While Tim, Neil, Chris B & Alex cleaned No.2 cab & the visible side of Repulse, Ian, Dave & Pete connected another piston & conrod & fitted it into the power unit. John Pinion & I did more tidying of the coach & I showed two of my ex-GWR colleagues round Repulse. We then retired to the pub where Mark Burrows joined us for a drink before consuming the by-now traditional crimbo ruby.
Ian & Pete fitted another piston to its conrod then fitted the piston & rod into the power unit, not so easy in the cold weather. Mark Burrows continued repairs to Renown's No.1 cab, after which he helped Ian & Pete put the new tarpaulin over the power unit & moved the old one into Repulse to cover her power unit as we have yet to repair the corroded central roof section. Chris Thorn, his brother & I continued sorting equipment in the coach, dismantled two more sections of pallet racking from the container, re-erected them in the coach & moved the equipment into the coach.
Pete & Ian attempted to refit the first of the large new shell bearing caps onto the piston conrod they inserted into the block last time using the traditional method of a piece of rope suspending the cap beneath the crank shaft to align it. However, even with much greater room with the power unit out of the loco, this proved difficult, so they devised a tool to aid them, which worked well & the cap was successfully mated to the conrod. No electrical work was undertaken as Chris T, Chris B, Tim & Dom & I amalgamated the items in the coach into 50 & non-50 parts & cleared one side of the coach for racking from the container. We then cleared one section of racking in the container, dismantled it & reassembled it in the coach & transferred the electrical parts into the coach. Tim & Dom also removed the rubbish mentioned last time from the coach into the PR skip.