A different train of thought .

[Chuffer]

A biy of an update since my last post was just more tedious washing off of thick layers of grease and grime from the inner frames with copious amounts of parrafin , rags and scrapers scrapers to get down to a clean surface that can then be needle gunned to remove all old paint , rust and scale to give a sound bare steel finish ready to be painted with primer , undercoat and two coats of ` red paint . All brush applied of course , but a lot more needle gunning and linishing before we get to the paint stage . I am sure I will have a severe case of `white finger ` by then as I have only just got over all the hand vibration from the compressed air needle gun after 5 hours at it yesterday !
Whilst all this boring stuff carries on I thought it might be of interest to back track a bit ( no pun intended ) on more technical work carried out before I started this post . The very heavy connecting rods that take the power drive from the pistons to the centre driving wheels via a crank had been taken off ( seen lying on the ground in photo ) together with the coupling rods which transfer the drive from the centre driven wheels to the leading and trailing pairs of driving wheels . All six driving wheels are 6 feet 7 inches diameter . The pistons were removed from the two 20 .5 inch bore x 28 inch stroke cylinders together with the long stroke piston valves that that provide inlet and exhaust steam into the cylinders via the valve ports that run round the periphery of the steam chest as can be seen in the last photo . The valve and piston bore liners will be machined out and new liners shrunk fitted using liquid nitrogen and the machined in situ to correct tolerences with new valve and piston rings . The valve gear is of Walschaerts piston valve design that was widely adopted throughout British steam locomotive design and indeed much of the world . I will go into more detail on that in a future update .
Memo to ones self - must make time to finish off the odd jobs on the C3 and a service oil and filter change too !

 

[Roscobbc]

Chuffer - that stranded wire drill 'bit' you are using to clean the rust........years ago when doing my apprenticeship a similar tool (but far, far smaller and hand held) with glass fibre strands was used to clean off the varnish from coated copper windings on specialist torodial potentiometers (so the 'wiper' would contact 'bare' uninsulated windings.
Are you aware of anything like this on the market?

 

[Chuffer]

Chuffer - that stranded wire drill 'bit' you are using to clean the rust........years ago when doing my apprenticeship a similar tool (but far, far smaller and hand held) with glass fibre strands was used to clean off the varnish from coated copper windings on specialist torodial potentiometers (so the 'wiper' would contact 'bare' uninsulated windings.
Are you aware of anything like this on the market?

Hi Ross , do you mean availability of the small glass fibre strand ones that you used ? If so , I have never looked but I am sure they must be . If you mean the heavy duty ones that I was using , these hold hardened steel needle point rods that are compressed air powered and are available commercially , there are loads on internet up to as much as £365 a pop . You can also get electric and battery powered ones that would be more practical for home use . The one in the photo is our baby one by the way , the much larger heavier duty one was in use by guys working on another loco. We will use that for one for attacking the larger areas of the frames . The smaller one is ideal for getting into the corners of a the webbed castings of the Horn Blocks that hold the axle boxes and nut and rivet heads as seen in photo . Using the big one is a real upper body work out when you have been at it a few hours !

 

[Roscobbc]

Hi Ross , do you mean availability of the small glass fibre strand ones that you used ? If so , I have never looked but I am sure they must be . If you mean the heavy duty ones that I was using , these hold hardened steel needle point rods that are compressed air powered and are available commercially , there are loads on internet up to as much as £365 a pop . You can also get electric and battery powered ones that would be more practical for home use . The one in the photo is our baby one by the way , the much larger heavier duty one was in use by guys working on another loco. We will use that for one for attacking the larger areas of the frames . The smaller one is ideal for getting into the corners of a the webbed castings of the Horn Blocks that hold the axle boxes and nut and rivet heads as seen in photo . Using the big one is a real upper body work out when you have been at it a few hours !

No the ones we used to use were far smaller with a 1/4" diameter holder and the 'glass strand about 3/16" diameter.........I'll probably do best looking on Farnell or RS components......no worries!

 

[Oneball]

That’s a needle scaler if you want the technical name. It’s inny outty not roundy roundy.

 

[Chuffer]

That’s a needle scaler if you want the technical name. It’s inny outty not roundy roundy.

Inny outy , not roundy roundy , love the technical term ! I will remember that next time I use the needle gun . One down side of a compressed air needle gun is that it`s chuffin cold to handle with all that compressed air in it on day when temps are only a few degrees above zero !

 

[Chuffer]

Another day of inny outy needle gunning yesterday but at least I could spend some of the time straddled the trailing driving wheels axle for the nearest thing to comfort . The frames are beginning to look a bit the hull of an old battleship now and the construction materials and techiques are very similar . Getting close to the next phase now which is linishing the surfaces and getting a coat of rust proofing primer on .
The boiler inspector visited earlier in the week and the good news is that only 70 of the 2000 firebox copper and steel stays need replacing , the front and rear copper tube plates are ok ( would be at least £20 K each to make ones ) and the hairline crack in one front corner of the outer steel firebox is repairable . This is great news as most of the work can be carried ` in house` at no cost for labour so probably looking at a circa £ 7000 boiler repair bill . Time for more fund raising methinks and tapping up the National Railway Museum for a few more quid , £££ .

