25th April 2009

D

ue to the Easter Holidays it has been fairly quiet over the last few weeks.

BR Standard Tank 80105:- The engine is back in traffic and is performing very well.

LNER D49 Morayshire:- has performed very well at Llangollen and is due back at Bo'ness next week. A very disappointing response to the request for assistance to help clean the engine before its departure. Zilch!

Austerity - No.7:- Scraping of the Left hand Big end journal is now complete and now only requires to be honed and polished. The new big end bearing castings have arrived and machining of these will now get underway. There is some fettling to do to get the re-machined eccentric straps to rotate freely and when this is done the driving axle will be ready for re-assembly. A new lapping tool has been made to complete the re-facing work on the slide valve seats. This will be a very laborious task requiring a lot of elbow grease! New white metal mechanical seals for both the piston rods and valve spindles now need to be made.. New eccentric rod pins have been made and only require the slots to be machined for the locking taper pins. Work is progressing well on making all the components for the new smoke box door. Apart from the supports for the inner shield plate a new central boss, dart and handles are required.

Austerity - No.19:- This engine has been put on the back burner of late although parts have been cleaned and painted as time permits. Both valve rods have been inspected and the the sealing surface has been found to be damaged. At some time in the past the rods have been metal sprayed and this is now breaking up and will have to be repaired. The sprayed on material will be removed and the rods will be spiral welded and returned to standard size by a specialist contractor.

No 1:- The welding of the new fusible plug bosses is due to be carried out next week. Routine maintenance to the injectors and boiler fittings has been carried out ready for its boiler test next weekend. The engine is also being cleaned to a high standard in preparation for the 'Thomas' weekend in May.

Fairmaid:- Fettling the horn guides is all but complete and should be ready to re-wheel very soon.

General:- A new narrow coal loading bucket has been made for the Manitou that will allow bunkers to be filled directly with out spillage. The fork lift truck has been repaired and is back in service. (The main motor contactor had failed)

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