Trestles for Broadway

Whenever I mention on this blog expected dates for locos to be running, I invariably add in a disclaimer saying something along the lines of steam locos are old and they may fail etc.  Hardly had I posted the last blog post saying the dates when 35006 was expected to be running, than she failed and has missed a few of those days.  The nature of the failure was a blown seal in the front injector.

Work begins...

Dave holds up the injector internals

The blown seal

 The seal will soon be replaced and 35006 will be able to re-enter traffic again shortly

A small team of people spent Saturday cleaning 35006 as well.

35006 had been expected to run until the 24th of August and then be stopped until next year, having used all her contracted steamings.  Now that she has missed a few, that means that she will possibly continue to run after the 24th for a few days, perhaps even across the late August bank holiday weekend.  The best place to look for the latest news on when she will be running is by clicking on this link, which at the time of writing has yet to be updated to reflect the changed circumstances. 

 3850 came in for a fair amount of attention on Saturday, its boiler needing the surface rust removing and given a coat of rust inhibiting primer before it can be Non-Destructively Tested (NDT), and a list of tasks to bring it up to scratch for a further 10 years can be created.  It is interesting to compare the mud hole doors at the bottom end of the throatplate.  The centre section was replaced during its first overhaul, the corners were not.

Bottom edge of the throatplate

Centre mudhole door

One of the corner mudhole doors

 It is quite evident that the newer centre section has a far greater thickness of steel than is present at the corners.  A complete NDT examination of the boiler will provide the full list of sections that will need to be replaced this time round.

Needle gunning isn't exactly everybody's favourite job.  By the time that you have festooned yourself with ear defenders, goggles, dust mask, gloves etc, you are very much in your own little cocoon, not the most sociable of activities. Fortunately, these days, health & safety regulations require that you only do such things for relatively short periods of time, white finger syndrome being the outcome if you over do it.   

David F, needle gunning the boiler barrel

 Spreading the load around so that nobody did more than a few hours worked well, and good progress was made.  For my turn, I chose to start near the top and give the safety valves attachment pad some needle gun therapy, not exactly a large area, but fairly intricate.

Safety valveattachment pad

After a fair bit of needle gunning

 Once the area had been needle gunned, it required more attention with a rotary wire brush, before it could be primed, to stop it rusting up again.

David H priming some of the areas that David F had needle gunned earlier

Meanwhile, Eleanor was ploughing a lonely furrow in the David Page shed, removing accumulated grease from the front running plates, which will soon be sent off for grit blasting and priming.

Eleanor, de-greasing 3850's front running plates

The reason for stripping the front end down so far, is of course to extract the cylinder block, which will require a new casting on the fireman's side to replace the cracked one.

Beyond repair

 We now have a CAD drawing for the new casting, which is in the process of being double checked (cut twice, measure once, or something like that).

 The chimney will require an NDT exam too, David (l) and Nigel go through the process of cleaning it up ready for its exam.

Wire brushing the chimney

I had thought that Dinmore Manor's new tender was complete apart from external painting, however the guard irons at the back don't exist yet.

Dinmore Manor's tender

Mark measuring up before fabricating the new guard irons

4270 has apparently been suffering from a steam leak from the driver's side piston valve, so that was removed for a bit of fettling.

Piston valve removed

The piston valve, on the bench, after whatever remedial work had been undertaken...

...re-installed and a warming fire put in, ready for a steam test on Sunday

You'll doubtless have noted by now that the roof trestles for Broadway station are being manufactured in the steam loco dept.  The job is obviously coming on well, as there are now at least three of them in various locations.

By the ash pit...

...outside the office...

...and in the workshop.

And finally, Wednesday was a big day for Tom, as he qualified as a fireman, in fact he now takes over the mantle of being our youngest fireman.

Tom(l) with inspector Irving.

Congratulations Tom on making the grade.