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
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
ashes to ashes
ok tuesday morning
moment of truth
filled the tal up with water
and yes it leaked from a stay in the front top corner of the firebox so underneath the tank on the drivers side
so thats going to be a major job
think there going to do the ten year boiler exam on it at the same time as the tanks gotta be lifted and the cab taken off and the boiler lifted from the frames an all the lagging removed
so yeh not goood news
for the rest of the day me and peter attempted to remove the ash pans from the earl it took the rest of the day
firstly we had to take out the short section of rail from over the pit to give us enough space to lower the ashpans off
then we had to take off the hand brake shaft and the brake linkages on the top end
was a little tricky ended up using hammers and whatnot
then we started to undo the 6 bolts holding each ash pan on
only thing is 2 at the very front of the boxes have about 10mm of clearence on them
and they were rather seized in so after some head scratching we managed to squeese in the gas axe and warmed them up then got a bit of pipe over the spanners end to give some extra leverage
after we'd got these out we jacked the big jack up to support the weight of the pan and then with the impact gun we undid the rest of the bolts and lowered the pan
the pan was reluctant to drop tho so got a bar in and jiggled it bannnng oh bother well at least its moving down now lol
shoved a bit of channel under it before lowering fully then we slid it out from underneath
repeated for the second one and then it was time to take the the firebars out
luckily someone who had been on that last time hadnt cleared the fire out and soooooo i ended up ghost like
ash in my eyes
ash in my ears
mouth back of throat
even somehow in my socks
yay
then we put the rail back and went home
fun
nighty night need some sleep
moment of truth
filled the tal up with water
and yes it leaked from a stay in the front top corner of the firebox so underneath the tank on the drivers side
so thats going to be a major job
think there going to do the ten year boiler exam on it at the same time as the tanks gotta be lifted and the cab taken off and the boiler lifted from the frames an all the lagging removed
so yeh not goood news
for the rest of the day me and peter attempted to remove the ash pans from the earl it took the rest of the day
firstly we had to take out the short section of rail from over the pit to give us enough space to lower the ashpans off
then we had to take off the hand brake shaft and the brake linkages on the top end
was a little tricky ended up using hammers and whatnot
then we started to undo the 6 bolts holding each ash pan on
only thing is 2 at the very front of the boxes have about 10mm of clearence on them
and they were rather seized in so after some head scratching we managed to squeese in the gas axe and warmed them up then got a bit of pipe over the spanners end to give some extra leverage
after we'd got these out we jacked the big jack up to support the weight of the pan and then with the impact gun we undid the rest of the bolts and lowered the pan
the pan was reluctant to drop tho so got a bar in and jiggled it bannnng oh bother well at least its moving down now lol
shoved a bit of channel under it before lowering fully then we slid it out from underneath
repeated for the second one and then it was time to take the the firebars out
luckily someone who had been on that last time hadnt cleared the fire out and soooooo i ended up ghost like
ash in my eyes
ash in my ears
mouth back of throat
even somehow in my socks
yay
then we put the rail back and went home
fun
nighty night need some sleep
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
uhoh spaghettio
so its tuesday
monday was okish spent alot of time steam cleaning outside though
ended up with wet boots and a wet arm
so had to go create a second pair of boots from the various spares in the locker room
they wernt great if im honest but at least my feet were dry
(spare socks an essential for my locker )
on monday
we lifted the bogie
and dropped the wheelsets out and then it was up onto the wagon
was very straight forward shove it up to the cranes (one at each end as the bottom end with the cylinder block in is much heavier than the other) and then lift it
and drop the wheelsets out (after taking the keep plates off prior to lifting)
then it was a case of getting the truck in to lift the bogie onto
the cranes couldnt lift the bogie high enough to push the truck underneath it straight in so we had to slew the bogie across to the left and then push the truck in and then swing the bogie back over the truck
and lower away
simples!
then i got the less glamerous job of shunting the wheelsets out with the arrrrg and the truck with the bogie on and steam clean them
did this got soaked wasnt particularly happpy lol
during this time bob pete and dylan had been changing oil and fuel filters on moel hebog ( the snt/pway other disel) then they started it up and it was leaking oil and would drive forwards but not backwards hmmmmm strange any way pete just fixed the steam pipe to the cylinder drain cocks on the ricket as it had been blowing through a hole on sunday when i fired it and then it was home time yayy
tuesday
today i spent the day working mainly on the earl
knocked the bushes out of the various arms on the valve gear cleaned it up and took apart the valve gear
had a problem with one of the pins through the die block and expansion link
had to drill out the taper pins that were holding it in and even then it wouldnt come
so a gentle persuaded and a few choice words later and it was out
then we took a look at the hedgehogs (hebogs) problems and the problem turned out to be the brake cylinder on the left hand side had eaten itself
when the brake was released the piston was not retracking back in
we took it off took it apart and cleaned it up and found that it had unscrewed itself
so we screwed it back in and it all worked beautifully
after that me and bob started to set up the parrallels to measure the frames for what needs to be machined off of the axleboxes
then we went and had a gander at the tal which had been failed on saturday with a leaking stay in the firebox and a flexible pipe that had blown
untill we've hydrauliced it we dont know where the stay has gone but its looking like wer going to have to take the tanks off to do this so it was mentioned that we might just do its ten year boiler exam and whatnot at this time
anyway im sleepy
night
monday was okish spent alot of time steam cleaning outside though
ended up with wet boots and a wet arm
so had to go create a second pair of boots from the various spares in the locker room
they wernt great if im honest but at least my feet were dry
(spare socks an essential for my locker )
on monday
we lifted the bogie
and dropped the wheelsets out and then it was up onto the wagon
was very straight forward shove it up to the cranes (one at each end as the bottom end with the cylinder block in is much heavier than the other) and then lift it
and drop the wheelsets out (after taking the keep plates off prior to lifting)
then it was a case of getting the truck in to lift the bogie onto
the cranes couldnt lift the bogie high enough to push the truck underneath it straight in so we had to slew the bogie across to the left and then push the truck in and then swing the bogie back over the truck
and lower away
simples!
then i got the less glamerous job of shunting the wheelsets out with the arrrrg and the truck with the bogie on and steam clean them
did this got soaked wasnt particularly happpy lol
during this time bob pete and dylan had been changing oil and fuel filters on moel hebog ( the snt/pway other disel) then they started it up and it was leaking oil and would drive forwards but not backwards hmmmmm strange any way pete just fixed the steam pipe to the cylinder drain cocks on the ricket as it had been blowing through a hole on sunday when i fired it and then it was home time yayy
tuesday
today i spent the day working mainly on the earl
knocked the bushes out of the various arms on the valve gear cleaned it up and took apart the valve gear
had a problem with one of the pins through the die block and expansion link
had to drill out the taper pins that were holding it in and even then it wouldnt come
so a gentle persuaded and a few choice words later and it was out
then we took a look at the hedgehogs (hebogs) problems and the problem turned out to be the brake cylinder on the left hand side had eaten itself
when the brake was released the piston was not retracking back in
we took it off took it apart and cleaned it up and found that it had unscrewed itself
so we screwed it back in and it all worked beautifully
after that me and bob started to set up the parrallels to measure the frames for what needs to be machined off of the axleboxes
then we went and had a gander at the tal which had been failed on saturday with a leaking stay in the firebox and a flexible pipe that had blown
untill we've hydrauliced it we dont know where the stay has gone but its looking like wer going to have to take the tanks off to do this so it was mentioned that we might just do its ten year boiler exam and whatnot at this time
anyway im sleepy
night
Friday, 15 January 2010
the pits
ok so a little something i forgot to mention in my last post
during mine and petes mahoooosive shunt last friday
i may have found the elf hat on the cric
and i may have waited till pete couldnt see me before putting it on
and i may have popped up when pete was wavving me on
cue giggles for about 5 minutes
ok so back to the week
tuesday was a massssive day
the earls bogie went from being 90 % complete to about 30 or 40 %
pete and myself just shifted and we got off all the valve gear
the....
OK Theo's just made a careless mistake, moving away from the laptop and Dave's now taken over the blog - ohhhhhhhh yesssssssssss!! Silly boy, which Amy, Mikey, Jon, Emma, Clarkey and countless others will no doubt agree!!!
So he spent the rest of this week, in no particular order, messing around with more bogies, grafitti-ing the Funkey's knackered bogies with marker pen bets on when its gonna fail this summer after the transmission gets sent back - sometime when Dave Davies Diesel Destroyer is driving it no doubt) going to get rump steak at the Union on Wednesday nite, then he got let out on the footplate of the Tal yesterday, not before assaulting it with his head though, and was firing all the way up to Trwyn-y-Garnedd while Phil B stood around doing sod all...(well, no change there haha) - actually I better take that bit back otherwise I'll get crap rosters for the rest of 2010 lol.
Oh between us we've also christened Amy's new car 'Bruce' - George the funky multi-coloured seatbelted Citroen Saxo appears to have bit the dust, so the box on wheels that is the Ford Fusion needed a nickname. It could have been either Bruno or Bruce - they both have significance (dont they Mr High and Mr Brayne).
He's now asking to have his blog back...shall I be kind?! Answers on a postcard please... :-)
ok that was dave 'wolfy' wolstenholme guard extrondinaire
ummm so tuesday
firstly we had to disconect the excentric straps from the expansion link so that we could get enough vertical movement to get the split pins out of the pins in the valve gear
i funnily enough was underneath in the pit and disconnecting the eccentric straps kinda ended up with one dropping on me noggin
the phrase oh bother that smarts was posssibly used
then when we had released the valve gear from the briddle rod link arm (the one that attatches the bridle rod to the frames) it was time to release it from the piston valves on the back of the cylinder block
more choice words were used when i kinda hit my head on the axle of the loco
we extracted the expansion links and then the eccentric straps without too much difficulty the only thing was the bogie was at the end of the pit so i kinda had to crouch on the steps to undo the bolts from the eccentrics to the straps
then i undid the springs from underneath using the air powered impact air gun
then it was a case of lifting the springs out and washing them in the tool washer
we also stamped things L for left and R for right
but pete had kinda had a little bit of a senior moment and got his left and right mixed up soooo we had to grind the stamps off and redo them oooops
wednesday
was a continuation of tuesday with the dissassembly of the earls bogie
to start the day i steam cleaned it to get more of the crap(technical vocab) off of it
i got the bad end of the job i was outside freezing my arse off getting covered in water and steam while pete just stayed inside and washed various components and took off some of the lubrication pipes
then we had to shunt some stuff about to get the wagon to put the bogie on once we've dropped the wheelsets out
this ended up with me pete the arrrrrg degreaser rags and lighters to set fire to the points to de ice them
we also did a fitters exam on talesin which needed its 30 day it was all fine but it was good as pete showed me what to look for in each place so was a very useful experience
then we did a fitters exam on the cric the first one for wellll to be honest a while i was sent under to check the propshaft and whatnot seeing as i'd spannered on it earlier in my contract and i also had to grease all the grease points for the first time in 2 months so i got covered in grease yay
thursday
went into work at the normal time and pete and me took the valves out of the valve ports and took the bits and bobs off that were holding them in
then i went and prepped the tal as i had been informed at wedsnesday afternoon tea break that i was firing it as there was no other crew available proper scrapping the barrel lol
had a great time firing didnt have any problems and had a laugh
wolfy was the guard and despite our best efforts we didnt leave him anywhere
wolfy and me celebrated that evening with dinner in the spoon and then after showers and what not went over to beths and watched juno man i love that film
made me want a pipe but i want one that can blow bubbles hehe
friday
pete was only here in the morning so we had an easy day today
we just took the pistons out of the cylinders and washed them and took the wayshaft off
the wayshaft was a lil bugger as you've got the nuts on the back with another set of nuts and bolts completey non related at 90 degrees to the ones on the wayshaft and you can only just get the spanner on and them you have to knock him out dead straight otherwise you catch the nuts on either one of the bolt heads at the side (the ones at 90 degrees)
that took most of the morning so afterlunch with no pete around i just took the flexible lubrication pipes off and drained the axle boxes (something i did to the tal on weds also) and drained the oil pots to the axle boxes and loosend the keeps (they hold the axle boxes in the )
and took the brakes off completely blocks hangers and brake rod ( from the steam brake to the brake shoes)
then just washed a bunch of stuff we had taken off already stuff like pins, bolts, nuts, grease nipples, lubricators (which i drained and cleaned inside and out), blower ring (just went over with a wire brush) and the blast pipe
so yeh a very productive week and an enjoyable one despite getting blogjacked
au revoir
ps im nearly sorted on my canadian bank account and the lass that helped me in hsbc was rather tasty
hehe
during mine and petes mahoooosive shunt last friday
i may have found the elf hat on the cric
and i may have waited till pete couldnt see me before putting it on
and i may have popped up when pete was wavving me on
cue giggles for about 5 minutes
ok so back to the week
tuesday was a massssive day
the earls bogie went from being 90 % complete to about 30 or 40 %
pete and myself just shifted and we got off all the valve gear
the....
OK Theo's just made a careless mistake, moving away from the laptop and Dave's now taken over the blog - ohhhhhhhh yesssssssssss!! Silly boy, which Amy, Mikey, Jon, Emma, Clarkey and countless others will no doubt agree!!!
So he spent the rest of this week, in no particular order, messing around with more bogies, grafitti-ing the Funkey's knackered bogies with marker pen bets on when its gonna fail this summer after the transmission gets sent back - sometime when Dave Davies Diesel Destroyer is driving it no doubt) going to get rump steak at the Union on Wednesday nite, then he got let out on the footplate of the Tal yesterday, not before assaulting it with his head though, and was firing all the way up to Trwyn-y-Garnedd while Phil B stood around doing sod all...(well, no change there haha) - actually I better take that bit back otherwise I'll get crap rosters for the rest of 2010 lol.
Oh between us we've also christened Amy's new car 'Bruce' - George the funky multi-coloured seatbelted Citroen Saxo appears to have bit the dust, so the box on wheels that is the Ford Fusion needed a nickname. It could have been either Bruno or Bruce - they both have significance (dont they Mr High and Mr Brayne).
He's now asking to have his blog back...shall I be kind?! Answers on a postcard please... :-)
ok that was dave 'wolfy' wolstenholme guard extrondinaire
ummm so tuesday
firstly we had to disconect the excentric straps from the expansion link so that we could get enough vertical movement to get the split pins out of the pins in the valve gear
i funnily enough was underneath in the pit and disconnecting the eccentric straps kinda ended up with one dropping on me noggin
the phrase oh bother that smarts was posssibly used
then when we had released the valve gear from the briddle rod link arm (the one that attatches the bridle rod to the frames) it was time to release it from the piston valves on the back of the cylinder block
more choice words were used when i kinda hit my head on the axle of the loco
we extracted the expansion links and then the eccentric straps without too much difficulty the only thing was the bogie was at the end of the pit so i kinda had to crouch on the steps to undo the bolts from the eccentrics to the straps
then i undid the springs from underneath using the air powered impact air gun
then it was a case of lifting the springs out and washing them in the tool washer
we also stamped things L for left and R for right
but pete had kinda had a little bit of a senior moment and got his left and right mixed up soooo we had to grind the stamps off and redo them oooops
wednesday
was a continuation of tuesday with the dissassembly of the earls bogie
to start the day i steam cleaned it to get more of the crap(technical vocab) off of it
i got the bad end of the job i was outside freezing my arse off getting covered in water and steam while pete just stayed inside and washed various components and took off some of the lubrication pipes
then we had to shunt some stuff about to get the wagon to put the bogie on once we've dropped the wheelsets out
this ended up with me pete the arrrrrg degreaser rags and lighters to set fire to the points to de ice them
we also did a fitters exam on talesin which needed its 30 day it was all fine but it was good as pete showed me what to look for in each place so was a very useful experience
then we did a fitters exam on the cric the first one for wellll to be honest a while i was sent under to check the propshaft and whatnot seeing as i'd spannered on it earlier in my contract and i also had to grease all the grease points for the first time in 2 months so i got covered in grease yay
thursday
went into work at the normal time and pete and me took the valves out of the valve ports and took the bits and bobs off that were holding them in
then i went and prepped the tal as i had been informed at wedsnesday afternoon tea break that i was firing it as there was no other crew available proper scrapping the barrel lol
had a great time firing didnt have any problems and had a laugh
wolfy was the guard and despite our best efforts we didnt leave him anywhere
wolfy and me celebrated that evening with dinner in the spoon and then after showers and what not went over to beths and watched juno man i love that film
made me want a pipe but i want one that can blow bubbles hehe
friday
pete was only here in the morning so we had an easy day today
we just took the pistons out of the cylinders and washed them and took the wayshaft off
the wayshaft was a lil bugger as you've got the nuts on the back with another set of nuts and bolts completey non related at 90 degrees to the ones on the wayshaft and you can only just get the spanner on and them you have to knock him out dead straight otherwise you catch the nuts on either one of the bolt heads at the side (the ones at 90 degrees)
that took most of the morning so afterlunch with no pete around i just took the flexible lubrication pipes off and drained the axle boxes (something i did to the tal on weds also) and drained the oil pots to the axle boxes and loosend the keeps (they hold the axle boxes in the )
and took the brakes off completely blocks hangers and brake rod ( from the steam brake to the brake shoes)
then just washed a bunch of stuff we had taken off already stuff like pins, bolts, nuts, grease nipples, lubricators (which i drained and cleaned inside and out), blower ring (just went over with a wire brush) and the blast pipe
so yeh a very productive week and an enjoyable one despite getting blogjacked
au revoir
ps im nearly sorted on my canadian bank account and the lass that helped me in hsbc was rather tasty
hehe
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
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
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
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