Latest News

November 2018

The new bottom plate for the dragbox now welded in place with a fresh coat of primer just applied.

 

The new bottom plate for the dragbox now welded in place viewed through the slot in the rear
bufferbeam for the drawbars.

 

October 2018

The new bottom plate for the rear dragbox now shotblasted to remove the mill scale and
primed, with all the holes also marked out and drilled, all ready for welding in to place.

 

August 2018

Last of the major structural repairs now underway with the work to the rear dragbox. Here the top
section has been cut away, the new top plate can be seen standing on edge on the running plate
to the right. Unfortunately quite a bit of the dragbox is stil in good condition so it was a shame
to cut it out but there was localised deterioration in several places and most of the internal
webs were very thin and we couldn't see a way of dealing with it without serious surgery. Still at
least we won't have to worry about it again for a very long time once it is done.

 

July 2018

Valve rod guides fitted to the front valve covers.

 

It was very sad to learn of the passing of one of our Restoration Group members, Rob Stannard.
Rob passed away at the end of June after a period of illness, 8 representatives from 45163
attended his memorial service in July. Rob had been a very active member of our group right up until
very recently although his ill health limited what he was able to do since Christmas. We will always
be thankful for all the work that Rob did when we built our workshop, aided by some of his family
members he took care of all of the electrical work, undertaking all the electrical installation including
wiring up all the machinery, repairing it where necessary and getting it all commissioned. Whenever
Rob came to a work weekend he never arrived empty handed, he had usually found some goody
somewhere that he thought we could use, whether it was some tools, storage containers, scrap
metal for recycling or even just a packet of biscuits for the mess room. We will miss you Rob and our
thoughts are with your family at this sad time.

 

Work on the rear valve cover completed and now fitted. We can now start work on the cladding
for the rear face of the cylinder block.

 

Rear valve cover being prepared for fitting, the valve rod guide has been fitted and the
recesses for the three set screws have been filed to the correct depth following machining.
The heads of the setscrews then have to be hand filed to give 3 thou clearance from the valve
liner. In this photo the bottom one has been done with the top two still to do.

 

Machining the front valve covers bolting face to ensure a steam tight joint and inside face on
the lathe to give correct valve liner clearance as with the rear covers shown below.

 

Machining the inside of the rear valve cover to give the correct spacing between this and the
valve liner following re-facing of the bolting faces on both the cover and cylinder block.

 

Rear valve rod guide now finish machined complete with oil grooves.

 

Right hand side cylinder cladding now complete with cover plates over the access holes.

 

Machining the circular cover plate for the cylinder cladding.

 

May 2018

First main cylinder cladding section now cut out and rolled, just one circular cut out left to
do in the middle and locate the positions of all the other fixing screw holes.

 

View from above of the new cylinder cladding sheets trial fitted.

 

April 2018

The first section of new cylinder cladding made and temporarily fitted to the right hand cylinder.
A section of original cladding borrowed from another engine has been temporarily fitted
around the outside of the cylinder to provide a pattern and to see where the top and bottom
sections join on, see photo below.

 

Old cladding section fitted to the right hand cylinder as a pattern for making a new section
and to find out where the joins come between this section and the top and bottom pieces,
see also photo above.

 

New blastpipe base casting just delivered.

 

Old blastpipe base which the new casting seen above will replace. Note the corrosion
around the edges such that the bolting holes are almost breaking out through the sides
of the flange.

 

March 2018

Cylinder drain cock linkage brackets fitted to the bogie stretcher and bottom of
cylinder to check for alignment

 

The valve rod guides white metalled and proof bored awaiting final machining.

 

Door support bracket fitted rivetted to the smokebox door ring, the last rivetting job on the smokebox
apart from attaching it to the boiler barrel.

 

We have now taken delivery of the oil box tops for the connecting rods, the long one being
for the little end and the square one for the big end.

 

The last of the back pressure valves now completed, these long ones are for the valve rod
guides on the rear steam chest cover.

 

February 2018

Snifting valves now fitted to the cylinders.

 

New back pressure valve fitted to the bottom of the cylinders.

 

January 2018

Refurbished back pressure valve fitted to the top of the cylinder bore, there is another
one that feeds oil into the bottom of the bore and a third one fits to the piston rod gland.

 

Two original refurbished back pressure valves ready for fitting, six are needed in total
so four new ones to make.

 

Here you can see the pair of lubrication elbows which are positioned at each valve head.

 

Lubrication elbow fitted to the steam chest.

 

New lubrication elbows for atomised lubrication to the steam chest.

 

New blanking plug fitted to the rear cylinder cover.

 

New Blanking Plugs for the rear cylinder covers.

 

New Blanking Plugs fitted to the Steam Chest.

 

New Blanking Plugs made for the Pyrometer and Indicator take off points on the top of
the steam chest.