Saturday 12th January : Our first working weekend of 2008 also saw the first working weekend for new volunteer David Smallwood. Welcome to the mad world of the C15PS David!

There was only four present on the loco today as we had an away party manning the sales stand at an event in Pudsey, but nevertheless work began on more painting of coolant pipes that connect the power unit to the cooler group into gloss blue, the fan drive mesh guards were undercoated ready for receiving gloss the following day. The bolts at the free end of the engine that bolt the damper and clutch shaft to the crankshaft had the old split pins punched out ready for re-assembly.

The main fuel filters were dismantled and inspected, it was decided that they could be cleaned with a medley of solvents. A couple of us were despatched to PartCo in Bury to gain various ingredients. These were then mixed in a container and the filters placed in and soaked. The bath mixture was changed a few times after getting rid of the heavy dirt then the filters left in overnight to soak. At around 2pm we all left as a few of us had an appointment with a BTH type 2 for the afternoon!

Sunday 13 January : Six working members present today.

First job was to remove the fuel filters from the bath, they had been cleaned very well by the potent mixture almost like new! The fuel filter canisters were then placed in for cleaning, if anyone wants the recipe please get in touch!

Several jobs were undertaken today, the fuel pipework was started in the drell and paint process, and the fan mesh guards got a coat of light grey gloss. On D8233 the sump oil was pumped out into an empty barrel so the oil system to the filters and handpump could be removed to enable us to connect up to D8233's at a later date, and also connect up the oil drains etc at the free end of the power unit, however it got a bit messy removing the lower pipework with the residual oil that was still in the sump! One of us was despatched to Castlecroft to remove the oil pipework from the old power unit that was missing from the new one. The oil filter arrangement on the side of the engine was removed along with the handpump for priming the oil as they are surplus to requirements, D8233's own oil filters are located in the cooler group and it has an electric motor driven pump to prime the oil. 

A start was made on un-seizing the fuel pumps, it was discovered that if the engine stop lever was used only 5 out of the 16 cylinders would shut off! After struggling for an hour to free just one pump off, it was decided to remove all 16 fuel pumps so they could be soaked in diesel over the coming weeks and freed off on the bench then re-fitted when free moving.

One of the other tasks undertaken was to make up a section of pipe that had sheared off during the power unit lifts on the old power unit, the pipe in question comes from the engine sump out to a T piece which then go to the side oil drains on the loco, it had sheared flush in the sump. Fittings were located at Castelcroft and the new piece made ready for the next working weekend.

Although a small turnout for the first weekend of 2008, a lot was achieved by the team. The next working weekend is on 26th & 27th of January, where more work will take place to achieve the goal of starting the power unit in the next few months.