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Restoration diary

Reports of restoration work on 50029 and 50030.
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Working party report 25th October 2015

Working party report 25th October 2015
The work party was attended by Dave Rolfe and myself plus Mark Burrows in the morning. Mark dropped off a set of cab desk panels for me to take a look at, then spent the rest of the morning searching through our stores of other cab parts. The panels appear to be in good condition but are missing the speedometer.  We have this item in stock els...
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Cab restoration update

At the last work party I attended I took home with me a number of items to repair/overhaul or look into replacements.The first items were a pair of air horn valves, two of which are our three spares.  Despite looking rather battered the first one (photo 1) was in generally good condition.  I stripped it down, gave it a good clean, sourced...
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Working party reports 12th and 19th July 2015

Working party reports 12th and 19th July 2015

On July 12th, Mark Burrows went through our stores area sorting out the doors for the electrical cubicles of both locomotives, to see if any were missing, and if so, which ones. We seem to be missing just one small door for Renown. Ian Kemp, Pete Carter and Dave Rolfe refitted the heat exchanger onto the ex-50008 power unit, including the replacement end piece recovered from the power unit in Repulse. Dom Jackson assisted Andy Rowlands belling out cables inside the electrical cubicle of 50030, as part of the completion of the electrical system and in continued preparation for the first fire-up of the locomotive.  At the end of the day, Dave, Ian and Pete covered the PU with a new large tarpaulin as the old ones had started to deteriorate.

 

The work party on 19th July was attended by myself, Dave Rolfe, Peter Carter, Ian Kemp and Mark Burrows.  Mark spent most of the day making a start on clearing one of our sotrage areas, as its current location is required by Peak Rail to extend their engine shed.

At the last work party the heat exchanger was repaired, cleaned, painted and refitted to the ex-50008 power unit.  This allowed Dave, Pete, Ian and myself to refit the pipe work around it.  The main aim of the pipe fitting is to complete the oil lubrication system so we can hand prime the oil around the engine which will lower the risk of damage to the bearings when the engine is barred over. By the end of the day all of the main oil pipes had been fitted, except one which cannot be fitted as the sleepers that the power unit is sat on are in the way. We now need to order new oil filters before the filter housings can be fitted.  The main image for this entry shows the refitted heat exchanger together with the pipework we managed to reinstall during the work party.

I spent the afternoon assessing the cabs on Repulse with a view of restarting the repair work on them, then I made a start on checking what cab parts we have in store and what reusable parts are in the e- 50037 cab.

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Working party report 28th June 2015

Working party report 28th June 2015
This work party was attended by myself plus the "Three Amigos": Dave Rolfe, Ian Kemp and Peter Carter.  Dave and I fitted a couple more water and oil pipes to the ex-50008 power unit, I then swapped a water pipe from the power unit inside 50030 to replace a damaged one on the new power unit.
 
The main news from this Sunday centres around the heat exchanger which was removed from storage, due to the size and weight this was no mean feat but between the four of us and the use of our winch we managed to move it out for inspection. When we purchased the ex-50008 power unit we were told the heat exchanger had been swapped for the one currently in 50008 as it had a leak. When Ian inspected it, it was clear the end plate had corroded through in a couple of places (this plate is around 5mm thick so it's surprising it has rusted so badly). Thankfully the rest of the exchanger looks to be ok but we will need to pressure test it at some point. The rest of the afternoon was spent removing the end plate from the heat exchanger inside 50030; although this is quite rusty it appears to be in much better condition and should be easy(ish) to swap over.

 

 b2ap3_thumbnail_oil-pipe-and-gasket-med.jpg b2ap3_thumbnail_heat-exchanger-med.jpg 
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