new post new decade

happy new year
its a new decade im a little scared as next decade ill nearly be thirty and thats not cool at all
so been back at work for 4 days
and in four days loads has happened
got back in last thursday and the funky bogies were still in bits
so job list consisted of
get bogies back together
QUICK!
so got the first one back in one piece easily only needed to put the keeps and springs back in and fill up the final drive transmission boxes with oil (trojan 150 oil at that) and seal them up with some sealent compound
the other bogie required a little more work
the wheelests had been dropped out and final drive boxes taken off so it was a case of putting the gears back in putting the cases on and wazzing them up tight with a bunch of sealent round the gasket
only problem was the box round wheels as you have to put the bolts in through the holes in the wheels and the bolt heads are allan bolts
so i kept losing the tip of the key from the ratchet grrrrrr
then we (pete and yours truely) got the two wheelsets roughly the right distance apart lifted the frames up and half dragged half wheeled the sets in then lowered them down
some smacking of the axleboxes was needed as the frame didnt want to go in sweetly as its heavier at the end with the air brake cylinders
we kinda had a mess up with putting the keeps/springs on
you have to put the springs on before the keeps and we kinda found it out the hard way
so things took twice as long as it should of but the job got done
then it was time to head home and hit the shower
on the friday we filled the second set of transmission boxes with oil then had to go help the loco crew with de-icing the points in the yard
alll the points had frozen solid so pete and myself devised a cunning plan to get them points a moving
a cunning combination of degreaser rag and a lighter and a nice warm fire started the melting process
then when they still didnt move we got out the crow bars and after some persuassssion they did move
then we had a mahoosive shunt to do
literally 3/4 of all the locos we've got had to be shifted around so we could get the earl out of the engine shed into the workshops
this took pretty much the rest of the day so all we managed to get done on the friday afternoon was taking off a few parts before we would lift the loco and get the bottom end power bogie out on monday

monday morning
its freezing the heaters are broken no ones particularly happy
then we reaalise the heaters are just outa fuel so from the diseal tank we fill a bowzer drag it round the back and then me and dewie had to pump the 300 odd litres of fuel out of the bowzer
by hand
not a happy theo
but a warm one
then me and pete go salt and sand the main ramp up to the the work site as its been barely passable since the snow started
also the clearness of the day made and the snow on snowden
ahhhh man just beautiful
then it was a case of cracking on with the double fairlie
we razzed through all the normal pre lifting stuff like disconnecting the atomising steam the cylinder drain cock linkage and the flexible steam pipe and in the smoke box taking the blower ring out and the inca temple off
oh yeh and the bridle rodthen we jacked it up dragged the bogie out and steam cleaned it after putting stands under then loco as with the earl there is a large overhang as the jacking point is right by the firebox so the stands went under for saftey
ill update again tomoz my batterys dead
adios