Saturday 10th October 2009

Attendance: 2

We arrived to find that a severe rain storm during the previous week had caused some issues with the Co-bo tent, as the roof was sagging on one side this allowed water to collect in large sags and one was so big & heavy that the weight of it pulled on the adjoining roof & side panels and burst open the stitched seam in one corner of the tent where it had not been secured properly, due to this most of the morning was spent by Jason & Dave G in sorting this problem out, draining away the water sags, stitching the tent corner back up and tightening down the roof sheets on the fence side of the tent and it was not until the afternoon that we managed to get some work done on the loco.

As it is planned to lift off the cab in the new year to allow better access to the cab floor & more importantly to the large cable trunking that runs under the middle of the cab floor from the generator bus bar box at the front to the right angle cable duct up to the control cubical in the No2 nose end (upper) compartment. This trunking box has major corrosion damage and as it will carry the main high tension cables from the generator it needs to be properly repaired. The best way to do this is to lift off the cab, but removing the cab is not as straight forward as just removing a few bolts around the edges of the frame, there are a number of other items that will prevent it from being lifted up; the door well tread plate frames for instance are welded to the floor and the walls and it has been noticed that the remaining 2” vacuum brake pipe in the cab passes through a hole in the front bulkhead and via a series of elbow & “T” joints is securely screwed down to the floor and cannot be unbolted there.

So Jason & Dave set about dismantling as much of the vac pipe as they could as Jason reckoned there was a way it could be taken apart without the need to unscrew the pipe union that passes through the floor of the cab. The first task then was to remove the crossover pipe that connects one side of the cab (and Vac system on the loco) to the other, fortunately this pipe has screwed flanges at either end, however on starting at the RH side we soon discovered that due to a lack of space there was not room enough to get the large stilsons into the grip the pipe as there was a metal bracket in the way which we cut off, but that was still not enough. Jason then went into the Baron St steam works to see if they had a spanner big enough to fit the union, they did not but they donated a large odd spanner that we could cut the jaws open to what size we needed, however on his return Jason found that Dave had managed to get the joint moving by finding a way of getting the stilsons to grip in opposite way they are supposed to and soon the joint was undone.

After this the pipe could be bent upwards and that made getting access to the LH threaded joint a lot easier and the crossover pipe was then removed. Next we had to remove the stand pipe that passes through the front cab bulkhead. This would require team work, first the stand pipe itself was undone and removed by Dave then Jason working on the inside of the cab used brute force in the form of the large stilsons and a scaffold tube got the pipe moving with Dave guiding it from the other side this too was undone. With the pipe now removed it was a simple matter of turning the connector pipe back and up away from the mounting flange of the cab and thus providing the necessary clearance.

Time was getting on and Dave had to clean up & depart but Jason remained to remove the fire pull box from the LH side of the cab, then he disconnected & removed the stand pipe for the vacuum train brake handle. This done he had a look at the pipe on the other side but as it disappears through the cab floor he thought better of it and just removed the brake valve mounting flange from the top. This then drew a close to the days proceedings.

Sunday 11th October 2009

Attendance: 4

On the Sunday we had a few more people but some would be working on the Co-bo, Jason carried on with his task of finding & disconnecting items that would prevent the cab from being unbolted and lifted off and Rob M set himself up to carry on with the needle gunning on the inside of the engine compartment roof section.

In the cab Jason had to get out the angle grinder and fit a cutting disc as there were a number of angle iron frames that were welded to the floor and also to the cab sides. The door well tread plate frames were two such assemblies that needed cutting, so using the angle grinder he cut through the base of the uprights where he could get access but with only one disc it wore out quite quickly and he only managed to get about half of them done. There were also a couple of floor board support braces that were attached to the side of the cable trunk that need to be slit as well.

Rob had been doing some painting in the Co-bo but had now returned and was working away at the inner roof above the back of the engine. Later on when it was time for him to go for some lunch Dave Mylett appeared with his overalls on and took over from Rob and carried on with the job he was doing, meanwhile Robs step son Dylan was busy painting in the Co-bo and when finished he came into the support coach and started applying the gloss black paint on the first set of radiator frames & tanks from D5705.

By this time Jason had decided to make a start on undoing the bolts that hold the cab down, working on the LH side first and using the ½ inch Impact Gun he managed to get two thirds of the bolts down the left hand side undone, as the ones under the cab door were a little inaccessible at the time he moved onto the bolts on the front flange of the cab. Where the cable trunk passes through the bulkhead there is a gap in the middle but getting onto the ones on the side was tricky as they are right over the double check valves for the bogie brakes which are still in situ mounted under the frames but with a little effort and a lot of swearing he managed to get onto them and undone all the bolts on the front cab mounting flange. Some of the bolts come out cleanly while others were being stubborn, Jason tried to removed the stubborn ones and got most of them out, which was some doing as many of the bolt heads were eaten away with rust.

y this time it was getting late and everyone set about packing the tools away it might not have seemed like much was achieved on D8233 this weekend but the jobs in the cab were important prep work for when the cab is to be lifted all next year. There is still much left to do mainly unbolting the rest of the cab & No2 end and then there are a couple of large & heavy seam welds that need to be dealt with before the aft nose end can be taken off, but progress was made all the same and even though its been a quiet year for D8233 and only little steps being made its all been in readiness for big strides will be made next year.

The next working weekend is on 28/29 November. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton