Saturday 2nd April

Attendance: 4

The day started with Adam and Jason heading off to Castlecroft to dig out a fuel pump and a few other bits. Chris B had requested that they retrieve the fuel pump as he is going to take the pump away with him to overhaul it. It was located in CoBo world so after a little rummaging around it was located and lifted out. While in CoBo world a few tread plates were pulled out so that they can be cleaned up ready for when the pipe work is refitted in the engine compartment. Jason also dug out a couple of pipes for the brake system. These were located under the racking in CoBo world so after crawling around on the ground these were added to the pile to be taken back down to Baron Street. The last things that were picked up were a couple of panels for the electrical cubicle. While at Castlecroft Rob Purcell asked if we needed help for the day and so he joined Adam and Jason for the day.

On the return to Baron Street the car was unloaded of the goodies recovered from CoBo world and then following a cuppa the attention turned to work on the CoBo. First up Rob and Adam set about pulling the cabling back out of the large conduit that runs down the floor in the boiler end. It had been decided that this would get a fresh coat of anti-tracking paint. Once the cables were removed an inspection was made of the anti-tracking paint. Of the main conduit that runs down the length of the boiler compartment from the generator bulkhead to the electrical cubicle it was found to be in two halves. The half closest to the generator bulkhead was found to be in good condition so Rob set about lightly sanding it down. The other half of the conduit showed signs of rusting so a decision was made to needle gun this section so Adam set about the needle gunning of this half.

Jason appeared and set about the drelling of a box area where the cabling from the generator bulkhead end of the conduit disappears through the floor. Jason took his time as there were some cables still in place and he didn't want to damage them. With these jobs on going the three of them stopped for some lunch and then returned to continue after some food.

Rob had finished his light sanding so he moved onto another part of the conduit. Close to the generator bulkhead there is a fork in the conduit with one arm going to where the end of the generator should normally be positioned. This section was caked in oily sludge so Rob set about first scraping the worst of the sludge out of the conduit then following a coating of degreaser wiped this area out as best as possible. The afternoon was moving on at this stage and following the completion of this job Rob departed for the day.

Around this time a member from the C15PS had organised to visit the site and have a look around the 15 and the CoBo and Jason did the honours of the tour. While this was going on Adam continued with the needle gunning, he made a start on the area that Rob had degreased a short while earlier. The needle gunning pretty much kept Adam busy for the rest day. However one other little job he did was remove an electrical conduit that went from the floor to a switch board located on the wall.

Jason had completed his tour so gave the box area he had been prepping earlier in the day a coat of green anti-rust paint.

The freshly removed electrical conduit was handed to Clive Whiting who had just turned up and he gave this a sanding down and then applied a coat of undercoat. And this brought the days work to a close.

Sunday 3 rd April

Attendance: 2

Today there would be Adam and Clive working on the CoBo as while other volunteers spent the day working on Ernest (The class 14). First job up for Adam was to give the conduit that Clive had undercoated the night before a coat of orange paint. With that completed Adam made a start on painting a couple of pipes from the cooling system applying a coat of green anti-rust paint as these had been drelled back to bare metal off site. These were then left to dry.

Adam and Clive then made their way into the CoBo to continue prep work on the conduit and some floor areas that needed to be completed. Adam drelled the conduit that had been needle gunned the previous day. Clive however turned his attentions to de-greasing and needle gunning a thin strip of the floor that runs down the side of the main electrical conduit and finished next to the exhauster located in the middle of the boiler section of the CoBo. With these jobs complete Adam and Clive moved onto the next Jobs. Clive started needle gunning one of the walls around the electrical cubicle that leads to the internal cab door as this is in a bad way with flaking paint and rust. While he carried out this task Adam had a good tidy up including the hovering in and around all the areas that had been drelled and needle gunned. This kept them busy until it was time to attend a committee meeting.

An hour or two later following the committee meeting and a spot of lunch Adam returned to needle gunning the wall for an hour or so as Clive had been called off to work on something else. The needle gunning was proving to more difficult than Adam had been expecting as the paint is old and was well and truly stuck on. After a sweep and a Hoover up Adam moved onto some painting to finish off the day. During a previous working day Rob M had applied grey undercoat to 4 sections of flooring so Adam applied black floor paint to these areas, the main areas being around the electrical cubicle. With that complete next for painting was to apply green anti-rust paint to the areas of the main electrical conduit that had been taken back to bare metal.

Clive had finished his other work so he applied a coat of grey undercoat paint to the box where the cables go through the floor and this brought the day's tasks to an end.......

Monday 4 th April

Attendance: 1

Today was going to be a leisurely day. Firstly Adam went in to the CoBo and applied Grey undercoat to all the areas on the floor conduit that had been painted with green anti-rust paint the previous day. Also grey was applied to the part of the floor that had been worked on over the weekend. Adam then went back to the workshop and painted the two pipes from the cooling system that had also been painted green the previous day. These will be painted into the final blue colour during the next working weekend. Time for some breakfast........

Following breakfast Chris B required assistance from Adam replacing a starter motor on the Class 14 and this took an hour or so. With that complete things started to wind down following a good weekend but one final job Adam wanted to complete was to removed 4 more water pipes from the engine that are part of the cooling system so that these can be drelled back to bare metal off site. And at around midday this concluded another working weekend working on the CoBo.

The next working weekend is April 30/1st May. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton