Steam Department

A fairly short update this week.  It was a long and hard day's work.  But, while we made reasonable progress, not much of it was visible. 

On 1630:

·         Most of us focused on the issue, identified last weekend, of the flues that moved forward as the ends were rolled into the front tube sheet.  All but one were moved sufficiently to provide the required projection at the rear to allow beading.  The one that could not be moved was removed and will be reworked.  Having reduced the issue to one flue, we should be able to keep the delay to a couple of weeks.

·         The remaining flues were rolled additionally in the rear sheet to reduce any likelihood of movement when  these are rolled at the front end.

·         Sean made great progress on priming the cladding sheets.  After his efforts, a satisfying number were standing in the shop to finally harden before being put back into storage ready for refitting.

Lots of cladding ready to refit

·         Tom was working on the lathe to produce the guides that will be used to drill and tap the holes for the two stays that are to be fitted into the firebox patch.  These screw into the caps of the flexible stays, that are already part of the outer firebox wrapper.  They guide the drill to make an accurate hole in the inner firebox sheet, into which the stay is then threaded.

·         Having checked to confirm that everything is working correctly in the water supply boxcar, Ed was working on refurbishing the pipe work for the boiler backhead fittings.

·         The specially made seals for the bucker have arrived at last, so, once they have been softened by soaking in oil, work can begin during the week to get this reassembled and ready for the riveting to begin.

In other areas:

·         Dennis completed the boom for the fork lift.  Here it is upside down to allow the main beam to be welded to the frame that fits over the forks.  This will hopefully be used before long to lift parts such as the dome cover back on to the locomotive.

Dennis finishing the boom

·         Bob and Mike continued work on the planer.

·         Glenn continued building the guards for the drive belts on the new air compressor.

·         Jerry did a great job on clearing the front of the shop.  For those visiting us, we can no longer be identified as the shop behind the stack of debris, drums and disused "A" frame !!.

Next week I will be in New York on vacation, so I am looking forward to finding a lot of progress when I get back in two weeks time !.

Nigel