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September round-up.
Sadly, Andrew's Grandfather - who unwittingly kick-started the whole collection - died on the 31st August and the funeral and other matters arising have had an effect during September. Nonetheless, the installation of the power unit into D2128 went ahead and progress has been maintained on other locos in the collection. Here is a summary of events during September....
"Libby"
Libby is under cover at Peak Rail's Rowsley shed where work has been progresing on casing and cab repairs preparatory to painting. The two corroded sections of the cab sides, where damp florboarding,. aided by coal dust, had eaten through the 1/4" of mild steel, have been cut out, filled with fresh metal and dressed off.
The front casing sections have been detached ready for lifting: it is planned to remove these to faciltate painting, but also to reset the valves/injectors in comfort. The exhaust sytem and air inlet systems have also been removed. The torque converter fluid reservoir has been removed from the location is was fitted to some years ago - the front of the fuel tank has been divested of redundant bracketry and the reservoir will be located there. Some of the ant-slip strips have been welded to the front steps. All the casing doors have been taken off site, shotblasted and primed.
WD 72229
Work has begun on producing a seperate linkage for the train brake control (which is presently linked to the straight air brake). The support bracket for what will be the dummy handle has been manufactured and fitted to the left hand side of the cab.
The hand brake shaft was bent during its loading at Elsecar. After an unsuccesful attempt at straightening (it straightened but distorted the thread) a new thread section was cut and welded by Peak Rail's CME Paul Wainwright, the shaft was subsequently fitted ( a simple sounding task made more complicated by the fact either the brake column or the cab roof had to be removed - we opted for the brake column even though this also meant lifting some of the floorboards - to get it in). The handbrake is now fully functional again.
D2128
After the power unit installation, further work has been on the design side, where the supports for the cooler group and front PTO shaft bearing have been prepared. The casing side frames remain due for removal (they are "jack-rusted") for cleaning and painting, and as the top of the cooler group must be supported from them this is high on the priority list. Ironically, two mainstream magazines picked up on the power unit installation story on this web site but translated the "hints of an AFRPS open day next year" into a firm commitment. The AFRPS has now apparently decided that as a result it will have to organise one, but as it is 'our fault' then 'we better' have D2128 running in time for it next May!
The new instrument panel has been partially populated and trialled into place (above) although Andrew plans to remove the framework for cleaning and painting shortly.
"Pluto"
Pluto awaits completion of the exhauster installation. The inlet and outlet connections turned out to be 7/8BSP neccessitating specially machined hose tails, but the bracket for the "new" oil separator (in reality a modified Land Rover air cleaner) was produced ready for assembly.
New wagon
During September the newly-aquired ex Deutsche Reichsbahn flat wagon (built in 1943 as a tank wagon for delivering fuel to Peenemunde) was collected from Long Marston for its new home at Rowsley. It travelled north in company with a wooden open wagon of Midland origin belonging to Ben Riley.
This last photo shows the DR flat sandwiched betwen PR's "water tank" wagon and Ben's 3-planker.
14 901
Sadly, the 14 has been out of traffic down at the Gwili. A steady increase in vibration caused engine movement on its mounts and a further problem with the torsional coupling was diagnosed. The parts fitted in its July '10 overhaul had become damaged and on return to Centa Transmissions in Bradford, they opted for a full repair including replacing with beefed up parts and a minor design improvement. Centa's MD insisted that this was done without charge, and reports from Gwili is that it now runs smother than ever, although some other parts are awaited before the loco returns to traffic.
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