ok so its been my penultimate week here
and ive had a great time
i havent been properly clean alll weekk grrrr
but the meerkats here (his car needed fixing to get thru the MOT so he drove here from holland for bob and dylan too he reallly is mad )
im watching the hockey at the same time though its canada 1 0 at the mo
so this week me and bob have been working on the ricket
but on monday pete and myself were putting the rivets into the lifting links and the links holders
the holes drilled through were with a half inch drill
then reamed with a half inch reamer
and so we were using half inch bar to go through
but when we tried to knock the first one in we may have kinda got it stuck
the words oh bother were used
so we drilled that one out
i then put all the others in the little myford super 7 lathe and just used some fine emery paper and toook a thou or so off
then we knocked them in allll hunky dorey
then from tuesday onwards its just been about blanche my favourite lady at the mo
so we hydrauliced the boiler and smokebox
we found 3 leaking superheaters
a leaking main steam pipe
a leaking main exhaust pipe
and a hole through from the top of the main steam pipe flange through to the outside of the cylinder
it was large enough to fit a hack saw blade through
i remade the joints between for all the fittings on tuesday afternoon
wednesday morning i put everything back in except for the super heaters as bob re ground the ball joints
i messed up one of the joints and we only realised this after everything was in and (its 2 0 canada)
canada 2 america 1
we also took the chimney liner out
as the peticoat at the bottem wasnt fitting properly so this was making the loco not draught properly
we spent about half a day rolling the liner circular again
this involved heating it up and bashing it down repeatedly on an elephants foot
then we welded the peticoat on and put the liner into the chimney and used a long old piece of pipe to ensure it was lined up correctly making sure the blast actually goes up the chimney
i also took the burner out and took it apart cleaned it up and put it back and also drained the axle boxes as we did a 30 day fitters inspection on it
then i took apart all the cylinder drain cocks and replaced the o rings in them
apres ca it was a case of putting a fire in the beast and seeing what leaked
nothing was the answer to that
but the cylinder drains did blow through so thats mondays job i think
any way time for a beer with the hockey
nighty night
x
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Sunday, 21 February 2010
lathes
so its been a while since i posted
last time dave posted i had spent a week or so installing a new fuel pump in the moelwyn and plumbing it in
had to blank off the old pump as well
then pretty much since then ive been learning to use a lathe
i first had to make some bushes for the merdins pistons
these were made in bronze which i realllly like working with its a nice soft material so very forgiving when just learning seeing as i started off being a little heavy handed
i made them all without too much trouble
just lots and lots and lots of checking my measurements
then i knocked the bushes in
and had to bore them out to fit the pistons
only thing was one i messed up by 6 thousandths of an inch thats about as thick as 6 rizla papers
so had to remake one this set me back by a good 3 hours not cooool
after this i had to make a couple of collars to go on the bar that holds the valve gear up
they were made from steel which is less forgiving so had a fair bit of chatter to start with lol
but got better at it
im not confident with the parting off tool though
then after this went back to helping pete drill the pins on the lifting links untill i get told to make 32 spacers for the flamming garret boiler
as when it was hydraulic tested it leaked from the dome
and garry couldnt tighten the nuts down the bolts any further so spacers were needed
i had to go find inch and 3/4 bar put a centre in it drill it out to an inch then part it off at about 15 mm
only problem was the drill was only long enough to part off 4 spacers at a time
and then after the first four i had a bit of a problem with the next four they wernt parted off square but had a taper on them
i tried tightening the bar in the chuck
then after this didnt help i went and got chris
we ended up changing the tip
this didnt help
so we turned the tool around and put a new tip in and bob was our uncle and back to nice square spacers
i busted out the rest without any trouble at all
on saturday me and emma helped out bonkers and rob with their wooden slate wagon
we had to cut a load of stainless to length then cut a thread on it
we spent a heck of a lot of time looking for bonks though to double check on the thread he wanted cutting and the lengths and what not lol
we did the same on sunday for a couple of hours but em kinda forgot to run a file around the base on a couple of threads so i got a couple of good cuts on the fingers from checking the thread doh
right now im checking out things to do in victoria i cant wait to go out there its only a few weeks now :)
right thinks thats it for now
oh grease is on now well that'll kill a few hours
last time dave posted i had spent a week or so installing a new fuel pump in the moelwyn and plumbing it in
had to blank off the old pump as well
then pretty much since then ive been learning to use a lathe
i first had to make some bushes for the merdins pistons
these were made in bronze which i realllly like working with its a nice soft material so very forgiving when just learning seeing as i started off being a little heavy handed
