Saturday 22nd

Today as it was a Co-bo weekend most of the days work was on the object but some work was done on D8233…

During the late morning while the Hatton/Heljan reps were crawling all over D5705 measuring it up for the Hattons commissioned Limited edition OO gauge Co-bo model, Adam, Jim & Kris needed something to preoccupy them while they waited for then to do their stuff, Adam suggested that they work on the Roof Exhaust port off D8233, these chunky rectangular frames have a square wire mesh over the top to stop large debris (and birds building nests) in them, however the original mesh is very rusty on one and missing from the other, so firstly both ports had to be thoroughly drelled and the old mesh ground off, with that done some sections of new mesh were acquired from the exhaust heat shield off Paddy the Irish Thumper that just happened to be lying around, the new mesh section are a bit course but will suffice anyway they got all the prep work done and set up the welder in the workshop to weld the mesh onto the ports only to discover that the gas bottle to the welder was empty and that dramatic anticlimax called a halt to the whole job, that was all the work to be done on The 15 today.

Sunday 23rd

Today Jason would be working solely on D8233, he had drawn up a list of little tasks left to do on the Paxman engine before the big start up, his first job was to complete the gloss painting on the L/H side engine bedplate, there was only a few small section left and as it was hot today Jason decided to pull up the tarp on that side of the loco so that he could get air and light onto his work area, this didn’t take too long and Jason then moved onto the next task on his list, After recently refitting the exhaust and lagging it, Jason didn’t have any wire to tie the exhaust lagging on with instead he used insulation tape wraps on the ends of the pipes, this would melt & fall off when the engine was run so some wire had been bought and now it had to be retro fitted, and with the tight clearances on the exhaust this would be a awkward task, Jason did the easy bits first and wired up the front sections of the exhaust, first cutting off the tape with a Stanley knife and then wrapping the wire around tightly 3-4 times before tying it off.

After doing the front section the sun was too hot to continue so Jason moved onto another task for the time being, that is to remove the cable trunking that runs under the cab, this has suffered major corrosion damage and needs repair but it will be difficult to do in situ so it has to be removed, its secured to the floor by 3 pairs of welded tabs in the inside, with one either end and another in the middle some of these had rotted through but the others will still holding firm, Jason used the angle grinder to cut through the taps but the conduit remained firmly attached to the floor, Jason then found a small number of welds on the outside securing it to the floor, these were difficult to get at with the angle grinder so in the end he resorted to a hammer and chisel to break the welds, once that was done the conduit began to move, Jason had to first pull out all the remaining old Traction motor cables from the far end and after summoning Adam from the Co-bo to give him a hand they carefully lifted the conduit out and carried it down to the Co-bo tent when it was placed for safe keeping.

After this Jason returned to wiring up the exhaust and this would keep him going for the remainder of the afternoon, D8233 Engine is more or less ready to start-up now, but there are still a few minor things to take care of before we can push the button and there is one more working weekend before that can come to pass.

The next working weekend is 3/4 July. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton

Above : The Cable duct now free of the loco waits to enter the Co-bo tent. © C15PS