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.

Sand Boxes
24/02/2020
	Unlike the early Class 7 Britannias, the later version of the Class 6 Clans were to have 3 sandboxes. The front 2 have 2 outlets, the rear box is a bit larger and has 4 outlets. Here Mike and Ashley have a discussion about the work still required. For example, an access plate is fitted over the oval hole on the sandbox in the front of the photo. The bolt holes need to be drilled.
Tender Doors
24/02/2020
	Mike has also been working on the tender doors. The BR1G tender has a door system comprising of 3 hinged plates, 2 flat and one curved. These extend out from a folder storage position on the tender and are secured to the rear of the cab using the pin on the left hand side of the door in the photo. Rubber sealing flaps are fitted at the bottom of the doors which is the far end in the photo.
Bogie Side Plates
17/02/2020
	Quite a bit of progress to report today. First off is that that the bogie side plates are nearly through their machining stage. Most of the machining and drilling is complete with a couple of small jobs to finish. The top plate has the front end pointing away from the camera, the bottom plate has its front end facing the camera. The difference is the revised profile for the Automatic Warning System Carrier Stay (which we have in stock).
Bogie Stretcher Casting
17/02/2020
	Next up is the central bogie stretcher casting which arrived from the foundry last week. Here it is is going through inspection at CTL Seal. We have picked up a small dimensional discrepancy and the foundry have agreed to accept it back for some remedial work. Once that is corrected it will be going into machining at CTL Seal. Kieron, from CTL Seal's inspection department discusses the measurements with Geoff from SSLC
Smokebox Saddle
17/02/2020
	Meanwhile in the assembly area, CTL Seal have fitted temporary bolts to the smokebox saddle area. We were a bit concerned about a gap between the smokebox saddle and the inner of the frames. These bolts have pulled up the gap; they've also had a benefit of straightening up the outside of the frames in this area.This is important as the cylinders will bolt to this face.
Checking for a Flat Face
17/02/2020
	A straight edge was used to check the cylinder face for straightness
Reaming the Holes
17/02/2020
	We found a couple of holes that still needed to be reamed so they were sorted straightaway by Damian Bradshaw from CTL Seal. A drill with a magnetic base is clamped to the frames and the holes are reamed.
Fitting Bolts
17/02/2020
	We were given a task for today of hammering in the fitted bolts that secure the horizontal stretchers to the frames. Here, Keith attacks a bolt while Alan supervises! Some were very reluctant to go into place and took a bit of "persuasion" with the hammer to go into place. Just the sort of task for a cold assembly shop.
Tender Door Hinges
17/02/2020
	The final item for today is that the hinges for the tender doors are coming along nicely. Ultimately, these will be welded to the tender wing plates (2 per side) which the hinges are sitting on
Bogie plates enter machine shop.
10/02/2020
	Work has started today (10-02-2020) on the machining of the two front bogie side plates at CTL Seal. Chris Leek, CTL machinist is seen chatting with Geoff Turner and Keith Greehow from the HENGIST engineering team prior to the work commencing.
Sandpipe Carriers
03/02/2020
	8 sandpipe carriers have been received from our metal cutting supplier. Ther are 4 sand ejectors per side, 3 on the leading side of the driving wheels (for forwards travel) and one on the rear side of the trailing wheel (for backwards travel). The holes at the bottom of each carrier are bolted to slots (for adjustment) on the sandpipe stays which are bolted to the spring hangers. We still need to manufacture the 16 serrated locking plates that will be welded to the stays and carriers