Restoration diary

As I am taking some time out from the project to re-join my old American Football team for this season, Chris Thorn again reports: "Saturday 9th saw John Pinion, Tom and Chris at Booths to process new arrivals 37692/37798. Whilst already stripped they did yield some promising brake cylinders. The afternoon saw Dave join Chris and Tom at Rowsley. Dave continued making piston lifting brackets, Chris sorted new spares arrivals and Tom continued in the cab. Sunday saw Mark, Ian and Pete join the overnight trio. Two more pistons were refitted on Sunday and more spares were delivered from Mark's. Tom wired in the new cab lights and refitted the new fault light panels and AWS horn, all overhauls from recent ex Booths components."

As I was unavailable due to having a bad back, this report is from Chris Thorn. "Dominic, Tim and Mick Ratledge cleared the roadway to the shed and re-graded the surface. They also sorted the scrap pile ready for collection and helped little Chris refitting cubicle doors to Renown. Tom completed painting the cab vestibules, refitted overhauled ceiling vents and the warning light cluster. Dave opened up all the loose brake cylinders and added the corroded ones to the scrap pile. Ian and Pete sorted the latest arrival of new engine parts and refitted some more pistons. I brought up more parts from home, continued sorting our spares and shifted the heads in the shed to clear the floor space ready for new arrivals."

Chris Thorn & his brother Tom spent four days doing a marathon session over the Easter weekend, making great inroads into cleaning back loose paint and sanding on the entire interior surfaces of No.1 cab, fitting better wooden shelving to the pallet racking in the coach, did further sorting of spares, listed what we are still missing, removed the remains of the brake frame piping and cleaned & painted the frame & structures behind.

For various reasons, the last two work parties had to be cancelled. We decided to postpone the one that fell on Mother's Day to the following weekend, but in the event that one had to be cancelled too, so today was our first visit in nearly a month. As Ian's power unit parts have not yet arrived, he, Dave & Pete fitted two cylinder heads. I tidied the elec workbench in the coach and found homes for many items, then wired the first three warning resistors described above.

Due to inclement weather, Ian & Pete spent the day removing cut pipes from the latest haul of air system spares, while Chris T continued his cataloguing of spares. I fitted & wired the resistor board, then fitted the left-hand cab warning light resistor board on top of the cubicle & Chris B helped me laying in cables for it.