28 February - 1st March 2009
Saturday 28 February Attendance: Two After all the fun and games of the previous mid-week session on the ‘Object' (D5705) when the cooling fan with motor & engine room roof panels were lifted off, radiator assembly was dismantled it was no surprise that by having a scheduled working weekend on D8233 a mere four days later that the turn out would be down on the usual numbers with some of the regulars needing some time off and so it was to prove, but the work goes on. Jason & Dave G arrived on the Saturday and as is normally the way with only two workers in attendance the jobs tackled are smaller than would normally be done, but its times like these that attention is paid to the maintenance & upkeep of our support coach, which is in need of looking after too. We often take its facilities for granted but every now & again we need to do some work on it to make sure that it is a safe, secure and convenient place to work in. So the day began with Dave doing some open heart surgery on one of the fan heaters that we have, whilst Jason set about nailing down some plastic gripper matting to the treads on the wooden steps that have recently acquired. After this Dave set about dismantling the manual fuel lift pump that was sitting on the work bench, it had been removed during the previous weekend as it was in the way of the engine repaint but it was having trouble lifting the fuel up from the tank unassisted so Dave & Jason decided to lift the lid on it and see what was what. Dave continued to fettle the lift pump while Jason unzipped the tarp over the loco and went into the engine bay to see about making a start on the power unit repaint; starting at the L/H front corner there are a number of modifications made to the power unit when it was used as a standby generator, first of these is a large electrical box that is mounted to a plate welded to the side of the bed frame, Jason unbolted the box and moved it and the conduit to one side after also disconnecting the tacho generator terminals, after this he chiselled off the metal plate to reveal the void behind, then set up the needle gun and started gunning the bed frame in that area. Meanwhile Dave had checked over the pump and had moved onto some pipe painting jobs, doing the glossing on the Co-Bo TMB air cooling pipes and an assembly of engine room conduits from D8233 after which he slapped some gloss paint onto the top side of the exhaust cooling knuckle, it was then lunch time and as Jason had finished gunning the bed frame he joined Dave for some food & Tea. In the afternoon Dave got busy reorganising the tools in the tool store, something that needs to be done periodically as the tools don't always get put back neatly when they are returned to the store, Jason followed up his gunning of the bed frame by going over it again with the drelling equipment after which he slapped on a coat of the green anti-corrosive primer by this time it was getting late and Dave had finished his tasks and departed so Jason collected up his tools, secured the tarp and called it a day. Sunday 1st March Attendance : One Jason was on his own today but was by no means short of things to do, to start off he gloss painted the other side of the exhaust cooling knuckle completing that job, then set about some support coach maintenance. The compartment doors have been jamming of late and using an orbital sander sanded down the edges of the compartment doors and door frames just enough to stop them for snagging. After this he went down to the wood pile and fetched a pallet which was cut up into short planks that have been used to jam into the drop light windows on the coach doors recently it was bought to our attention that unauthorised could be gained to our coach by simply prizing open the door drop windows from the outside, so to prevent this wooden jam planks have now been fitted to all the door windows and this should prevent this from happening again. At about this time Jason went for his regular Sunday morning trip to the burger van outside B&Q after he returned he unzipped the tarp and connected the lighting inside the loco. The roof inside the generator compartment has been a job that Rob was getting on with, he had gunned, drelled, primed & undercoated this roof section and all that was left was glossing, Jason decided he would finish this job off and set about painting the roof as its been a while since the “Wood Pigeon” paint has been out. After a break the tarp was tied up over the wheeled staging steps that are now alongside the loco and this allowed better access to the first pair of engine room doors. In order to better paint the engine it might be required to remove some of the fittings and components that are bolted onto it, in this case we have another of the “Standby Generator” mods, it's large upright plate that is welded to the back of the inlet manifold support bracket, but to get it off Jason had to remove the auxiliary oil filter that filters the oil going into the engine governor, removing it allows access and will make it easier to paint, but with that gone the bracket could be removed, it was then placed on a nearby work bench and using an angle grinder the welds on the plate were ground out and the plate was eventually removed, it was then drelled & taken into the workshop for primer painting later, Jason returned to the engine and applied the 2 nd coat of paint to the engine bed frame section
he had primer painted the day before, with the grey under coat slapped on it was time to pack the tools again and re-secure the tarp. A few workshop jobs finished the day off; the manifold bracket that had bee removed & drelled earlier was painted with green primer, but when Jason went to hang it up he dropped it onto the fan heater that had been repaired the day before by Dave, this made it malfunction again so more open heart surgery was required! The fault was quickly discovered (fouling wire) and rectified. That was the end of this weekends efforts and it just goes to show that even with a low turnout there is still plenty to do and progress to be made.
The next working weekend is on 14/15 March. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton |
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| Above : The inside of the generator roof section is now fully gloss painted. © C15PS |
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| Above : The tarp can be tied up like a tent for better access to the engine room doors. © C15PS |
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| Above : The grey undercoat has been applied to the bed frame area treated. © C15PS |
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| Above : Dave G has a quick tidy up around the workshop area with the Hoover. © C15PS |
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| Above : Getting the new needle gun into the box frame of the engine bed plate. © C15PS |
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| Above : Jason applies the first coat of paint the the drelled area of the bed frame. © C15PS |
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