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Build Diary entries for January 2023

Here are the diary entries for this month. You can use the forward and backward links to see the next or previous months. Most photos taken before 2018 are small size. From 2018 onwards, most photos you see below will have a link to a full size image by clicking on the photo.

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Drilling and Reaming
03/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  New Year Greetings from the Hengist Team!

Today we drilled and reamed the bolt holes for the bogie bolsters and then turned our attention to the 2 bolt holes either side of each bolster which fix the bogie pivot stretcher to the main frames. These are in addition to the bogie bolster bolts which also go through to the pivot stretcher. Here Mike is drilling with a 25mm drill (equivalent to 63/64 inch) prior to finishing off with a 1 inch reamer.

The vertical bolt's job is to protect the lubrication connection. We don't want any swarf in here.

All of these holes were fixed by fitted bolts on the original British Railways drawings. The bolts have cone heads and are fitted with the nuts on the outside.
   
Machining Bogie Wheels
09/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  Bogie wheelset progress in Devon. This is one of the bogie cannon axlebox wheelsets on South Devon Railway Engineering's wheel lathe having the wheel rims trued up, as part of the preparation for shrinking the tyres on. The machine has two toolposts and both wheels are cut simultaneously. Picture courtesy of SDRE.
   
Bogie Wheelset Assembly (1)
25/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  The tyres have now been fitted to the bogie wheelsets at South Devon Railway Engineering in Buckfastleigh, Devon. SDRE have a special tyre fitting pit. Here the tyre has been fitted into the pit and gas burners are installed around the circumference of the tyre. The tyre will be heated so that it expands.
   
Bogie Wheelset Assembly (2)
25/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  The wheel set assembly is lowered into the pit and into the inside of the tyre. The challenge is to heat the tyre just sufficiently so that it slips over the wheel. The assembly is then left to cool. The tyre will then shrink onto the wheel.
   
Bogie Wheelset Assembly (3)
25/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  Here is the final assembly after both tyres have been fitted. The next step will be turning the tyres to give the correct diameter and profile. The pictures were taken by Dave Davies who is one of our members who lives near the South Devon Railway. Dave is planning to write an article for the next edition of Hengist Herald, describing the process in more detail.
   
Bogie Axlebox Guides (1)
30/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  We have now started the process of building up the bogie axlebox guides. The axle box guides are steel castings that will bolted to the bogie frames - 8 in all. To these we need to manufacture steel liners that will be bolted to the axlebox guides. On the inner surfaces of the steel liners, we will weld manganese steel liner plates. Manganese steel quickly forms a very hard wearing surface. We need to end up with the correct working clearances between the manganese steel liners on the axlebox guides and the manganese steel liners on the cannon boxes. Here John starts the process by using a 1962 ex Crewe Works internal micrometer to confirm that the cut out in the bogie frames is the correct dimension. These would have been used on steam locomotives at Crewe Works. All dimensions were correct!
   
Bogie Axlebox Guides (2)
30/01/2023
  Highslide JS
  The next job stated today was to "fit" the axlebox guides to the frames. By "fitting" we have to ensure that the axlebox guides fits closely to the surfaces of the frame plate. You can see the engineers blue on the edge of the frame which is used to identify the high spots. The podger is used to get the bolt holes correctly aligned before we secure with a temporary bolt. Most of the bolts securing the frame plates to the stretcher are temporary bolts and will be replaced by fitted bolts. The top nut is one example where a fitted bolt has been installed secured by a Philidas nut.