Latest News

 

February 2026

Further work has been taaking place on the Driver's side cab side. The curved section that
goes around the handrail is now drilled ready and trial fitted for rivetting.

 

The handrail and beading for the cab roof has been trial fitted.

 

The beading attached to the handrail that goes up around the cab roof is requiring some
remedial work. Note how thin the leg with the fixing holes is. This will be cut off and new
sections welded in.

 

One of the new sections laser profiled for repairing the cab roof beading.

 

After removal of the wasted section the new piece was clamped in place ready for welding.

 

Plenty of clamps in various orientations to hold it in the right place to make sure it doesn't move.

 

The first section after welding and dressing and the next section clamped in place ready
for welding.

 

After tacking in place on one side it was turned over to fully weld the opposite side.

 

On the tender all the rivets have now been removed from the dragbox on this side with a
couple also removed on the opposite side. Hopefully one more weekend's work will see
the dragbox removed.

 

January 2026

Having learnt from removing the first intermediate buffer we cut a section out to relieve pressure
around the neck of the buffer and then used an enerpac jack push to two halfs apart to seperate
the buffer from the dragbox. This worked well and with a few taps with a hamme ron the back
the buffer came free.

 

This view shows the section cut away to relieve the hold that the rust had on the buffer.

 

It was finally nice to be able to start some of the repairs rather than cutting parts up or removing
them. We finally started putting metal back by welding up sections of the frames where
corrosion had caused some wasting.

 

The corrosion was very localised and limited to areas at the front of the frames under the
dragbox and behind the front steps.

 

More welding to build up locally thinned areas round the front end.

 

We've also now turned our attention to the areas where some of the frames had been cut
away around the bottom of the horn guides. Presumably to try and remove the horn ties. This
was the worst location where a section had been completely cut off. There are two other
locations where they partially been cut through. The line of centre pops is where we need to
cut for the section we are inserting.

 

We used a gas cutter to the section in readiness for the new insert. It was finished off with a
grinder and the weld preps were put on.

 

Here are the frames all ready to receive the new insert. The new bit can be seen bolted into
the horn stay ready for offering up.

 

Machining the new piece of plate that is being inserted.

 

The head of the mill is set over at 3.5 degrees to put the 1 in 8 taper on the edges required
for the horn tie.

 

The finished insert complete with weld preps and the holes for the horn tie.

 

To ensure we got the insert in the correct position we bolted it into a horn tie which was then
bolted to the other side of the opening for the axlebox.

 

Horn tie bolted up and clamped with a strong back to hold it inline whilst it was tacked in place.

 

Our coded welder pre-heating the frames before welding to minimise any distortion.

 

After welding is 90% complete the clamps and strong back have been removed with it just
requiring a final capping run and dressing to finish it off. That has to wait for the next visit
of our coded welder as we ran out of time.

 

This is one of 3 tee pieces that fit in the vacuum train pipe. Two were still on the engine but
one of them had a broken flange. Only one was re-usable so we had to have two new ones
cast. The final job was to drill the flanges. Here one of the original flanges is being used as
a drilling template.

 

The two new tees, 3 original flanges and 4 new ones all ready to go off to be fitted to the engine.

 

The recalcitrant intermediate tender buffer has now been separated from the section of
dragbox that we had to cut out to remove it.

 

The buffer and spring now separated from the housing, full of congealed grease and dirt.

 

The component parts of the intermediate buffer ready for a thorough clean up and
refurbishment. Now to tackle the second one.