Saturday 8th November.

Attendance: Four

With the focus on completing a specific job this weekend the day got off to a good start with three regulars turning up and they were joined by a new fresh faced volunteer in the shape of Josh Southward who was already a member of the ELR and has previously worked for both the Steam & Diesel departments but came down to us today as he was looking to work on something a little different. Prior to getting started on his main job of the day Jason took a few moments to show Josh around D8233. Dave M then arrived and continued Josh's introductory tour around our facilities in the support coach and then into the Co-Bo before setting him up with nice simple job to get him started off.

Meanwhile Jason had set up one of the compressors and air lines and had begun to attack the rusty L/H side frame with the needle gun, this was a big job and tied him over the majority of the day. Over on the other side of the loco Graham M was doing catch up with the painting on the R/H side frame, this had already been drelled and primer painted by Rob M & his son Dylan during an earlier mid week visit so Graham had only to apply the dark grey undercoat. While this was going on Dave M & Josh had retrieved one of the long engine room conduits that have been resting on the sole bars of the loco since removal and carried up to the coach, however it quite a long pipe and they could not fit it through the normal door so instead one of the coach windows was opened up and the pipe passed through, this was set up in the workshop bench vice and Josh was then given the task of drelling & painting this large conduit but not before given a safety briefing and instruction in how to safely use our power tools and he was provided with the necessary safety gear. Dave would be working nearby on other drelling & painting jobs so as to provide supervision.

Work then continued until lunch break after while Jason had completed his gunning and moved onto drelling the L/H side frame. Graham had begun polishing the hinge pins for the body side doors using strip emery paper to wrap around the back of the pins & work at them with a back & forth motion to polish the rear side of the pins, Dave & Josh were working in the coach and after a while Josh had finished drelling & primer painting his conduit and had to leave mid afternoon but said he had enjoyed his time with us and was keen to join the society, perhaps we will see him again. When it started to get dark Dave & Graham finished up their work and had to depart but Jason, after he’d finished drelling made sure that the L/H side frame was painted with its first coat of Green primer and also managed to apply the wood pigeon gloss to the rest of the R/H side frame finishing off around 19:30. It had been a good productive day with the side frames being well advanced.

Sunday 9th November.

Attendance: Six

Today we had an excellent turnout with our five working members being boosted with the addition of Aiden Brosnan a member of the ITG (Irish Traction Group) who had been over on the ELR the day before for the ITG’s AGM but being a friend of the society he came along today to lend a hand as he did last year. With the extra manpower we were able to have parallel working parties on both D8233 & D5705 with two dedicated workers on each engine and the other two switching between jobs on both locos at different times.

The priority job was to finish the side frames; Jason began applying the grey undercoat to the L/H side frame with Aiden helping out, Simon Dagnall had started by painting the gloss green to the outside of the R/H side frame but first he had to get some wood to space out the tarp and stop it from flapping onto the freshly painted area side frame as it was quite windy outside. Once complete Simon & Aiden began to polish the hinge pins on the R/H side while Jason went around and marked up the exhaust manifolds with numbers ready for when they will be removed, after which he refitted the timing marks to the engine crankshaft flange. Simon moved into the support coach workshop to do a spot of conduit painting, by this time Dave M had returned from helping Rob with a Co-Bo job and with his bag of tools set about making a start of removing the exhaust from the L/H side of the engine.

The exhaust on the Paxman 16YHXK engine is quite complicated and has many pipes that either slot or bolt together, the front sections seemed to come off easier than expected but half way along is a large cooling knuckle and the back manifold for cylinders 4 & 5 was being especially stubborn to get off as one of the bolts was hard to get to, it took quite a bit of effort to figure out how to undo the bolt but with the Simons assistance and a modified spanner it was eventually removed. This allowed them to tackle the knuckle itself but as its held in place by the exhaust and not actually bolted to the engine block it was proving to be real tough to ease off, eventually getting stuck on one of the water jacket extrusions, so we had to admit defeat for now and come back to it another day as time was getting on. Dave & Aiden had by now moved onto jobs in the Co-Bo and Simon had to leave mid afternoon.

After a tidy of all the tools & equipment Jason managed to get the glossing done on the L/H side with Rob helping him to finish the job off. At the end play today the R/H side frame was fully finished and the L/H side frame was glossed, the pins are still to be polished but that’s a quick job to do. With the majority of the wok on the frame completed they are ready for the return of the engine room doors at the end of the month. Special thanks go to Josh & Aiden for their help making this a superb end to another productive weekend.

The next working weekend is on 29/30 November. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton