Sunday May 10th
Present were Andy, Stuart Reid, Bill Snowden, Barry Peters, Mike Purslow and myself. Weather was calm but overcast with a heavy downpour of rain in the early afternoon.
- Barry and I tackled the vacuum brake actuating lever and bracket under the cab, first prizing off the 2 bearing housings. We then burnt off the nuts on the left hand side holding the lower spacer plate in position. Having got this loose we were able to spring the left hand side of the main bracket sufficiently to manouvre the lever out having roped it up first for safety.
- Bill dismantled the main water feed pipe assembly running forward from the cab under and through the left hand running plate - this comprises two main sections and two couplings all held together with 5/8" Whit bolts and nuts.
- Andy removed the curved section of running plate in front of the left hand outside cylinder with assistance from Bill. 13 rivet heads were blown off with the gas cutter and the remains punched through the supporting angle iron attached to the frame.
- The left hand front steps were detached by burning off the 4 wasted bolts holding it to the running plate - the steps came free as the 3/4" bolt holding the support bracket to the frame was undone.
- Andy and I tackled the rearmost right hand spring hanger pin which initially appeared to be very solid. Andy applied large amounts of heat while I bludgeoned it periodically with the large sledgehammer. Eventually it started to move and Mike's help was enlisted to tap the pin back through the frame from the outside. This went on for some time with the team of Andy on heat (!), me on sledgehammer on the inside and Mike on sledgehammer on the outside - eventually the pin was won from the frame.
- Mike gave me back some running plate bracketry removed on an earlier
work party for painting along with a brass gauge frame from a Black 5 -
This was acquired by Tom
from Crewe Works in the 1960's and may prove usefull later.
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DCP00063
DCP00068
Sunday April 5th- Gala Day
Present were Andy, Hazel, John Hunt and myself. There were a large number of people present for the Gala Day and a lot of good PR was done by Hazel and John.
- I cut the heads and tails off the cotter pins in several of the spring hanger support pins and managed to drift some of them out. The remainder were filed off flush in anticipation of being able to knock the pins out through the frames.
- Andy and Hazel applied a considerable amount of heat to the first one - the rearmost on the left hand side. Andy and I then gave it a tremendous bashing with the sledgehammer but failed to budge it at all.
- I turned my attention to two others immediately in front of the centre driving wheel both of which were eventually dislodged after more heat application and smothering in diesel. Hazel bravely held a large bolt which was used to drift the pins right through when they had been pushed flush with the support brackets.
- A fourth pin was dislodged but could not be recovered as it fouls the spokes of the front driving wheel. An attempt was made to pinch bar the loco backwards to re-align the wheels but it failed to respond and will need live locomotive power to shift it.
- The pins are 1 1/2" diameter by 7 3/4" long under the head. The head is 2 1/4" diameter by 7/16" deep. The pins have a fine finish to the area formerly in the frame implying that they may be "fitted". This could explain the heavy force required to dislodge them. The cotter pins are 7/16" diameter by 3 1/2" long.
- The two recovered pins were returned home, the grime cup-brushed off and the remains of the cotter pins drilled out.
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125-1Sunday March 8th
Present were Stuart Reid, John Hunt and (arriving late) myself.
- Stuart and John were busy with general scraping and debris clearance towards the front of the loco between the frames.
- I removed the damper actuating shaft assembly from underneath the cab. This was fixed by 2 off 1" whit cotter studs in the frames with 4 off spring washers and 2 off full nuts plus 2 off 1" whit hex head bolts, spring washers and full nuts through a large shoe bracket attached to the frame. The various hanging arms for operating the dampers are pinned through the hollow shaft with taper split pins in a corroded state. Consequently they resisted disassembly and will require heat to complete the job.
- I turned my attention to the large, centrally placed bracket directly underneath the cab which supports a heavy shaft and lever, possibly part of the drawgear. I removed all 12 nuts and washers from the bolts fixing the two shaft bearing housings to the bracket.
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120-9Sunday March 1st
An "unofficial" work party. Present were Andy, Hazel, Bill Snowdon and Barry Peters the latter two over from Canada on business.
- Andy detached the cranked plate bolted to the main reversing lever that forms the yoke over the Reversing Gear Screw assembly at the cab end. This was fixed with 3 3/4" Whit bolts and nuts. The collars holding the two halves of the yoke were removed and the reversing lever lifted out and stored in the engine pit.
- The Reversing Gear Screw Assembly was unbolted from its mounting in the cab and removed for renovation. This was fixed down with 8 off 3/4" Whit x 2" long bolts and plain washers. Note : the unit is marked up with the legend "C298".
- The main reversing lever was lifted off and stored in the engine pit.
- The reversing lever support bracket was detached from the left hand running plate and removed. This had been attached with 4 off 3/4" whit x 2 1/2" long hex head bolts and full nuts.
- Bill & Barry removed the right side rear (half) splasher from inside the cab.
- They then progressed to the rear section of the right side running plate which was released by burning off the rivet heads.
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120-6Saturday February 21st
Present were Stuart Reid and myself.
- Stuart worked at scraping and debris clearance from the frames around the front left hand cylinder.
- I worked all around the base plate of the Reversing Gear Tensioning Assembly removing the scale and solidified debris. It still shows no sign whatever of movement, however.
- Removed the fourth fixing bolt from the Damper Operating Lever Assembly, removed the two clevis pins at the opposite end of the Damper Link Rods and lifted the whole assembly free of the cab floor. Chiselled out the rock-solid compacted coal and dirt from between the levers.
120-2Sunday February 8th
Present were Andy, Hazel, John Hunt and Chief Security Officer (the dog) Stanley. I arrived late but assisted in the recovery of the tarpaulin which had blown all over to the one side of the loco.
- Andy extended his experience with the new cutting gear by making several cuts through the scrap platework in the cab floor area. He blew the tops off three of the four bolts holding the Damper Operating Lever Assembly to the remains of the cab floor.
- Hazel removed a large amount of fine coal and dirt from the cab floor area.
- John worked around the damper operating mechanism under the cab on the right side of the loco, cleaning, scraping and loosening parts ready for removal.
Saturday January 24th
Present were myself, Andy, Hazel, Stuart Reid, Brian Jowett, Ian Goddard, Alec Oldroyd, John Wade, James Williams, Sean Dowty and Chief Security Officer (the dog) Stanley. This was the largest work party for some time and was blessed with a good day weather-wise. Considerable progress was made particularily with removal of various parts of the inside motion.
- Andy and I recovered the final two (rear) sandboxes which were loose in the tender. These boxes are fixed to the outside of the frames underneath the cab by three 11/16" Whit studs each which are still in situ. Hazel used the new cutting gear to heat up the studs in the bottom of the boxes which I extracted with a Stiltson.
- The Left Hand Box gave up 3 of the 4 studs o.k. but the fourth severly wasted stud sheared off.
- All 4 studs came out of the Right Hand Box without too much trouble. The top tube for this box is severley corroded and will have to be cut off and replaced.
- The remaining parts of the drain cock operating gear proved difficult to remove but eventually the main cross-shaft, collars, stub shafts and support brackets were all recovered and laid out on the ground for photographing.
- The right hand centre driving wheel splasher was removed and stored for patterns.
- The Inside Expansion Link Assembly with its support brackets was removed from between the frames.
- A start was made on the Reversing Gear Tensioning Assembly. This was freed at one end but is currently solid at the other.
- Two large sections of scrap platework were removed from the front of the cab floor.
- In the Museum shop Will Atkins sold another of the Galatea models.
- On the home front I have been sorting out recoverable parts from bags of washers, nuts, bolts and brackets, cup-brushing them to remove scale and dirt. The first of the sand box tubes is now painted with the green primer.
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115-5Sunday January 11th
Present were myself, Andy, Hazel, Mike Purslow and Chief Security Officer (the dog) Stanley.
- Andy and Hazel's superb new cutting gear was given its first real-life task and, with usefull advice from Bob Meanley, was used in the extraction of most of the studs from the sand boxes. Unfortunately, some of the studs sheared off although this was not unexpected as they were severely wasted. The operation was supervised by Chief Security Officer (the Dog) Stanley. Bad light and lack of oxygen stopped play.
- Mike continued with general scraping and debris clearance up towards the middle of the loco inside the frames.
- I removed the sand box tube support brackets for the two rear boxes from the inside the frames (with assistance from Mike). These were fixed with a mixed bag of odd nuts and bolts most of which will need replacing. The two forward brackets are slightly different to the other six being scalloped out on one side to avoid a large nut on the inside of the frame.
- I started to prepare the drain cock operating shaft for removal by removing the split taper pins from the collars which join the main shaft to the two stub shafts. Heat will be required to complete the disassembly as they showed no signs of moving when struck with the lump hammer.
115-7E-mail to : em89@bcs.org.uk
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