Photo also shows some of the new cylinder cladding.

 

Repairs to both sidetanks have been completed. The new water level indicator and float system has been fitted to the R.H. sidetank. The internal surfaces of both tanks have been treated with a rustkiller and painted with a sealing compound. The tanks have been filled with water and only one small leak was found. This was repaired and both tanks were drained.

 

Work is ongoing shaping and fitting the new cylinder cladding.

 

Building up of the motion has now started with the machining of new valve rod slides, which are now being fitted. Pins and bushes for the various motion components are being made as are the new bushes for the front steam chest covers.

 

Summer Steam Gala at the railway this weekend. Most of the day was spent at the front of the works watching the action in the station.

Fabrication of the stainless steel cylinder and steam chest end cover casings has commenced. 

Two single feed oilboxes need machining . One was set up in the Lang lathe.

During the week the union links and the blower elbow were completed.

 

Most of the cylinder cladding has been completed and fitted.

All the motion pins have been ground to size. The anchor links and combination levers have been fitted with new phosphor-bronze bushes. Both sets of combination levers, union links and anchor links are now in place, although only temporary. The upper valve rod slides have been machined and require drilling before they can be fitted in place.

Work continues on building up the valve rods, valve rod crossheads, piston valves and rings so that they can be fitted in place in the steam chests.

Ian Riley's company have completed the machining of the new pistons and piston rods. Also completed are the original LH crosshead and the new RH crosshead. The LH crosshead has been fitted between the slidebars and the anchor link attached using new fitted bolts, but the crosshead still needs polishing up.

Repair work on the smokebox tubeplate is ongoing. This has been removed from the boiler and is in our workshop. The work consists of building up wasted areas with weld and grinding the welds flush.

The plates for the new cab roof have been plasma cut and will now go to a contractor for forming.

 

During Christmas week the boiler was moved from Baron Street to outside our works. This was done to enable us to work on the boiler before it is sent to LNWR at Crewe for major work to be carried out.

The last three coupling rod bushes have been white-metalled and are being machined befor fitting to the rods. Hopefully the coupling rods will be fitted to the loco shortly. Also being machined at present are the connecting rod bushes. In a few months time the chassis will take on a differrent look with coupling rods, crossheads and connecting rods fitted in place.

Work has restarted on the new ashpan.

The left hand coupling rods have been fitted to the chassis. The right hand rods will be fitted in a few weeks time.

The boiler will be going to LNWR Crewe in September for extensive work to be carried out. This work will be very expensive. To reduce the costs some work is being carried out at Bury by our boilerman Allan Schofield and other group members. At the moment all the firebox stays are being re-caulked inside the firebox, the stay threads cleaned up with a dienut and new nuts fitted.

The cylinder clothing is almost complete. The only outstanding work is the fitting of the reinforcing plates to take the bolts that hold  the steam pipe casings to the cylinder clothing.

Recaulking of the firebox stays is now complete. New nuts are being fitted on the stays. The four sidetank support brackets on the boiler barrel have been removed. These will be reused on the new boiler. Other items to be removed and reused are the dome and regulator stuffing box.

The clothing for the LH cylinder has been completed. All the items are now being painted before refitting.

The big end and little end bushes and oiling washers for the connecting rods have been machined and fitted to the rods.

Work continues on the boiler.  Some rivets have been removed from the two rows that hold the barrel to the firebox. Eventually all these rivets will be removed and the barrel and firebox seperated. 

Cylinder clothing is complete except for two pieces off the front of the cylinder casting. These have to be laser cut.

Further progress has been made on the motion. The radius rods have been refurbished and new die blocks machined. Both radius rods are now in place on the loco. Work is now concentrated on the expansion links and their die blocks.

The cylinder insulation has been put in place below the clothing and all non-ferrous pipe fittings refitted to the cylinders. Work has  started on completing the snifting valves, which were part machined some time ago.

The upper section of the ashpan is now being fabricated in position on the bottom of the foundation ring.

The L. H. expansion link is now fitted in place.

The blastpipe base needed to be rebuilt due to excessive corrosion. It has been removed from the smokebox saddle and the rebuilding work done. This has been completed and the base has been welded back on the saddle. The blastpipe has been machined as has the blastpipe cap. New studs have to be made to hold the blastpipe to the base.

The vacuum release valve has been fitted to the driver's pedestal and will now be piped up to the newly fitted vacuum cylinder and the driver's brake valve.

The work on the inner firebox is almost complete. Most of the new nuts have been fitted to the stays. The copper laps have been recaulked and new fusible plugs fitted. Work has now started on removing the old nuts and washers which are on the crown stays on the top of the firebox. These will be replaced with new nuts and washers. Due to the volume of work at LNWR, Crewe the boiler will not be moving there until early next year. This gives us more time to work on the boiler on our site, thereby reducing costs.

The studs that hold the blastpipe to the base have been machined and fitted in place.The blastpipe and cap are now fitted in place.

The cylinder draincock bodies have been removed from the bottom of the cylinders in order to fit the internal components in the draincocks.

The steam heating pipes are being refitted to the chassis.

During Christmas week the chassis got its 1st mile or so on the clock. It was shunted out of our workshop using an 08 and taken down to Baron Street. The new smokebox was put in place on the saddle using the ELR's road crane. Also loaded onto the chassis, were the sacrificial plates for the smokebox and the rear smokebox ring. These were placed on planking located between the sidetanks. The chassis then returned to our workshop. Unfortunately it rained all day during this operation. However everything was videoed and, hopefully, a DVD of the day's work will be available. I will let you have more information about the DVD when I know more.

In the workshop much has been happening. The return crank rods have been completed and assembled to the return cranks using the rather large roller bearings. Indeed, the left hand assembly is now on the chassis and pinned to the bottom of the expansion link. Work is now ongoing on the assembly of the R.H. side motion.

The top section of the ashpan has been welded up and is in the process of being fitted to the firebox foundation ring on a temporary basis. Once this has been done it will be removed and welded to the lower ashpan, which was built some time ago.

Work has also started on the fitting of the larger pipework to and from the injectors. We are presently using two scrap 10X injector bodies as guides as to where the piping has to go. Once we take delivery of our new injectors they will, of course, be put in place.

Work on the boiler is also progressing well. We are in the process of removing the old nuts and washers from the crown stays on the top of the firebox outer wrapper and replacing them with new ones. Also the rivets holding the foundation ring in place are being removed. This is being done using a rivet buster gun that we purchased. It is a seroiusly big piece of kit. Doing this job now will save time and money once the boiler goes to Crewe. The foundation ring will not be removed at Bury. It will be held in place, temporarily, by a few nuts and bolts. We will also remove all the rivets that hold the taper boiler barrel to the firebox throatplate. Again it will be held together using nuts and bolts.

The  internal fittings are being fitted to each draincock. Once this is completed the draincocks will be bolted back in place on the underside of the cylinders. The cylinder cock actuating valve body has been bolted in place on the inside of the LH cab side sheet. The internal components and the operating handle are being machined prior to assembly. 

The top section of the ashpan is now complete. The next move is to weld it to the lower portion and then complete the smaller welding jobs before fitting tha damper and hopper doors.

Unfortunately, three trial fittings of the upper ashpan to the bottom of the firebox have delayed the complete removal of all the rivets holding the foundation ring to the firebox. Currently, about three-quarters of the rivets are out. However, time has not been wasted. The palm stays have been removed as has the regulator stuffing box housing. The four short longitudinal stay brackets have been taken out of the boiler to be reused on the new boiler. In order for Allan to work on the removal of all rivets on the top half of the boiler we have had to improvise in building our staging to suit the job. The staging has been built off the ground adjacent to the lowmac and then, using a set of feet fabricated by ourselves,it is built from the floor of the lowmac up against the side of the boiler. I will put a photo of this in my next update.

Work has started on attaching the smokebox to the saddle. This involves drilling a lot of holes in the smokebox and the internal sacrificial plates, bolting them to the saddle as we go.

Recently machined and fitted in place is the elbow that is used to take the steam heat pipe from the steam heat reducing valve through the cab front plate and vertically down the inside of the cab front until the pipe is shaped to meet the tee in the steam heat pipe that runs from bufferbeam to bufferbeam on the loco.

Also finish machined is the regulator stuffing box and gland.

The smokebox tubeplate has been placed on our radial arm drill and the holes for the smoketubes are being reamed out.

 

The top section of the ashpan has been welded to the lower section. As stated in the prevoius report, there are a few plates yet to be welded in position before the damper doors can be fitted.

The smokebox rear ring is now in place and the drilling of the holes through the wrapper has started. The bolt holes that secure the smokebox to the saddle are being done first.

Work continues on the boiler/firebox. The washout plug holes on the firebox backhead have been retapped. The oval holes for the mudhole doors were badly wasted. These are being built up with weld and reground to the correct profile.

The regulator stuffing box housing has been removed from the boiler. It was then set up on the milling machine and the bore that locates the stuffing box was machined. This item will be reused on the new boiler.