Restoration diary

A good day on Sunday, despite the Arctic wind in the morning. Wes Needle had a very productive day. He started the day by cleaning the debris from under No.1 cab floor on the second man's side. Then, with Dave's help, they checked the operation of the handbrake mechanism under the floor. They found that the pivot nut required tightening and a new s...

Tom prepared the cab vestibule at no 2 end for repainting and carried out repairs to ceiling trims. new cab light frames were cut and replacement lights fitted.  Chris unseized the bolts securing the rad fan ducting to the fan motor and freed off the rad fan securing nuts. Doesn't sound much but all are captive and rusted solid so needed considerable work to avoid shearing and drilling out later.

Tim & Dom continued buzzing the surface rust and grime off the brake rigging that had been selected by Chris and Dave for use on the bogie overhauls.  The pile of "to do" components is now virtually nothing and Dom got a very nice facial treatment out of it as well, after which he discovered the shower in the Peak Rail shed is stored unserviceable. Tim took to the bits of rigging Dom had done to clean the areas he couldn't reach, using a drill as opposed to the wire cup brush Dom had. Following this and an unexpected appearance by Chris Bodell the two of them dragged the cleaned-up rigging to join the rest of it in an undercover location.  There they sprayed the pieces with light oil in order to preserve them until we start reassembling the bogies.

I only attended on Sunday, and with the length of the committee meeting, I only had time to fit the last missing shaped copper bar I had made, which goes from the reverser to no.2 traction motor contactor.

A few photos of work taking place on brake rigging equipment.  We have decided to move the bogie overhauls up our schedule as they are mostly cheap to do (we can do much of the work ourselves) and it frees up financial resources to spend on overhauling electrical equipment and preparing for the lifts we will need to do to swap power units between our locomotives.

After a thorough going-over with wire brushes by Mike Backler and myself, Tim further honed the areas of these parts that are too small for the wire brushes to get to.

Parts cleaned with the wire brushes which Tim hasn't yet honed internally but which got done later in the day.