Friday 25th November

Working members: 3

We had an afternoon session on the Metro-Vick with Carl persevering with barring the V8 round with a tool built for the purpose and Graham and Rob inside the boiler room needle gunning and painting.

The work inside the body of the Class 28 had slowed of late due to many factors, the focus being mainly concentrated on getting D9531 operational again as we are so close to finishing as well as the strip down on the Crossley power unit. However this weekend a group of Class 15 volunteers will be focusing on the 'Object' by putting our efforts in to finishing one of the last untouched bodywork sections inside the boiler room – the dog kennel. This is the smaller of the two air intakes and feeds air to the traction motor blower and the boiler burner fan. Graham took charge of a paint brush and using what is probably the thinnest gloss paint I have ever seen he started to cover the undercoat around the electrical cubical. Rob on the otherhand needle gunned the TMB stand until it was time to call it a day.

Sunday 27th November

Working members: 4

Work on the Crossley engine continued today. Les Tappenden had been working on the engine the previous day while the rest of the working members attended the C15PS AGM. He had managed to bar over the engine further than previous attempts but it kept locking. Carl, Adam and Andy Walton made a start into investigating what was causing the locking issue. Very quickly it became obvious what the cause of the problem was however, Carl asked Andy to bar over the engine and B3 piston and liner were found to be still seized solid. As the engine was barred over the liner was being pushed out of the engine block. Carl felt the best plan would be to remove the piston and liner in one. The inspection panels were removed and split pins were removed from 3 of the 4 bolts on the big end, where the piston joins to the crank. The 4th proved to be more awkward as the A3 piston big end was in the way. After some perseverance however the 4th split pin was removed. The bolts were loosened off just to make sure that they could be undone. B3 piston and liner can now be removed which will allow the rest of the unseized pistons to be removed when a crane is available.

It was decided to remove the oil heat exchanger located on the 'B' bank side of the engine. This entailed undoing bolts that connected the oil pipes to the heat exchanger and also to the engine block. Once the bolts were undone a bit of persuasion was used to break the seal of the gaskets and with that the oil pipe assembly was removed. The heat exchanger could then be removed. It was supported from underneath with a pallet due to its weights and the 8 nuts and bolts that held it in place were undone. It was then gentle pulled from the engine on the pallet and moved to one side. This will be inspected shortly to check that there are no issues with the heat exchanger unit. With that completed Carl left for the day and Andy and Adam went to join Rob inside the CoBo.

Rob had been needle gunning the air intake of all the old paint all morning. Once that was completed he went over the rust with the wire wheel attachment on the angle grinder before wiping down and hoovering up! When Andy and Adam arrived at Camp CoBo they armed themselves with paint brushes and added green primer to the surfaces required.

If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton