Saturday 23rd of August. Attendance was back up to the norm with six members helping out.

As the weather seemed good it was decided to pull the tarpaulin back to expose D8233. Simon and Dave Mylett made a start on drelling the engine compartment side frames, taking the paint back to bear metal and removing the old rubber door seals.

The other mission for today was to have a brain storming on the nose end compartment Traction motor blower. As the original Class 15 one has long gone, we had procured a class 31 example for use in D8233, however as not standard to Class 15's it needs mods, but we weren't sure what type.....

The motor was handballed and lifted on to the frame with the aid of a ratchet puller and the first mod that was needed showed its face... the stand would need either adapting or an adapter plate making to accommodate the different mounting position on the Brush motor. With the motor roughly in position the snail or escargot as it got named, was offered into position firstly into the way we wanted and would be best with very little mods, the problem with this though was the motor and fan runs the opposite way with the snail in that position for it to be any good, it was decided to test the motor and see which way it span, so with a 12v car battery and some household earth wire the motor was span up, and as anticipated the air being blown was going nowhere near where we wanted, heads were scratched and discussions took place on taking the fan off and sending away to a specialist to reverse it and then discussions took place on reversing the motor, again it would have to go off for this to be done, in the end the best we came up with on the day, was keeping the motor and fan as is, and mounting the snail in a vertical position, rather than at floor level in a class 31, this meant the fan would still work as should and blow air out of the snail outlet rather than inlet, the only problem being the outlet was well above where the inlet on the bulkhead was! the motor couldn't be dropped down as this would foul other equipment and not really gain much, so the plan is/was to cut through the bulkhead and modify the ducting in the cooler group to suit, without removing it as this would mean taking the cooler group apart again to get it out!! I'm assured it can be done! The brake frame and an air tank were placed into position to ensure the snail and motor wouldn't foul them or the area.

Since then though, further discussions have taken place and before this work is started, mounting the motor to point at the other nose end side door is going to be investigated, although we think it will be tight on room, and might not work at all as the motor may be sticking out of the side of the loco, if this does fit though, the stand will only need modifying and not the ducting, as the motor will be spinning the right way. This will be looked into at the next working weekend.

After all this and a well earned brew, we started on digging out all the doors off the loco, these will be going away shortly for shot blasting and spray priming, so we wanted to ensure all were present and mark them up with a dremmel so its easy to identify where they are from after shot blasting. The handles were then removed from the doors that have them and the doors loaded into the empty genny compartment ready for easy access when they need transporting. Jason also managed to fit out a couple of the marker lamp units with fittings and test them with a 240v supply for now, and some of the conduit that needed catching up for the nose compartment was glossed as well.

A great turn out and days graft by all, and an enjoyable one too where you saw lots of progress being made.

The next working weekend is September 6th & 7th. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton