Latest News

Current news items are listed below. If the Acrobat icon is shown, then click on the icon to read the attachment. If an image is shown, you can click it for a full size image. You can find old news items in the News Archive.

Hind Beam Gussets
28/03/2020
	We may be restricted in movement at the moment but there's lots of design work going on at home. We're going to place orders for frame components at the back end of the frames. We have the hindbeam and the 2 rubbing plates that fix to the hind beam in stock. We need to procure the heavy gussets that sit on the outside of the frame and abut the front face of the hind beam. The gussets also transfer the weight of the rear of the locomotive to the trailing truck. The gussets were originally a casting but are really a set of flat plates. We've agreed with CTL Seal to fabricate this with full depth penetration welds. Keith has been working on the fabrication drawing and has added the component to our 3D model. The gusset is in green and it is bolted to the frame extensions in blue. The bolts also go through to the dragbox which is brown. The hind beam is riveted to the rear face.
Monday Working Group
23/03/2020
	CTL Seal have introduced Covid-19 procedures and we are complying fully with them. Some of group did not attend today and may not be able to attend for some time. Those of us who did attend kept mainly to the container area and ensured the correct social distance. As the sun was out Ashley took advantage and painted some of the parts that have been blast cleaned recently. Here you can see sand trap covers on the left, sandbox inspection covers in the front, sandpipe flanges (for the top of the sandbox) on the right and retaining brackets for the brake hanger pins at the back.
Central Bogie Cast Stretcher
23/03/2020
	The central cast stretcher for the bogie has been returned from the foundry after some rectification work was completed. In the photo, the stretcher is upside down and the patterns are on the pallet behind. The stretcher is now ready to go for machining. We have already produced a machining drawing and an order has been placed for machining with CTL Seal .
Bogie Frame Plates
23/03/2020
	Bogie parts are coming in thick and fast at the moment! Machining is now complete on the 2 side plates and these will be moving into the assembly area fairly shortly. The top plate has the front on the right, the bottom plate has the front on the left. The difference is the 3 extra holes; originally for the lifeguards at the front of the bogie but later for the Automatic Warning System carrier stay that was added
More Bogie Parts
23/03/2020
	Another pair of bogie parts are in the machine shop. This is one of the 2 side control spring beams. As a picture paints a thousand words, the best way to explain these is to look at this page and view the sixth picture down. The beams are the yellow components. The beams slot into the rectangular holes that you can see on the bogie stretcher and the arms engage with the outer ends of the side control springs. As the centre slide tries to move to one side, the beam arms will compress the side control spring, thus providing a resistance to the movement. Machining is not quite complete.
Sand Boxes
23/03/2020
	Finally for this week, the sand boxes have been welded up and have been given a coat of undercoat. The lot 242 Clans were to have 3 sand boxes. The back sand box is bigger than the other 2 and serves the front side of the trailing driving wheels (for forward running) and the rear side of the centre driving wheel (for backward running). Bits quickly collect a layer of dust in the CTL Seal Assembly shop!
Bogie Parts (1)
16/03/2020
	More bogie parts arrived into stock today. First off is this heavy bit of metal. On the drawing it looks like a small afterthought, in reality this is 7-1/4" high (180mm) and 5" (127mm) internal diameter and its heavy. This is the cast iron bush for the bogie pivot and the 2 set screws that will secure it in place. This will need to be pressed into the centre slide casting which is due from the foundry in a couple of weeks.
Bogie Parts (2)
16/03/2020
	The second set of bogie parts are these "V Strips". They are both upside down; their job is to retain the centre slide. The centre slide engages with the bogie pivot but is allowed to move from siste to side while being restrained by the side control springs. The bevel of the V strips is matched by a bevel on the centre slide, thereby the V strips prevent the centre slide from moving upwards while allowing it to move sideways.
Brackets
16/03/2020
	Another mundane part for you. The main train vacuum pipe is a 2" diameter pipe going from the driver's brake valve via a pipe tee to the front buffer beam and the heind beam (for the tender and train connection). The pipe to the front buffer beam starts off under the left hand running plate and then crosses over to the right hand running plate in its route to the front buffer beam. This pipe clip supports the pipe in its traverse from left to right. The pad on the right hand side is the base needs to be welded to the brake cylinder stretcher. A pipe clip is fitted on the other side. Ashley will be painting this next week witha coat of undercoat.
Stretcher Machining Complete
09/03/2020
	Following last week's discussion, all of the 3 cast steel stretchers have now been machined along the face where the frame plates sit on.
Frame Assembly Ready for Inspection
09/03/2020
	Meanwhile, the frame assembly has been inverted ready for an inspection. The plan is for CTL Seal inspection to inspect the bottom face (now on the top) for squareness and flatness. If we find an anomaly, then the frames will go for a light machining. The threaded bars at the front are temporary to retain rigidity during transportation.
Sandpipe Stay Locking Plates
09/03/2020
	Here's an example of the myriad of minor parts that go to make up a steam locomotive that you never see in photos - probably because they are covered in layers of grease and grot! Directly in front of each driving wheel (and at the rear of the centre driving wheel) are sand ejectors. Steam and sand come together in the ejector to produce a jet of sand where the wheel meets the rail head. The ejector is bolted to a sandpipe carrier; this is bolted to a sandpipe stay which is bolted to the spring hanger "feet" on the cast steel stretchers. The adjustment comes from a pair of oval bolt holes in the sand pipe stay. To make sure that the bolts don't slip in the slots, these locking plates are welded to the carrier and the stay. They mesh together to make sure that the assembly stays put. Generic Engineering in Rotherham have done their usual high quality job
Machining the Stretchers
02/03/2020
	Over the winter we've been doing a lot of checking of the frame assembly before we commit ourselves to hornguide and frame keep machining. Our aim in this project is to make sure that a job is right and not accept flaws. It's been accepted that the frame plates are not sitting tightly on the cast steel stretchers and that there are high points that need to be addressed. Therefore the stretchers are back in the machine shop. We have agreed with CTL Seal that we need to procure a cutter head that will allow us to machine the key horizontal face (as highlighted with blue) in a single pass. The cutter was ordered from Glasgow today and should be delivered tomorrow. Meanwhile we will turn the frame plates assembly over so that we can do a thorough flatness and squareness check on the lower face of the frame plates
Sand Traps
02/03/2020
	At the bottom of the sand boxes are these sand traps. The round flanges are bolted to the bottom of the sand boxes, the sand pipes down to the ejectors are bolted to the oval flanges. The other flange, without studs, are an inspection hole that can be used to free any stuck sand. These were a common part and the drawing shows that were fitted to class 03 shunters and the D95XX Class 14 "Teddy Bear" locos as well as to most (if not all) BR standard steam locos. We've dug them out of our stores and we're going to give them a good clean and inspection.
Bogie Bolts
02/03/2020
	Today the last of the bogie bolt order arrived into stock. As for the main frames, we are using fitted bolts instead of cold rivets. On the left are the countersunk bolts used to secure the bogie frame plates to the central stretcher. We've followed the British Railways drawing in specifying countersunk head bolts in some locations. The main suspension spring cradle (a compensation beam) sits outside of the frame plates and alongside them. As space is very limited, countersunk head rivets were specified in this area. As a light drive only is specified we've added a hex socket so we can make sure that we can tighten up the nut without the bolt spinning. The middle bolt is a heavy drive bolt for the axlebox guides. The right hand bolt is a special bolt for the top 2 bolts on the inner axle box guides where the spring cradle gets close to the bolt heads. Again it reflects the BR drawing style of head.