 

[plastic orange]

Hard work that.

Pete

 

[Chuffer]

Hard work that.

Pete

Just a bit , certainly makes your arms ache after a while and your fingers a bit numb . The light`s at the end of the tunnel on that job though , the real fun will be needle gunning the paint off all these wheels and spokes . Three pairs of 6 ft 7 inch diameter driving wheels , two pairs of 3 foot diameter leading bogie wheels and four pairs of tender wheels .

 

[plastic orange]

Are you not able to grit blast them?

Pete

 

[Chuffer]

Are you not able to grit blast them?

Pete

Far too messy , there are anything up to a dozen of other locomotives in the engineering workshop receiving overhauls or running maintenance and even repaint s at any one time so we can`t have grit flying about all over the place . Erecting a huge tent over it is not a practical option either due to space restraints and the occasional need to move locos about .This shot gives some idea of the size of the facility and that shows hardly half of it !

 

[CaptainK]

I must say I do like seeing the workshop photos. Was nice at some of the heritage lines near me when they open up the workshop for tours and you get to see lots of locos in there in various states of repair , seeing all their inner gubbins etc. Fascinates me.

 

[Chuffer]

I must say I do like seeing the workshop photos. Was nice at some of the heritage lines near me when they open up the workshop for tours and you get to see lots of locos in there in various states of repair , seeing all their inner gubbins etc. Fascinates me.

A pity you are so far away CaptainK as the Great Central Railway where I work has its Winter Gala from 28th to 30th January with 8 locos in service and the workshops open for viewing . I am manning the sales stand on Friday at Loughborough to raise funds for our ongoing overhaul .

 

[Mr. Cricket]

Hand arm vibration - Exposure Calculator

HSE has produced a calculator to assist in calculating exposures to hand-arm vibration in the workplace.

www.hse.gov.uk

 

[Chuffer]

Hand arm vibration - Exposure Calculator

HSE has produced a calculator to assist in calculating exposures to hand-arm vibration in the workplace.

www.hse.gov.uk

Thanks Mr Cricket , I am fully aware of all that and the limits and precautions . I had Construction Site H&S quals and NEBOSH Health & Safety at Work quals in my workings days as a Clerk of Works and then in Facilities Management .

 

[Mr. Cricket]

Thanks Mr Cricket , I am fully aware of all that and the limits and precautions . I had Construction Site H&S quals and NEBOSH Health & Safety at Work quals in my workings days as a Clerk of Works and then in Facilities Management .

I was in the garden in the Summer relocating leaves with my 2 stroke blower when some busy body walking past asked if I was aware of the dangers of prolonged use blah blah blah

I was near Leek recently - Basford to be exact and passed what looked to be a huge train museum / depot? Didn't have time to stop

 

[Chuffer]

I was in the garden in the Summer relocating leaves with my 2 stroke blower when some busy body walking past asked if I was aware of the dangers of prolonged use blah blah blah

I was near Leek recently - Basford to be exact and passed what looked to be a huge train museum / depot? Didn't have time to stop

The world is full of armchair experts unfortunately , driving a Corvette for more than a couple of miles will be more damaging to your ears than blowing leaves around the garden for half an hour .
The Museum / Depot you saw near Basford is the Churnet Valley Railway and their sizeable Loco Depot / Workshops is at Cheddleton . A nice scenic Heritage Railway that follows the route of the canal much of the way . It`s been years since I last visited , must put it on my `To Do` list again .

 

[CaptainK]

A pity you are so far away CaptainK as the Great Central Railway where I work has its Winter Gala from 28th to 30th January with 8 locos in service and the workshops open for viewing . I am manning the sales stand on Friday at Loughborough to raise funds for our ongoing overhaul .

Google says its 3 hours 17 mins from me, and 192 miles. So a round trip in the Vette is around 3 tank fulls, so we'll call it about £200 at the moment and about 6 and a half hours. Will I get a gold "well done" sticker, and a chance to photo my Vette besides the steam locos?

 

[Chuffer]

Google says its 3 hours 17 mins from me, and 192 miles. So a round trip in the Vette is around 3 tank fulls, so we'll call it about £200 at the moment and about 6 and a half hours. Will I get a gold "well done" sticker, and a chance to photo my Vette besides the steam locos?

Possibly , if you can get it down the driveway into the loco shed yard and get the tyres caked up with coal dust slurry and oil !
Star of the show is Battle of Britain Class Bullied Pacific ` 257 Squadron ` hired in from the Swanage Railway for the gala . It arrived last week when I was working at Loughborough .

 

[Chuffer]

Unfortunately I never got to drive an unrebuilt Bullied Pacific in this form . They had a unique chain driven valve gear arrangement that ran in an oil bath . Their major downfall was a tendancy to catch fire if oil got splashed around by the chain gear and contacted something hot ( lots of hot bits on a steam loco !! ) . The majority of them were rebuilt with the more commonly used Walschaerts Valve Gear and the air smoothed casings removed to look like more convensional locos such as this one - ` Sir Keith Park ` . Drove this several times and the identical West Country Class ones all named after places in the West Country served by the Southern Railway .