Restoration diary

Dave spent the weekend on site having a general tidy-up of the coach and container, then helped Ian & Pete torquing the big-end stretch bolts until the tool broke! After I had returned the wheelslip relay board to my house after the previous workparty, I removed the contact fingers from the relays and cleaned them (not the easiest of tasks as the fixing screws are tiny & probably hadn't been removed since the relays were originally made), straightened two of the contact fingers on one relay. They were re-assembled and fitted back onto the paxolin board with new brass cable connection bolts to replace to broken originals, checked for operation by dabbing a 110v DC supply onto the coil contacts and were found to be still working. The associated three 10k ohm resistors were also removed, cleaned, checked with a meter to see they were still working, and refitted. The brass rad fan fuse mounting pillars were missing, so they were taken from the spare broken board, cleaned & fitted. The mounting pillars for the plastic relay covers were removed as they were rusty, & were de-rusted, painted & refitted. The filthy relay covers were cleaned and refitted. Today, the completed board was mounted in the elec cubicle in Repulse, but required a small piece cutting off one corner as some cables that go past the board were hard against one edge, and two of the mounting bolts needed to be loosened as they didn't quite line up with the mounting holes. The board was then fitted and bolted in, the rad fan fuse was fitted & the external connections have been made.

Chris & Tom Thorn & Dave again spent the weekend on site starting to remove the removable rad grille section and the air filter frame in the passageway, to get at the motor blower inside. Chris B joined them today & by the end of the day, they had unbolted & removed the blower snail housing out through the hatch for cleaning. It is hoped the motor itself will follow soon, but due to it's weight, it will probably have to be lifted out through the roof. Ian & Pete removed all the cam followers from the power unit's B side for cleaning & to blow out the oilways with the compressor. I rewired part of the rear of the cleaned wheelslip relay board, using new brass nuts & bolts, as the original cable mounting bolts had all been sheared off sometime ago. Once the wheelslip resistors have been cleaned, and I have verified the relays are still working, the board will be reassembled & can then be fitted into the elec cubicle.

Chris T continued sorting & tidying in both coaches, and applied the 'Smartwater' security stickers to the coaches & both locos, Tom continued work in the no.1 cab of Repulse, Ian & Pete continued fitting the water jacket flexible elbows from the engine block to the cylinder heads, but found two that seemed reluctant to fit, so left them for next time. I tested all the wheelslip resistors with my meter to make sure they were still intact, then removed two, without breaking the mounting bolts, to go with the one I had previously removed, and brought them home to fit to the board I took home last time once cleaned. Chris T thinks he has found a supplier of the Londex wheelslip relays, in case the original ones prove unusable & I will investigate this further. I persuaded the recalcitrant mounting bolts I mentioned last time to align with another relay board's mounting holes with elbow grease and a nylon hammer, test fitted the board, dismantled and cleaned the auxiliary contacts of the relays on said board and started cleaning the somewhat soiled 35mm cable lugs that connect to them.

Dave spend the day cleaning the brake chain & mechanism in the no 1 cab of Renown, Ian, Pete & Chris B removed the 12 remaining fuel pumps to be sent for overhaul & I tidied some more completed cable runs in the cubicle of Repulse, started to bend the fixing bolts for the board mentioned last time & examined the three boards with the wheelslip relays & their resistors. There are three wheelslip relays & three resistors on each board & one board is required per loco. One board seems to have been removed from a 50 rather roughly, as the one corner is broken off where the one fixing hole was, so that one is not usable. The other two boards are intact but someone had tried to remove the resistors before we acquired the boards, and sheared off their fixing bolts level with the boards in the process. Many of the cable fixing bolts for the relays are similarly sheared and can be replaced with brass ones, but the resistor bolts will need further investigation, so I brought one board home to see if I can devise a way to re-secure them.

Dave, Ian & Pete torqued the remaining 10 cylinder heads down to 600 ft lbs, a somewhat lengthy task, having to remove and replace two of the large head fixing studs which had damaged threads. Dave had spent the weekend on site again & during Saturday had fitted new flooring in the no2 cab of Repulse. Chris B unbolted three fuel pumps. Tim & Dom had a good tidy up around our locos and coach, and removed old cab flooring round to the bonfire site, and I fitted and wired the battery charge diode, tidied up some sections of cabling with cable ties & Chris B helped me thread a long section of 16mm cable into the cubicle which connects one of the circuit breakers to terminal bar 7. With that last section of cabling fitted, all the fuses and mcb's are fully wired, and the small relay board that goes in front of them can now be fitted.