Saturday 16th June

Attendance: 1

Due to a major out of sequence Co-bo working weekend occurring the following weekend (23 rd -24 th ) for this scheduled D8233 working weekend most had stayed home saving themselves for the following weekend when we would be craning off the traction motors and bogie frame from the wheel sets of the Bo-Bogie from D5705, however their was a considerable amount of shunting to do up at Castlecroft to make preparations for the CoBo bogie lift and Andy Hardman had put out the call for helpers in getting the shunt done, Jason who had come up to bury as per usual offered to assist so arrived at Castlecroft to assist with the shunting operation, the main purpose of which was to make space and dig out the 12t drop side wagon that currently had the Cooler group off Western Prince D1041 on it, this needed to be taken off and the wagon cleared ready for the CoBo Bo-Bogie frame to be placed onto it the following weekend, so the cooler group was craned off and put a War flat bogie bolster wagon along with all associated parts and equipment and the wagon was cleaned off of the left over junk & rubbish and placed ready for next week, this took all morning and part of the afternoon to achieve, and by the time they had finished Jason went back down to Baron St, but it was too late in the day to do anything on D8233 so he busied himself with a few minor maintenance and cleaning jobs about the C15PS support coach and sussed out what jobs he would do on the loco tomorrow.

Sunday 17th June

Attendance: 1

After going up to the station for breakfast, Jason returned and set up a power supply to the front of compartment of the loco, As the TMB duct modifications appeared to be finished and a fresh supply of anti-corrosive primer paint had bee delivered he wanted to put some primer paint on to the bare metal off the modified TMB duct, But the previous evening Jason at contacted the Team leader on D8233 Jim Gough and asked him if the TMB duct was ready for painting, Jim had told him that it was but there were a few knobbly welds inside the duct that needed grinding smooth before it could be painted? So Jason got out the grinder and set about cleaning up all the welds, after that had been done he slapped on the Green primer, which he was in the cooler group there was a oil pipe Ermeto union that was showing evidence of having been leaking back when the engine was run up in June 2010, Jason set about trying to tighten it but due to accessibility issues it was difficult to get a spanner onto the union nut and then have enough “throw” to tighten it up, the way that Jason eventually got into it was by lying on the cooler group floor and reaching out under the TMB duct that runs behind the stand for the Fan drive gearbox to the rear bulkhead and there was just enough room between the pipes to get the spanner in, but to get any torque on the spanner Jason had to fashion a extension tube to fit over the end of the spanner so as to increase the throw and make it easier to turn, after he was satisfied that he had tightened it enough Jason stopped for lunch break.

After lunch Jason got out the Wood Pigeon gloss paint and went to apply the final gloss coat on the cab bulkhead in the generator compartment that he had undercoated a fortnight ago, that paint he had slapped on quite quickly but with the gloss in order to get a decent finish on it he had to take his time, and as such the job took him the rest of the afternoon to complete, by the time he was done they were locking up the shed so he had to make a quick exit, now that the scheduling of the working weekends on the locos has gone back to alternating between D8233 & D5705 on a fortnightly basis the next scheduled full working weekend on D8233 will be on 14 th & 15 th July with one of those days allotted to be a “Crossley” day when the Pistons and Liners are due to be lifted out of the HSTV8, so things are now getting back to normal with progress on the 15 & 28, after the completion of restoration on D9531.

The next working weekend is July 14/15- If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton