With summer behind us the weather has suddenly become quite autumnal, nether the less, our happy band of volunteers continue to make good progress restoring and or replacing parts for our locomotive. In this update I am going to introduce you to some of our volunteers, I will try and show more of our volunteers and the work they are doing in future updates, as everyone who contributes their time and skills are important and very much appreciated by the team.
At Toddington both of the connecting rods have been cleaned and polished up by volunteer Graham Gould. Graham has almost singlehandedly has removed all of the heavy corrosion from the locomotives original motion, something which after developing and perfecting his technique he should be very proud of. When not working with us Graham helps with carriage maintenance and can also be found manning the GWSR shop at Toddington station.
Graham, who probably thought that the job of polishing motion would never end, has now progressed to assisting with making and fitting the new boiler crinolines previously started by John Pedley. John had made good progress with that job, but like me, he has many hats to wear, so has spent a lot of the summer months carrying out vital mechanical exams on the railways fleet of locomotives as well as regular mid week driving turns. As the railway slows down after the summer season hopefully he will be back helping us again. As I write this progress on the boiler has seen all but one firebox crinoline complete and the back head cladding refitted after technical tweaks by the team to correct the fitment. The first barrel crinoline is on and steady progress is being made forwards towards the smokebox. The next job on the firebox is to fit the side cladding sheets. To help with this I have purchased some thick cardboard which comes on a long wide roll, to enable us to make templates before we cut and roll the steel sheets to fit. This technique is not new it’s been used by other locomotive groups and has been jokingly referred to as CAD engineering. Not Computer Aided Design, but more Cardboard Aided Design!!
I’m pleased our project continues to attract new volunteers and during the summer we have been joined by Alistair Goldie. One of Alistair’s first jobs was to assist Rob Southwell with the errection of a new information board up near the Cotswold Halt Cafe at Toddington. This enables visitors to learn about the project and contains info about how they can join our group, and become a part owner of the loco. All the GWSR locomotive groups are being encouraged to put together a display and I’m pleased to say ours was one of the first to be fitted and look’s very smart indeed. Alastair has now progressed to assisting with the boiler crinolines and has recently been working on the 2 new fabricated brake hangers grinding the weld preparation ready for the coded welder to weld the parts together.
Refurbishment of components for our locomotive often involves extensive work just removing rust and corrosion. Dr Ian Pogson, armed with a needle gun, spent a considerable time on the hunt for solid metal whilst cleaning up the main steam pipe glands (which fit on the side of the smokebox) and the locomotives original blast pipe. Unfortunately once the corrosion on the blastpipe was removed it revealed some extensive cracking, which might be repairable but it’s probably cheaper, and better to replace the whole thing if we can get replacement castings. I am currently talking to a company about supplying these. Dr Ian Pogson is another of our volunteers who wear more than one hat. Mid week he can often be found at the trackside, knee deep in muddy water, as he works with the railways drainage team to carry out vital repair works to the drainage infrastructure.
Other work at Toddington has seen the second mechanical lubricator finished, and tested by volunteer Neil James. Neil has also carefully stripping down the drivers vacuum brake valve to enable me to assess what repairs are necessary to make it usable again. Neil is not new to working with steam locomotives, having originally joined the railway many years ago to work on 2807, with the pressures of family life Neil’s activity on the railway lessened, but I’m pleased to say that he’s back and enjoying helping with our project.
At LMS in Loughborough we have taken delivery of the new Timken tender axle box bearings which arrived having been purchased from an approved Timken bearing supplier in China. The bearings were well packaged and after careful examination we are very pleased with them. Thanks must go to our Chairman Chris Irving and his Chinese import agent Julia, whose help was invaluable, and her very kind offer to wave her fee for the work was very much appreciated. Steve Everett our finance director also needs a special mention as he helped navigate the company through the difficult process of import duties etc. The whole process, whilst not easy, has been very successful, saving our company a considerable amount to money, it just leaves me now with the simple job of fitting them!!
The vacuum brake trainpipe has been painted and after new rubber joints were made, it’s been fitted into place between the frames of the locomotive up to the point where it turns and runs under the LHS running board. This next part will have to wait until the boiler is in place and the running boards are attached.
The damper control operating system is being worked on at LMS by Rob Southwell and Ian Crowder. Rob is one of 76077’s longest serving volunteers and has been with us almost from the very start. Ian is also another long serving volunteer and helped set up TSLL becoming our marketing director. Both Rob and Ian (together with Graham and Dr Pogson) volunteer up at LMS in addition to Toddington. Ian spent a day stripping the old damper control bracket down removing stubborn pins and cotters. The system on a BR standard involves a complicated arrangement of left handed screw threads and cranks. The bracket which is fitted to the cab floor, that all this is attached to, had a bad case of tin worm so all the rotten steelwork has been cut out by Rob and replaced. One of the threaded rods that turn to adjust the opening of the damper doors was also bent, but we managed to straighten it with careful application of heat and a bit of fettling with a file to restore the thread. The new hand wheels have been cleaned up and tried on the threads and new metalwork machined in my home workshop has been made for the handles to attach to the refurbished bracket.
As I write this the staff at LMS and our team of volunteers are also working hard to try and complete the cab and finish as many other jobs as possible on the locomotive, in preparation for our open day at LMS on the 21st September. This is always a popular day with our shareholders and supporters. I very much enjoy meeting and talking to you about our project. I hope to see you there.
Words and Pictures: Andrew Meredith – TSLL Engineering director