Restoration diary

Sarah and I attended site and again met on site by Dave who I now think lives on site full-time as he is always there :-)

Dave continued with clearing and tidying the container a job that when he started thought would take a morning ended up taking three days. Once this was completed he continued with the refurbishment of the radiator grilles. The process takes such a long take as each element is being stripped back to bare metal, prior to priming and painting, and as BR's policy appears to have been apply new paint onto the old there are numerous layers of paint and a rainbow of colours.

Sarah & I continued with the  assessments of the KV10's. Starting with the best we are checking and cleaning contacts and replacing unserviceable parts. We have finished one complete unit having to re-terminate a couple of broken cables connections and replace a couple of components. The next best KV10 selected had sound looking components but the cable terminations at the top of the unit looked a little rusted and three of them sheared off when attempts were made to loosen them even after liberal application of WD40 (other lubricants are available lol). Therefore we had to loosen of the paxolin board from the body of the KV10 and using recovered termination studs from other scraped units these were replaced but this is not easy as unless you disconnect cables going from one side of the unit to the other side the board only gives finger width space.

Our next visit to site to continue with work on the KV10's will be in a few weeks as we will be participating in a railtour with EE Type1's and a couple of galas where it's hoped to sample a certain Mr Spracklen's 50026.

Myself, Sarah and Toby the dog attended site and the usual weekender Dave was there when we arrived. Dave spent the Saturday erecting a shelving unit the group acquired courtesy of one of our volunteers employers (enough said) and having a general tidy up.

We spent the day working on assessing our KV10's. A couple were found to have damaged PCB connectors, I have found a source for acquiring replacements.

The worst KV10 was dismantled to use a template to check the remaining units and to provide spare parts.

A list of spares needed is being compiled and all parts sourced so repairs can be carried out prior to transporting the KV10's and associated PCB Control Cards for testing.

Following a recommendation from The Fifty Fund I made contact with a Mr Noel Craigen, a former Technical Engineer with experience at various British Rail Traction Maintenance Depots, to assess and test our KV10s and Control Cards.



For those who are not in the know a KV10 regulates the voltage of either the Main Generator or the ETH Generator and are otherwise known as CU3 & CU6 respectively (each Class 50 locomotive uses two KV10 units). Each KV 10 has a pair of Control Cards that need testing and pairing also.



I met Noel at Rowsley on Saturday and we carried out an initial inspection of the KV10's and associated Control Cards. Noel has confirmed prices to carry out electrical and function tests as necessary. Once I have ensured any visible damage or missing parts have been repaired/replaced the KV10s will be transported to Yorkshire to Noel's premises for the tests and necessary repairs  to be completed.

This is another important stage of the electrical and control work underway.

I found another 10-12 conduit and pipe clamps that I need for in the generator room. I cleaned these up with wet and dry sandpaper and a wire cut brush, then white spirited them and painted them. Also put another coat of paint on the 40-odd clamps that I did last time I was on site.

I also re-secured 50029’s tarpaulin which was loose and flapping around a bit on one corner.

Dave Rolfe was on site as usual and continued with painting a second coat of paint onto the radiator grilles.  I took a few photos and noted how good they were looking; we will share these here soon.

Dave was on site all weekend working on cleaning and painting one of the bodyside radiator grilles.



Ian and Pete with some assistance from Dave continued working on the ex-50008 engine replacing some of the head covers.



Steve and Sarah assessed traction motor contactor arc-chutes so spares and paxolin to replace missing parts can be ordered.



The long process of verifying all the cables from the electrical cubicle to equipment in 50029 was started. Each cable was to be tested with a multi-meter to confirm continuity. The first cables checked were those from terminal bar TB6 with blower No1 cables testing out ok. Problems were then encountered as we checked Blower No2 but could get no reading and eventually realised this was because the cables and flexible conduit had been cut about an inch from the connection box.



As it is too difficult to pull any slack through we have decided to dismantle the conduits with a view to reinstalling via a shorter route up the front of the blower negating the need to replace the cables.