Saturday 31 January

Attendance: Two

The first working weekend on D8233 of 2009 begins; today it was Jason & Dave G who arrived and the morning went quite slow with Jason doing some sorting out of the sales stand stock in order to do an inventory of what original C15PS merchandising items we have available and Dave was carrying on with the painting of pipes & parts from both D8233 & D5705 which had been left in the painting room from last time and needed their next coat of paint to be applied. This pretty much tied them both over until lunch break when Steve Foster popped in to see us and introduce a new volunteer from Castlecroft a Mr Andrew Ling. He was helping Steve out on 50015 but they had come down to collect a couple of the Ex-class 86 Field divert resistances so they could be taken away and tested to see what their resistance reading was.

After dinner Dave went back to painting and found that the workshop bench vice had worked loose so he set about securing it again whilst Jason unzipped the tarp and went down the L/H side of the engine to finish removing the exhaust system from that side of the engine. The tarp was left over but it was untied around the work area so that the recently fitted body side doors could be opened, this allowed access and over the next couple of hours and with a little help from Dave and a bag full of 3/8th socket extensions the cooling knuckle, that had stopped the job last time, was finally removed and after that all the remaining manifolds came off with out any more trouble, the removed pipes were stored for the next day and the tarp re-secured over the loco, that ended the first day.

Sunday 1st February

Attendance: Four

Today would be a more productive one, with Rob & Jason off to an early start, Rob had made it his mission for the day to drell & paint the inside of the generator compartment roof section and with that he set up his kit starting with the needle gun & air compressor using the new folding staging that we have got he was able to stand on the aluminium platform and get right up inside the roof and get busy with the task of gunning the old paint away which took all morning.

Jason had decided to clean the exhaust manifolds that he had removed the day before as they were quite dusty with loose rust, but first it was noticed that some pipes had special groves to allow better access to the flange bolt with a socket, but some pipes did not have this feature so to make the job of refitting the pipes a little easier when the time comes he ground out notches on all the pipe flanges that weren’t fitted, this was another job that ate up the morning, but before he could do this a shopping trip to the local B&Q was required to get some specialist tools & some breakfast baps for him & Rob.

Two further volunteers arrived; Andy Walton is a member of the Class 40 Preservation Society and usually works for them but as no other CFPS members were present he came down to us to lend a hand, he then took on the painting job that Dave had done yesterday, but this time applying the top coat of gloss. He was quite please to get to grips with parts off the Co-Bo in painting the pipes & fittings from the fuel header tank but there was also a number of conduits to be painted including the long engine room conduits that were laid over the top of the workshop shelving.

The other visitor was Andy Ling, who had been introduced to us the day before, he had been a member of the ELR for some time but has only recently decided to get his hands dirty and become an active volunteer, anyway he seemed a nice enough chap so Jason started him off with the task of drelling & painting the cooling knuckle from the exhaust system this was a job that kept him occupied for most of the morning.

In the afternoon Rob completed his gunning and moved onto drelling, Jason set up some of the staging and was washing down the exhaust pipes with warm soapy water. The weather at this time was turning quite nasty and by the time all the pipes had been washed it was blowing a gale and trying to snow. Andy W had by this time painted all that he could and had to depart, but he was thanked for his effort. Rob had now moved onto primer painting the inner roof section of the generator compartment and after Andy L had painted up the cooling knuckle on the work bench he joined him to help get the job finished off, by which time it was getting dark and snowing proper, so after the painting was finished everything was packed away and the tarp secured over the loco.

The next working weekend is on 14/15 February. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton