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.
Rubbing Plates on Hind Beam |
11/11/2024 |
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Today we moved the Asquith drill to the back of the frames. On either side of the central intermediate rubbing block (in green in the photo with the curved convex sections) are 2 steel rubbing plates. These have manganese steel liner welded to the outer (rear) surface, The intermediate buffers on the front of the tender press on these manganese liners. The rubbing plates and the 4 corners of the intermediate rubbing block are riveted to the hind beam. Today's job was to drill 13/16" holes for 3/4" rivets. |
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Cab Side Sheet |
11/11/2024 |
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One of the cab side sheets has gone to Brightside blast Cleaning to be stripped to bare metal. The other side we are doing in house. Here Neil and Roger are cleaning off the derusting fluid in preparation for painting. |
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More Pony Truck Parts |
04/11/2024 |
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This pair of spring beams arrived from Tyler Bros in Kirkby in Ashfield at the end of last week. The spring beams are part of the coil spring pony truck suspension that is part of the lot 242 Class 6 design. The design is shared with 71000 - Duke of Gloucester. The spring links (see 07/10/2024 build entry) pass through the oval slots and a spring end shoe which fits in the oval hole. The black component is the ball end piece - the round end sits in a hollow in the axlebox spring pad, which sits directly on the top of the axlebox. The ball end piece engages fully in the round spigot which now needs to be welded into a recess on the bottom of the spring beam. To complete the job, we need to weld a pair of manganese pads to the sides of the spring beams. Once welded on, they will need to be machined to produce the final overall width of the spring beam assembly.. |
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Cab Blast Cleaning |
04/11/2024 |
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Brightstar Shotblasting and Coatings Ltd, based in Sheffield, have agreed to help us out again with blast cleaning of a few more cab components. Mike, Steve and Neil have loaded the frame and the cab back panel onto the truck prior to delivery to Brightstar. We are very grateful for their assistance. |
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Diaphragm Plate |
04/11/2024 |
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On the British Railways Standard locomotives, the cab is secured to the boiler. The rear of the cab is connected to the frames via the diaphragm plates, the rear one is the grey component in the photo. The diaphragm plates are 1/4" thick and are bolted together. As the boiler heats up it will expand and the cab will move backwards. The diaphragm plate is designed to bend to accommodate this expansion. We now need to drill and ream the bolt holes that will secure the diaphragm plates to the top of the hind beam |
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Thanks to Presto Tools |
21/10/2024 |
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Drilling and reaming of the bolts holes for the hind dragbox is almost complete with one hole to finish next week. We are very grateful to Presto International UK Ltd for their support during this work. Presto have provided us with reamers with a specially ground lead-in on the reamers to aid smooth reaming. |
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Rear Panel for Cab |
21/10/2024 |
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The Britannias and Clans suffered from draughty cabs, partly due to the BR1 tender with no fall plate. The later batch of Clans were destined to have modified tenders and gangway doors that reduced the draughts. We are also applying a modification that can be found on later Standard engines where the panel behind the driver was extended up to the cab roof. This section will be welded on to the existing waist high panel. |
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Frame Painting Starts |
21/10/2024 |
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Work is in progress to dress the welding around the hornguides as seen on the right of the photo, As work advances, Ashley has started to paint the frames with etch primer. The grey boards are to protect the area where the cylinders will be mounted - this needs a metal to metal contact face. The nuts and bolts have not been painted as we need to have a full torque setting check once all bolts have been fitted. |
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