Saturday 12th April : Three members in attendance today.

Work continued from the last working weekend on getting the loco ready for starting up. David B continued with the rebuild of the dismantled air starter motor and getting it ready for testing. Jason concentrated on rebuilding the fuel system, the main filter manifold, fuel reservoir and solid pipework were refitted, the only items left to fit to complete the fuel system is the hand priming pump and the flexible's to the power unit. David B and David G then concentrated on refitting the fan mesh guards in the cooler group, which was a little bit of a awkward job as there is very little room to get in the cooler group let alone work in there!

A good days graft by those in attendance and visible progress made, well done all!

Sunday 13 April: 8 Working members present today.

A few aims today; repair the leak to the thermostat and fill loco with coolant, refit the oil flexible pipes, get the oil back in the power unit, refit the rebuilt starter motor once tested, refit cooler group roof section, and finally drink lots of tea, as almost everyone who turned up had brought a pint of milk with them, apart from Rob had brought 4 pints !

David B and Graham decided that they needed to test the air starter, so they loaded it up into a car took a hose and went to Castlecroft to run it off the road compressor located there. They had to make final adjustments to get it to run continuously and smoothly, they finally had success and was reported to be running like a sewing machine, they transported it back to the loco works to refit shortly after lunch.

On the loco the Thermostat pipework was removed and then they heavy task of lowering it down was done so we could gain access to the top cover to remove it. On removal it was obvious where the water was coming from, during the rebuild process the gasket had been 'spat' out right underneath the main outlet pipe, which made it difficult to spot and also explained why we thought the leak was coming from the main pipes. A new gasket was made, the faces cleaned up and re-assembled. The unit was then lifted back into position and bolted up. The pipework was then rebuilt.

Meanwhile team Jim ( Jim and his daddy ) had procured and barrel pump and hose, and set about pumping the engine oil back into the sump through one of the crankcase door openings. Jims pa then set about making new gaskets for all the crankcase doors that had been removed when we first inspected the power unit in Glasgow , the doors were then refitted with the new gaskets and the nuts tightened up.

Graham, David B and Rob set about refitting the air starter motor, lots of swearing was heard during this process and it isn't the lightest of items and had to bolt to quite and awkward position, with success they bolted the motor up and set about removing the opposite one so it can receive the same treatment as the other at the next working weekend.

Jason and Jim, lifted the cooler group roof section into position and bolted it up, with this in place it now means the cooler group rebuild is now finally complete!!!

With the coolant pipework rebuilt the moment of truth had come, in went the hosepipe and the tap turned on and the system began to fill, however, one leak came to light, the bypass pipe gasket on the bottom was leaking, attempts were made to nip it up, but to no avail, it was decided to remove the pipe and make a new gasket, clean the faces and blather them in hylomar. With this task done the tap was turned on again.... yet another leak, the hose above the gasket we had just replaced was weeping, making it look like the gasket was leaking, so it took a while to figure out where the water was coming from, once discovered the hose was nipped up and the weep stopped. The two hoses from the power unit top rails started to weep, and were nipped up and was the hose from the bottom right water pump. Eventually the sight glass was 3/4 full and the tap turned off. As far as we know there were no leaks on the pipework, the cooler group was checked and was bone dry, a credit to those involved in its rebuild. The sight glass was marked with tape, and it will be checked over the next few weeks to see if the level goes down.

While all this was going on, the big flexible ermeto hoses for the oil system were refitted, but as they are anything but flexible it took some brut force, wit and undoing of pipes in the cooler group to get all four in position and tight, anyone who has worked with ermeto couplings will know what I'm talking about! The only other oil pipe to be refitted was the feed to the governor, again an ermeto flexible, but of smaller scale and easier to handle.

With the coolant system now filled at 18.00 it was called a day, the tarp pulled back over, and secured things put away. Again a great weekends graft by all.

The next working weekend is 26th & 27th of April - if you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton