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James (on the Derwent Valley Light Railway, York)
When James arrived at the DVLR back in April, one unexpected set-back was that the air horn was "erratic" in performance. Sometimes it would sound, sometimes only half-heartedly, sometimes not at all. A change of air horn made no improvement. With Andrew's exams now out the way (and encouraged by the news that he graduates with a 2.1 in Mechanical Engineering), he returned to Murton on Saturday the 11th armed with a pair of modern push-button valves which have now been mounted one each side in the control desk and piped up ready. For the present, the original chain-in-pipe and valve arrangement will be left in situ. A detail plan for the provision of a vacuum train pipe was determined and basic dimensions taken ready to start preparing pipework - it is hoped to make progress on this during the autumn. On the negative side, it is apparent that James has a coolant leak which will be rectified when the radiator is lifted off in order to attach the parts for the front end exhauster drive.
Beverley (at the AFRPS, Scunthorpe)
A limited amount of work on Beverley has seen the aluminium kick plates fitted below the cab doors and the area cleared for installing a new fuel delivery manifold. However, the available part from Cummins (which had to come specially from the USA) has the feed-in point in the wrong location so will need modification before it can be installed.
Class 14 (at Elsecar Heritage Railway)
Notable progress was the completion on the 12th July of the vacuum train brake pipe. Removed when Barclays modified the loco and train-air braked it for BP, it was roughly re-instated in early preservation days using a number of loose lengths of 2" steel pipe jointed with flexibles. It is now re-made in steel throughout and was vac tested late on Sunday afternoon with Elsecar's Yorkshire 0-6-0DH providing the suck, one minor leak being speedily dealt with. A slight re-arrangement will be required in the rear compartment where insufficient clearance has been allowed for the exhauster installation, after which the AV2 control valve will be installed.
The 4 cylinder Westinghouse exhauster (4V110) earmarked for installation originally came from a Class 31 and required removal of its 110V motor so that it could be driven by belt. Advice on how to do this has ranged from "just take the nut off the end" through to "it cannot be done". In the end some fairly severe attention from a 9" angle grinder, effectively removing the first 3 or 4 inches of the exhauster crank (over which the motor armature is slid and secured) freed the armature from its taper seat and shortening the unrequired part of the extension with a slitting disc was straightforward. The required pulley has now been ordered (it must be machined to suit the exhauster taper/keyway on receipt) and the mounting pieces for the exhauster drawn up. It is hoped to get it installed in about 2 weeks time.
Also in hand are the packing pieces for the rear engine mounts - to replace the columns of washers on which the 3.5ton Rolls-Royce DV8TCE currently resides. The plan envisages temporarily supporting the rear of the engine whilst brackets are stiffened and the new packing pieces inserted, and is scheduled for the next week or two.
The second horn cowl is back from the fabricators but requires cleaning and priming before it goes on the loco.
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