i made them all without too much trouble
just lots and lots and lots of checking my measurements
then i knocked the bushes in
and had to bore them out to fit the pistons
only thing was one i messed up by 6 thousandths of an inch thats about as thick as 6 rizla papers
so had to remake one this set me back by a good 3 hours not cooool
after this i had to make a couple of collars to go on the bar that holds the valve gear up
they were made from steel which is less forgiving so had a fair bit of chatter to start with lol
but got better at it
im not confident with the parting off tool though
then after this went back to helping pete drill the pins on the lifting links untill i get told to make 32 spacers for the flamming garret boiler
as when it was hydraulic tested it leaked from the dome
and garry couldnt tighten the nuts down the bolts any further so spacers were needed
i had to go find inch and 3/4 bar put a centre in it drill it out to an inch then part it off at about 15 mm
only problem was the drill was only long enough to part off 4 spacers at a time
and then after the first four i had a bit of a problem with the next four they wernt parted off square but had a taper on them
i tried tightening the bar in the chuck
then after this didnt help i went and got chris
we ended up changing the tip
this didnt help
so we turned the tool around and put a new tip in and bob was our uncle and back to nice square spacers
i busted out the rest without any trouble at all
on saturday me and emma helped out bonkers and rob with their wooden slate wagon
we had to cut a load of stainless to length then cut a thread on it
we spent a heck of a lot of time looking for bonks though to double check on the thread he wanted cutting and the lengths and what not lol
we did the same on sunday for a couple of hours but em kinda forgot to run a file around the base on a couple of threads so i got a couple of good cuts on the fingers from checking the thread doh
right now im checking out things to do in victoria i cant wait to go out there its only a few weeks now :)
right thinks thats it for now
oh grease is on now well that'll kill a few hours
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
god damn my pants (or coach) are on fire !
Sorry everybody, Theo's too busy to write his blog tonight - instead he's doodling on a tissue box! So far we have had golfing with an 8-ball, a dodgem, a ship on a BIG sea, a dice and a doodle-person sticking 2 fingers up. Yeah vitally important eh?!
So anyways, this is dave hijacking the blog again. Todays been an interesting day, the train service was meant to be a round trip up to trwyn-y-garnedd (a place in the woods) then back to port, and i was the guard. Jed had put the heating on first thing before i rocked up, cos the gas heating is crap and takes hours to get warm, so i cleaned the set and got ready to go off-shed. The Blanche came round into 14 road and I finished cleaning the set. I stepped out of the train and heard a hissing sound to my right. To me it sounded like the air compressor starting up down in the pit further up 14 road, so I went off to check that anyone working under the train knew we were about to go. As I walked along the side of oach 114 (the push-pull buffet car) a fireball erupted sideways out of the gas cylinder cupboard, about 10-12 ft in front of me.
At this point the rest of the works were going on about their daily business blissfully unaware that coach 114s heating was producing more heat than it had ever done before. I couldn't find a fire alarm smash glass thing in glan-y-mor where the carriages are kept so I legged it round into the carriage shop and set the alarm off before ringing control and the fire brigade (not that I could what either of them were saying to me down the phone cos I couldn't hear anything over the noise of the alarm) while beefy moved the three coaches in 13 road safely clear of the fire.
I got over to the top yard where everyone had assembled and ritually had the piss ripped out of me...all the jokes about making an easy guarding turn even shorter lol. The ginger one had gone racing off to the halt to open the crossing gates for the fire engines, which soon came racing across the cob - so they knew where boston lodge then.
It took a while befre we were allowed to go back but Dylan came and said we could go back into the den out of the wind. I didn't think it was that cold, having walked over the cob in a short sleeve shirt (i'm from up north and we don't do cold up there - its either warm of f***ing cold with nothing in between)
So the train got cancelled, which I guess was inevitable, and the fire brigade did their thing, putting out coach 114, and I walked back over to Port to speak to control. Word had obviously got round as I was getting texts off Joe (aka Young Boris Johnson) up in Blackburn to congratulate me
The day wasn't over though, for 114 torching itself meant we were short of coaches for tomorrow, so Phil and me came back to the works this afternoon to put a new set together for tomrrow. While I was over there I saw Theo in the workshops actually doing some work - yes he actually does work and isn't blagging it! When I saw him he was painting one of the Earl's bogies, while Tony was up a ladder on 138s boiler, Bob was painting some bits of metal light green (not sure what the bits of metal were, not being technically minded etc lol) and I saw Bruno kicking about there too, though I didn't notice what he was doing.
