Dave Rolfe and I were at Rowsley on Sunday 8th October: it was not the most successful of days but we got a bit done.
We tried to take the radiator breather pipes off 50029, but she absolutely refused to help her sister and wouldn't relinquish said breather pipes. The bolts were just too rusted and tight, and the access to the bolts very restricted with the header tank in situ.
We therefore resorted to plan B. I cut the ex 50030 breather pipes back to a nice straight section on each of the 8 pipes (they had previously been cut on the curve), and then cleaned up all of the pipes with a wire cut brush, removing all of the rust and loose paint. Dave set to painting them after I left site as he often stays on to act as site security and do some extra work into the deal. The pipes will be good enough to accept a reinforced silicone tube, same as is usually used to connect to the radiators, but will now need to be a lot longer. Once painted the breather pipes will be ready to refit to the header tank.
I put another coat of paint on the radiator mount top plates, and these have now been refitted. Dave has refitted the rest of the top plates to the traction motor blower duct, and has now repaired the holes that were in it, and he put a coat of paint on some of these today.
Dave also painted the radiator room roof fan grill. So whilst not in themselves massive breakthroughs, these are all small steps on the way to our intermediate goal of firing up the power unit once it is reinstalled into 50030.
