Restoration diary

As the next batch of new power unit parts have not yet arrived, Dave, Ian & Pete mated the remaining 12 pistons to their conrods, then sorted the unusable cylinder liners separate from the good ones and did further tidying of the container. Chris T did more tidying & sorting of 37 & 50 items in the coach, while I dismantled an old telecoms terminal board to retrieve useful terminal bars. Tim & Dom arrived at lunchtime & assisted with various things during the afternoon. I attempted to mount the resistor ladder network board I had made, but it was a case of one step forward & two back, as I had not accounted for a bundle of cables that run in front of where the board will mount & which fouled the bottom resistor, so I had to remove the resistors, re-drill the board & re-assemble it all. Sounds simple, but getting the resistor brackets mounted square is most difficult, as they tend to rotate when tightening their fixing bolts & we ran out of time before I could attempt to re-fit it.

Dave was bored so he took me to Rowsley today. While he cleaned off & painted one set of side, top & intermediate cylinder head covers, I marked & carefully drilled the board for the resistor ladder network on the pillar drill. After lunch, I dismantled some old terminal bars while Dave washed all the cups & plates that had been used & left, then we tidied & swept out the room in the coach which will be the changing/eating room.  Apart from a few little jobs, the coach is now completely sorted.

We had more or less decided to give this one a miss with the threat of more snow as Rowsley usually gets more than lower-lying places, but Dave decided he was going anyway, so I went with him. The roads were clear & there was about 2-3 inches of snow on site. Dave started to fabricate a device to compress piston rings as the piston is lowered into the liner, as we had one ring break last workparty. We fitted the last two fluorescents in the coach & I did some more sorting of items in the coach & measured a paxolin board to be cut down to make what is known as a 'ladder network' of spare resistors to replace the Z71 earth fault de-sensitizing resistor. We were missing this item & the one I was given last year was open circuit and thus useless. The ladder network will be fitted in the redundant space next to the main start contactors.

Chris & Tom Thorn continued sorting spares in the coach and the shed, then made an inventory of what equipment we have for the brake frame, and found we appear to be missing nothing for Repulse and have a good quantity of spares. Pete & Ian were intending to fit B3 piston & conrod, but discovered the oil ring was damaged, and as we have no spares at the moment, they decided instead to fit the cylinder head to B7. Chris Bodell & I cleaned the steel workbench, then we all moved it over to the coach and manoeuvred it inside to its allocated spot. Chris & I then re-built the 'Dexion' racking and secured it in place, then I fitted the last socket. Apart from two more fluorescent lights still to fit, the coach is now usable as a workshop.

Dave, Ian & Pete removed the piston & conrod they were using as a test for the new stretch bolts, then successfully fitted A8 piston & mated the conrod to the main crank, but not before discovering the snow that had fallen on site had pushed the tarpaulin down into the Vee & frozen, leaving a 21/2" thick six foot long iceberg which we had to smash up & remove, and then had to bale out gallons of water underneath the ice, which fortunately was contained by the tarpaulin & had not got into the power unit. Mark Burrows continued weatherproofing 29's no.2 cab. Chris Thorn & his brother Tom did a sterling job continuing to sort the spares in the coach (they had also attempted to do the same yesterday, but found the lock on the coach frozen, so they tidied up the shed & started assessing repairs needed to 29's cabs), and by the end of the day, the coach is now much tidier. I continued installing sockets and lighting in the coach and successfully tested what I have so far fitted.