanwhile Chris had asked Dave if he would take on the job of the peg boarding in the loco cabs as one of the guys who used to do it has not departed the railway, so Dave agreed to give it a go and went into the No1 end cab to continue the task of the Peg boarding there, the afternoon was wearing on and Chris had to depart early , Jason found another job to pass the time, the rusty radiator mounting block that had broken loose from the L/H rad scoop sump was on the bench so he decided to clean it up, first he needle gunned it all over then he ground down the pitting with an angle grinder, finally he used the sanding disc to smooth it down before applying a coat of the special welding primer, this pretty much ended the days work, Dave had managed to get another large peg board roof panel up in the cab and Jason tidied up all the tools, it had been another weekend of disruption but one that saw us acquire many much needed bits for both the locos in our care.

The next working weekend is on 12/13 September. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton