Our summer engineering report starts with the acquisition of the tender wheels. We were very pleased, and to be honest a little surprised after we received a positive response to our renewed offer to purchase these wheels via the Bluebell Railway’s board of directors. Chris Irving and I made a site visit to examine their condition before making a formal offer which we felt comfortable with. Our Chairman Chris, and Finance Director Steve Everett both deserve a big thanks for their work cultivating our relationship with the Bluebell, I think without this effort the result would not have been so positive.
Unfortunately it took a little while to extract the wheels from their long term storage due to ongoing engineering works at the Bluebell. To guard against any potential derailment of the purchase (excuse the pun) the TSLL Management team made the decision to keep it a secret until the wheels were on the lorry and leaving Horsted Keynes station. Once on the way, the very first thing we did was to send out the newsletter to our shareholders, advising them of our new acquisition. In addition to the news we decided to launch the ‘sponsor a spoke’ scheme to help pay for the purchase. As soon as it was launched our existing shareholders responded enthusiastically, in just over 1 week a ¼ of the spokes had been sponsored a truly remarkable achievement and only possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters. At the time of writing there are still some spokes available for sponsorship, if you think you can help please get in touch with Dawn Southwell who runs our component sponsorship scheme. Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far.
The tender wheel sets have just arrived back from CMS Cepcor at Coalville in Leicestershire where the tyres have been turned. They have been taken to Locomotive Maintenance Services for bearing examination and subsequent refurbishment of the axle boxes. Looking in more detail since they arrived at LMS, I suspect the bearings have been damaged beyond repair due to water ingress so it’s likely new taper roller bearings will be required. In preparation for this Volunteers Rob Southwell and Ian Crowder started removing years of grease and moss which was growing all over the wheels to uncover all the fixings that secure the axle boxes.
The axle boxes will be removed and the wheels shotblasted to provide a good key for the new paint. The manganese horn liners and spring rubbing pads will be machined flat and the broken off studs which used to secure the distinctive yellow Timken bearing covers will also need removing. I have also started the search for replacement bearing covers so when the works are complete we can seal up the axle boxes to prevent any future damage.
One of our new volunteer recruits Dr Ian Pogson has been working with me at LMS to fit the cylinder cladding on the LHS cylinder. We have some drawings for this sheet metalwork but much of it requires offering up, trimming to size and test fitting before a satisfactory result is obtained. Chris Hinton had the new cylinder cladding parts made many years ago. He decided at the time, to slightly increase the diameter of the cladding around the steam chests to enable a layer of insulation to be fitted (originally there was no room for insulation as the cladding was shaped to fit within BR’s very restrictive L1 loading gauge). Concerned about the clearance between cylinders and platform edges I took the opportunity to examine 75014’s (almost identical) cylinders whilst the loco was visiting the GWSR. I found a clearance of more than 5” to the platform edge, so the additional ½” we have added should not cause any issues. It has however added to the complexity of fitting the cladding sheets, as shaped spacer pieces have had to be made to sit between the cylinder and the cladding to ensure everything sits nicely in position.
The GWSR machine shop continues to support us and has recently made us a set of bushes to complete the refurbishment of the 4 original brake hangers that came with the loco from Barry. These are being pressed into the hangers and new grease nipples fitted ready for final fitment on the loco chassis. Machining of the two new replacement brake hangers has also started at LMS, thanks to Dr Ian Pogson for sponsoring one of these through our component sponsorship scheme, at the time of writing the other one is still available should you be interested. Once these are finished then the only remaining parts of brake rigging to be completed are the 2 pull rods which connect the brake crossbeams together.
Profile cut steelwork has been supplied for the new pull rods in a departure to the original forged examples. Once rough machined, they will be welded together by a coded welder before Non destructive Testing, final machining and proof load testing completes the job.
Volunteer Rob Southwell spent a day cleaning up and painting all the steam brake cylinder parts after the cylinder body had returned from cast iron welding. One of the original mounting lugs that secure the cylinder to the drag-box had broken off. Cast Iron Welding Services in Coalville carried out a specialist weld, to attach a new piece of cast iron in place and then machine it back to original size. LMS have been asked to undertake the refurbishment of the loco’s steam brake cylinder ASAP so it can be fitted under the cab floor before the brake cross shaft goes in. Everything is a bit tight under the cab floor so fitting this first should make things simpler. Once the steam brake cylinder and brake cross shaft are bolted in position, all the remaining brake gear can be permanently fitted on the loco and with the aid of some compressed air we could actually test it.
Progress on the cab repairs continue with the new cab sides being trial fitted after shaping to match the original profile. These new side sheets have been generously sponsored by Ian Crowder thorough our component sponsorship scheme, thanks Ian. Ian has also been working on the cab at Loughborough, improving some of the fit and finishes on the parts previously made by Unity Engineering. The cab roof ventilator locking brackets have been fabricated, the GWSR machine shop are currently making the handles to complete this part of the cab. Once all the new parts have been trial fitted to the cab then everything will be finally riveted into position. A panel sealant will be used between the platework and the angle framework to try and prevent water entering and rust forming between, causing them to spring apart. I was looking at 75014’s cab recently and I noticed this has suffered from this quite badly over the years. As a Standard cab is a very complicated structure and therefore expensive to make we don’t want to be revisiting this area in the future. Painting of the structure can then be completed before it is refitted to the loco’s frames.
One of our supporters, Malcolm Stringer has completed machining all the non-return valves for the oil lubrication system in his home workshop and what a superb job he has made of them. I’m pleased to say this work hasn’t put him off and he has offered to do more for us in the future. As a BR standard Loco has miles of copper pipe fitted, there are many and various pipe fittings to machine for the locomotive, so I am very grateful to Malcolm for his offer of help. The GWSR machine shop machined the 2 new atomiser castings enabling some of Malcolm’s parts to be fitted into these castings straight away. The rest of Malcolm’s fittings will be installed as the lubrication pipework is fitted.
After a couple of failed attempts, Friday 26th May was the day when GWSR resident 2-8-0 2807 finally had its refurbished boiler refitted to its frames at Toddington. In collaboration with the 2807 group we were able to borrow their crane for an hour in the afternoon to move our boiler into position behind the David Page shed. This will enable work to start on the lengthy job of fitting all the crinolines and cladding to the boiler. If there’s anyone reading this that has experience of sheet metal work or vehicle bodywork and would like to give us a hand at Toddington you would be made most welcome. Thanks must go to Mark Young and Ian Carpenter for helping with the crane lift and shunting of the boiler around the Toddington site on the day. Once the boiler was in position and suitably packed our volunteers wasted no time getting on with work. Rob Southwell and I removed all the handrails and Dr Ian Pogson has started to recover and refurbish all the handrail stanchions ready for reuse. The actual handrail has suffered from the dreaded “tin worm” so new tube will be sourced and fitted once the cladding is in place. Christine Murrey got in on the boiler action at a recent workday and has systematically gone around the boiler die nutting (cleaning up the threads) all the studs that will be reused. Any Studs that hold boiler fittings (which are under full boiler pressure) will need to be replaced but those that hold brackets, cladding and handrails etc can be reused if they recoverable.
I thought it was time I updated you on progress to replace the BR standard reversing gearbox that was pinched whilst at Barry scrap yard. We launched this item on our component sponsorship scheme a few years ago and it has now been fully subscribed for some time. Thank you to everyone who contributed. This item has been one of those very frustrating items to try and get produced. On the face of it, it should have been relatively easy to acquire the castings required to make it, as in preservation castings have already been produced for other locos. The BR Standard Locomotive Owners Group has a list of patterns that are available and the contact details for the various groups that own these patterns. The list originally showed that there were 2 sets available to use. The first group was contacted and after a protracted search I was finally told that their patterns must have been lost after fractions occurred within their group. I then tried the second group that listed the availability of the required patterns. Unfortunately it was discovered that these
patterns were very much incomplete (only 1 core box was actually found). They had been recovered from the Swindon pattern store many years ago and incorrectly catalogued on the pattern register as being complete. That meant that the only way forward was to commission new patterns for the reverser body. Unfortunately we are the only group that currently needs the 2 main housing patterns so there is no opportunity to share the costs with other groups. The 1 other much smaller pattern we need is also needed by 3 other groups so we can share the costs on this one. Skilled pattern makers are difficult to find these days and their services don’t come cheap. The cost of these patterns is circa £5K so it will significantly impact the original estimate to complete this item. I am hoping that we will get these patterns towards the end of the summer, so castings can be produced and we can get on with the job. Supporter Ian Crampton (who offered his help to manufacture this item) has already machined the hand wheel and some of the end covers for the body, as well as acquiring material for the shaft’s and gears inside the gearbox. He has also offered to help with the machining of the other parts although the larger complicated items will need to be machined by a specialist engineering company. We have however just taken delivery of the indicator drum for the reverser which was supplied by Phil Oldfield Engineering using one of his patterns.
We have also purchased all the universal joints and the reversing drive shaft tube to complete the item – thanks to Steve Everett for sponsoring these items. As soon we have the main housing castings we can begin machining and then assembly of the reverser can start, I will keep you updated with progress.
The other main outstanding items that I am currently chasing at the moment are the Return Cranks. Back in 2012 Chris Hinton lent 76077’s original return cranks (and many other items which have since been returned) to the 76084 Locomotive Company, as at that time 76077’s restoration had stalled and the loan would fast track 76084’s return to service. 76084 locomotive group placed an order with Stephenson’s Engineering in Manchester for replacements to be forged in 2017. They didn’t chase Stephenson’s as at the time they had a full order book and as TSLL didn’t even exist and our loco languished in the North siding at Toddington they rightly considered it a low priority. Fast forward 5 years and as work on 76077 is progressing at pace, suddenly 76084 group were told by Stephenson’s that they could no longer undertake the forging work, due to a shortage of skilled staff. Since then 76084’s director of engineering and his team has put in a lot of effort to try and source new forgings so as not to hold us up. I am hopeful that they may now have found a supplier and they can get these new return cranks produced ASAP. 76084’s boiler certificate actually runs out at the end of this year so if no progress has been made I will ask for our original cranks to be returned so as not to delay the finishing of the motion on our loco frames. 76084 are unlikely to need return cranks for a couple of years whilst their loco is being overhauled by which time the replacements should have been made.
At Toddington as well as starting the work on the boiler cladding, our volunteers are continuing to polish the last remaining parts of the motion ready for fitting at LMS. In the GWSR workshop the new connecting rod (which Chris Hinton had made) is having the keyways machined for the Big End and Little End bushes by Joe Rosengro on the new vertical slotting machine that was purchased for the railway by several resident loco owning groups including TSL Ltd. This part of the machining operation couldn’t be done by the company that originally machined the new rod as they didn’t have the capability). The new valve crosshead slide blocks are also being machined together with some pipe fittings and the last of the brake gear pins and bushes.
I am indebted to our band of volunteers both at Toddington and Loughborough who give up their spare time to help. Thank you we really couldn’t do this without you.
Report and Pictures by Andrew Meredith, TSLL Engineering Director