Restoration diary

Carl and Sofy Looker joined me today on site. They started scraping loose paint off the inside of the engine compartment, then washing areas with White Spirit and very soapy water, to see which shifted the accumulated oil film and carbon soot better. The best combination seemed to be White Sprit first, followed by the soapy water. They washed off t...

Wes Needle, Mark Burrows, Robert Burrows (Mark's son) and I were on site today. Wes carried on sorting 50030 No.1 cab desk panels to make them fit properly, including fitting new hinges, Mark and Robert painted yellow gloss over the new steel on the cabsides and No.1 cab front, to protect them over the winter. I painted the fire extinguisher tubes ...

I went up again today as welder Ian needed access inside Repulse. Ian Kemp and Peter Carter were also there barring the ex-50008 power unit round and pumping oil through it. We do this as a mattter of course at each work party just to ensure this power unit remains in good internal condition ready for insertion into 50030 later this ye...

This weekend we had Ian Williams the welder on site, starting the bodywork repairs on Repulse. Joining me today was Mark Burrows, Carl and Sofy Looker.Ian cut out rotten steel around No.1 cab end and along the 'non-visible' side, where we had identified the worst corrosion. He did most of the cutting out yesterday, today was clearing the rusty debr...

Ian Kemp decided to go to site today as it was a bank holiday and he wasn't working. Wes Needle was available too so I went as well.Quite a productive day, Wes was in No.1 cab again, fitted the windscreen washer control and washer button he'd overhauled, and made a repair to a conduit under the floor. He took away a section of cab panelling to rep...