Saturday 25 October.

Attendance: Three

It was decided to keep the tarp over the loco and work under it, the main emphasis of the work was to carry on with jobs left over from last time this mostly meant painting & drelling jobs with the back of the engine and the engine compartment side frames being the main priority jobs, before that began we had a replacement bench grinder that had been donated by Carl Holt to fit onto the workshop bench.

Dave got busy with his usual task of drelling up electrical conduits while Jason went into the depths of the engine room to continue the painting of the engine, but first he applied some grey undercoat to the L/H/R side frame in the generator compartment, then he did the same to the back of the engine, by this time Dave M had arrived and started to gloss paint the R/H/R Genny comp side frame but after a while he retired to the relative warmth of the support coach to give Dave G a hand in painting the conduits that he had just drelled. Jason finished off painting the R/H/R side frame and then set about removing the air filter ring from the rear of the L/H turbo after that he also took down most of the fuel pipes from the cantrail area of the L/H/F side frame so as to make it clear ready for when the needle gunning of this are was to begin.

Dave M prime painted the front roof handrails and drelled off some of the flexible internal lighting conduits and plugs. Dave G had all but finished drelling what conduit was left in the coach, not the most glamorous of working days but important work that needed to be done non the less.

Sunday 26 October.

Attendance: Five plus one additional helper…

The Sunday began with Jason making the trip up to Castlecroft to find & retrieve the original turbo brackets off the original engine, these were dug out from where they had lain since removal last October and they were quite oily so Matt Hainsworth provided assistance and steam cleaned them.

Simon, Rob & Dave M had arrived at the loco and as the sun was out at the time they decided to pull back the sheet and paint the bare metal area on the roof that had been needle gunned back in September, Simon applied some of the green primer before getting back down into the generator compartment and began to chisel out the rusty panel work on the outside rear of the R/H side frame up by the cab.

Rob set up the compressor and started needle gunning the front section of the R/H side frame. Jason began to gloss paint the L/H/R side frame he then continued painting, moving onto glossing the back of the engine.

Team Dave was in the coach carrying on with the conduit and electrical box drelling and painting as well as undercoating the front roof hand rails, the work continued until mid afternoon when it was decided to pack everything up and call it a day, with the rear engine now finished the task of completing the drelling and painting of the side frames takes precedence all in preparation for when the engine room doors return at the end of November.

The next working weekend is on 8/9 November. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton