Steam Department

There was continuing progress this weekend although we did encounter some issues that made progress a good deal slower than we would have hoped.

On 1630:

Progress in fitting fire tubes

·         The central focus was on rolling tubes.  A further 17 tubes were successfully rolled at the firebox end.  However this was far less than we had hoped as a result of an occasional problem which causes the ferrule to move along the tube as the tube expands into the sheet.  When this happens, the tube and the ferrule must be removed and replaced.  This is very time consuming and cannot be allowed to happen often as we have only a limited number of spare tubes.

·         After a good deal of testing and investigation of possible causes we will acquire a new tube roller during the week and are hopeful that this will cure the problem.  Once we can overcome this issue progress should be a good deal faster.  We probably rolled the 17 tubes in less than an hour and the remaining six hours were spent in removing and replacing the damaged tubes a s well as trying to resolve the issue.

The area of rolled tubes slowly expands

·         Ed continued fitting the replacement pipe work along the boiler and has now completed the most difficult runs.

·         The patch is now bolted into place and we are waiting on Dennis's availability to finally heat shape it into alignment with the existing inner firebox sheets ready for welding.

·         Work continued on cleaning out the cab for refitting.  The canvas curtains are now off and will be measured for production of the replacements.  Canvas has a finite life after which it falls apart very easily.  I think we can safely say that the finite life of these curtains has been reached!!.

In other areas:

·         Stu and Bob made good progress on the planer.  Most of the major assemblies have now been cleaned and prepared.  The bed is ready for them to be refitted and the new electrical control system is being assembled.  The various connecting pipes were measured to order replacements.  Let's just hope the guys have a good plan of what connects to what !;

Stu and Bob work on the planer

Bob has started to assemble the electrics

·         The area around the new compressor was cleared ready for final positioning.  Once we have it positioned we can install the vibration isolating mounts and prepare to wire it up.

Compressor ready to mount

·         Work also started on preparing the Shay truck for re-assembly.  The bolster must be drilled as the central hole, thru which runs the mounting pin, had developed an interesting oval shape.  Purists believe that a round pin is best located in a round hole so this has been built up with weld and will now be drilled to produce a hole of the correct diameter.

Bolster set up for machining

So reasonable progress on a number of fronts.  Hopefully next week we can get tube rolling to progress more reliably and move on with that.

Nigel