Restoration diary

​Dave Rolfe, Carl and Sofy Looker, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Dave was removing pipework from the spare cab (formerly of 50037 Illustrious and purchased for this very reason), Carl and Sofy rubbed down and undercoated all four cabsides on 50030, then removed some cab handrails to de-rust and prime the difficult-...

Mark Burrows, Dave Rolfe and I were on site today. Mark brought back the 16 overhauled fuel pumps, and they were placed in store for now. Dave started pressure-testing the two air engines that operate the rad fan shutters on either side of the radiator compartment now replacement covers have been fabricated for the EP valves, as the originals ...

​Dave Rolfe, Richard Dale, Jay Hirst and I were on site yesterday. Richard finally finished drilling and tapping the fixing holes for the mounting plate for the change-end switch in No.1 cab, a difficult job because most of the holes are either at floor level, or right next to structural supports for the cab desk and the bulkhead the driver's ...

​Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Richard Wade, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. After barring round the power unit and oiling the turbos, Dave and Mark began investigating the broken air pipes I'd discovered under the floor in No.1 cab, finding virtually all those that dive through the plating under the cab floor had corroded away, on both t...

Jay Hirst, Richard Wade and I were on site today.We fitted and reconnected the driver's side tail lamp unit, not the easiest of tasks, as access to put the nuts on the bolts is difficult under the driver's desk. We then belled out and marked all the wires from the change-end switches in both cabs. The mounting plates that hold the change-end switch...