Phil fired up the Cricc and we shunted the burnt coach out of the way, put the push-pull coach onto the bottom of what's going to be the half termset, then attached them to the remains of my train from earlier (the bit that didn't get warm) and took the full nine coaches over to port. By this time it was well after 4pm and the works were all done for the day, so by the time we brought the Cricc back to put 114 away in the shed, everyone was gone...part timers!
So that was today. We;ve just been down to Tescos and had food, watched some crap on BBC3 about vampires (not as good as the lady fighters from last night tho) and Theo's still doodling - his words of wisdom for the day are: one way to avoid death is to be magnificent. Perhaps we should get him to do a thought for the day each day :-)
Right I've had enough now, normal service will resume next time
So anyways, this is dave hijacking the blog again. Todays been an interesting day, the train service was meant to be a round trip up to trwyn-y-garnedd (a place in the woods) then back to port, and i was the guard. Jed had put the heating on first thing before i rocked up, cos the gas heating is crap and takes hours to get warm, so i cleaned the set and got ready to go off-shed. The Blanche came round into 14 road and I finished cleaning the set. I stepped out of the train and heard a hissing sound to my right. To me it sounded like the air compressor starting up down in the pit further up 14 road, so I went off to check that anyone working under the train knew we were about to go. As I walked along the side of oach 114 (the push-pull buffet car) a fireball erupted sideways out of the gas cylinder cupboard, about 10-12 ft in front of me.
At this point the rest of the works were going on about their daily business blissfully unaware that coach 114s heating was producing more heat than it had ever done before. I couldn't find a fire alarm smash glass thing in glan-y-mor where the carriages are kept so I legged it round into the carriage shop and set the alarm off before ringing control and the fire brigade (not that I could what either of them were saying to me down the phone cos I couldn't hear anything over the noise of the alarm) while beefy moved the three coaches in 13 road safely clear of the fire.
I got over to the top yard where everyone had assembled and ritually had the piss ripped out of me...all the jokes about making an easy guarding turn even shorter lol. The ginger one had gone racing off to the halt to open the crossing gates for the fire engines, which soon came racing across the cob - so they knew where boston lodge then.
It took a while befre we were allowed to go back but Dylan came and said we could go back into the den out of the wind. I didn't think it was that cold, having walked over the cob in a short sleeve shirt (i'm from up north and we don't do cold up there - its either warm of f***ing cold with nothing in between)
So the train got cancelled, which I guess was inevitable, and the fire brigade did their thing, putting out coach 114, and I walked back over to Port to speak to control. Word had obviously got round as I was getting texts off Joe (aka Young Boris Johnson) up in Blackburn to congratulate me
The day wasn't over though, for 114 torching itself meant we were short of coaches for tomorrow, so Phil and me came back to the works this afternoon to put a new set together for tomrrow. While I was over there I saw Theo in the workshops actually doing some work - yes he actually does work and isn't blagging it! When I saw him he was painting one of the Earl's bogies, while Tony was up a ladder on 138s boiler, Bob was painting some bits of metal light green (not sure what the bits of metal were, not being technically minded etc lol) and I saw Bruno kicking about there too, though I didn't notice what he was doing.
Phil fired up the Cricc and we shunted the burnt coach out of the way, put the push-pull coach onto the bottom of what's going to be the half termset, then attached them to the remains of my train from earlier (the bit that didn't get warm) and took the full nine coaches over to port. By this time it was well after 4pm and the works were all done for the day, so by the time we brought the Cricc back to put 114 away in the shed, everyone was gone...part timers!
So that was today. We;ve just been down to Tescos and had food, watched some crap on BBC3 about vampires (not as good as the lady fighters from last night tho) and Theo's still doodling - his words of wisdom for the day are: one way to avoid death is to be magnificent. Perhaps we should get him to do a thought for the day each day :-)
Right I've had enough now, normal service will resume next time
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)