Restoration diary

Dave, Chris & Tom spent a marathon five days on site. Dave sorted the spare brake rigging and began cleaning & un-sticking various parts, Tom continued working on the interior wood surrounds on the quarter-lights & drop-lights in 30's No.2 cab & Chris fitted the three remaining sections of 185mm cables to the field divert contactors, as he & I had decided a fresh pair of eyes might be able to devise a solution from pictures he had taken of the cables in 50050. He has also taken the auxiliary contacts off the 'proper' 50 reverser, to see if he can fabricate a new mechanism for the second reverser for Renown & begun cleaning debris from the No.1 end clean air compartment.

Dave spent the weekend on site clearing up the stores shed, then on Sunday helped Ian & Pete stretch 12 more stretch bolts on three big ends on the power unit, having made a new tool during the week. Having forgotten to reconnect the rad fan fuse last week (despite posting that I had completed the wheelslip board), I did so, then fitted the small relay board behind the fuse & mcb cabinet. This board has the Overload Interlock relay OIR, Generator Field relay GFR, No.1 motor blower relay BMR1 and the lighting time switch load resistor Z59. Two of the mounting bolts again required loosening slightly to fit the board in the somewhat tight space, and the resistor was removed to ease fitment. The lugs on the large cables to the GFR & BMR1 were cleaned and they were bolted on to their connections on the rear of the board, which again was time consuming due to the confined space to wield spanners.

Dave spent the weekend on site having a general tidy-up of the coach and container, then helped Ian & Pete torquing the big-end stretch bolts until the tool broke! After I had returned the wheelslip relay board to my house after the previous workparty, I removed the contact fingers from the relays and cleaned them (not the easiest of tasks as the fixing screws are tiny & probably hadn't been removed since the relays were originally made), straightened two of the contact fingers on one relay. They were re-assembled and fitted back onto the paxolin board with new brass cable connection bolts to replace to broken originals, checked for operation by dabbing a 110v DC supply onto the coil contacts and were found to be still working. The associated three 10k ohm resistors were also removed, cleaned, checked with a meter to see they were still working, and refitted. The brass rad fan fuse mounting pillars were missing, so they were taken from the spare broken board, cleaned & fitted. The mounting pillars for the plastic relay covers were removed as they were rusty, & were de-rusted, painted & refitted. The filthy relay covers were cleaned and refitted. Today, the completed board was mounted in the elec cubicle in Repulse, but required a small piece cutting off one corner as some cables that go past the board were hard against one edge, and two of the mounting bolts needed to be loosened as they didn't quite line up with the mounting holes. The board was then fitted and bolted in, the rad fan fuse was fitted & the external connections have been made.

We cancelled the last work party as it was the diesel gala and we had been told there would be no yard access. Today, Ian & Pete torqued down two more cylinder heads, but as they were working on the side of the power unit next to Renown, they found access difficult for the four-foot long torque multiplier, so just tightening two heads down to 600 ft lbs of torque took virtually all day. I sweltered inside Repulse finishing connecting the cables onto the main neutral terminal bar, then started sorting the control cables for the reverser. I also compared a large 1000mfd electrolytic capacitor (the size of a large baked beans tin) that I have been loaned, with ones we have on the input boards for the KV10's, to see if they will fit, and I found they did. We need four of these capacitors per KV10 input board, but as ours have not been used in at least 10 years, I have been advised they will probably no longer function, and I have been trying to source replacements. We had an unexpected call for help from Peak Rail in the afternoon, as one of the P.Way gang fell of a rail wagon and sustained possible hip, neck or back injuries, and we assisted the ambulance crew carrying the man to the ambulance.

As I am taking some time out from the project to re-join my old American Football team for this season, Chris Thorn again reports: "Saturday 9th saw John Pinion, Tom and Chris at Booths to process new arrivals 37692/37798. Whilst already stripped they did yield some promising brake cylinders. The afternoon saw Dave join Chris and Tom at Rowsley. Dave continued making piston lifting brackets, Chris sorted new spares arrivals and Tom continued in the cab. Sunday saw Mark, Ian and Pete join the overnight trio. Two more pistons were refitted on Sunday and more spares were delivered from Mark's. Tom wired in the new cab lights and refitted the new fault light panels and AWS horn, all overhauls from recent ex Booths components."