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Restoration diary

Reports of restoration work on 50029 and 50030.

Announcement of working party dates and details of restoration work carried out at working parties.

Work party report 15th July 2018

The No 1 end cab of 50030 showing various patches done over the past few weeks. Hot summer weather is generally a good time to attend to jobs like these.
Cabside rot is the bane of all Class 50 owners. Drainage channels from the side windows in the cab become blocked and allow water to build up. We patched ours up a few years ago but the problem is starting to come back.
Cab footsteps are another troublesome area although not nearly as bad. Note the SmartWater sticker: we in RRRG have been using this service for a number of years now and we highly recommend it as a cheap and effective anti-theft deterrent for all locomotive owning groups.
​Mark Burrows, his son Robert and I were on site today. Mark and Robert carried on scraping, bashing, fibreglassing, filling, sanding and priming around the no.1 cab of 50030, while I had a good tidy up on the shelves opposite the electrical cubicle, then Mark helped me fit the three rad resistor backplates along one side of the rads. Apart from th...
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Working party report 24th June 2018

The no 1 end cab of 50030. This was last repainted about ten years ago when we first purchased the two locomotives and agreed with our hosts at Peak Rail that they should be repainted.
Ten years outdoors exposed to the elements hasn't been hugely kind to the paint job and the traditional cabside rot is starting to show. The aim is to do a quick repair job whilst the weather is fine and keep 50030 looking presentable and improve weather proofing.
A full repaint of 50030 isn't on the agenda for now as we concentrate on the mechanical aspects so we decided just to concentrate on removing rusty patches and getting primer onto the bare metal followed by undercoat to at least seal the repaired area away from the weather.
Mark Burrows and his Robert plus myself were on site today. Mark and Robert carried on where my partner Mae had got to on the no.1 end cabsides of 50030, removing rusty paint bubbles, grinding and sanding smooth where possible, then adding filler, sanding again and priming, then painting with grey undercoat. When purchased in 2002, both 50029 and 5...
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Radiator lift additional pictures

When we originally reported on the installation of the overhauled radiators into 50030, we promised some more pictures showing what we did on the day. I took a lot of pictures during the lift day and we hope these will give an idea of everything that was done on the day, and why it was such a long day! ...
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Work party report 3rd June 2018

Interior of the radiator fan compartment, showing the overhauled radiators that we recently reinstalled into 50030.
The two radiator fan resistor backplates fitted for spacing checks.
Two of the radiator drain cocks fully connected
​My fiancee Mae joined me on site today, along with Carl and Sofi Looker. While Mae was hammering, poking and scraping at rust spots around the lower parts of the no.1 cab on Repulse (a recent target area we had decided to tackle), Sofie was top-coating one side of the six radiator fan resistor backplates, while Carl and I lifted and bolted tw...
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Radiator lift April 2018

The very first step was to remove the mesh cover in the roof panel over the radiator fan.
Then the roof panel covering the radiator compartment could be lifted off to gain access to the radiator compartment itself.
The roof panel could then be lifted well clear of the locomotive and stored on the ground out of the way until it was ready to be replaced at the end of the lift.
We have previously reported on the work done in the radiator compartment of 50030 once the radiators were originally lifted out to allow the compartment to be refurbished. We had hoped that we would be able to lift the radiators back into 50030 following their refurbishment somewhat sooner than now but a combination of bad weather and oth...
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