Saturday 19th, Castlecroft
Attendance: 6
After a quick trip in cars to Baron St and back to move tools and equipment, shunters were started ready for positioning moves. D9531 was parked under Peel Way bridge overnight having been shunted and towed from Baron St on Friday, many thanks to Lee, Phil and Aidy for their help with this. The pit road was cleared of the Class 03 and unique SR brakevan, then the 10ton Coles crane mobilised to lift an empty IBC into the pit for waste oil to go into. D9531 was then shunted into position with the transmission drain over the IBC. The cap was removed, the tap opened on the Voiths Drain and the transmission left to empty.
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| Air Tank Frames and equipment | Oil collection tank below transmission |
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| A End roof section being lifted | A End roof section and cowl back in position |
Meanwhile, the A end roof section was lifted down from the top of the messroom roof onto the A end Frames and bolted down which took some time with boltholes needing lining up, the exhaust and water header cowl was also positioned.
Once the transmission oil had finished draining, D9531 was moved along so the drain for the final drive was over the IBC. The plug was removed and the gloopy oil slowly drained out - the drain plug resembled a shaving brush with all the metal particles that had collected over the years onto the magnet! This was cleaned up ready for refitting.
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| Final Drive drain plug/shaving brush! | Main Reservoir tank frames, B End |
With the final drive draining, attention turned to the air tanks. B end roof section was lifted off and placed on top of the messroom. The two new main reservoir air tank frames were then lifted in and positioned; this took some doing as the side frames flexed outwards with the removal of the roof. As well as the new frames, the original housing for the main reservoir tanks was returned to its position on top of the brake frame, this will hold the auxiliary reservoir tank.
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| Auxiliary Air Tank and Frame in position | Main Air Tank being lifted | Transmission oil being refilled |
After a spot of lunch, an electric pump was set up and new transmission oil transferred into the Voith. As that progressed the air tank lifts were started, with the first main res tank it was noticed the frames had been wrongly positioned so down it went, the frames were adjusted, and 2nd time all was ok, next we lifted on the new auxiliary res tank and finally the other main res tank.
The final drive had eventually parted with all the gloopy oil so the cleaned plug was replaced ready for filling to begin. Easy in theory, but access was difficult and, depite being new and clean, the oil is still very thick, taking quite some time to drain out of the fill pot down into the final drive. A tundish and hose system was then tried but wasn't any quicker and proved messy. In the end a barrel pump and hose was fashioned the oil pumped in slowly, it's one of those jobs that can't really be rushed and took longer than most of the other tasks put together!
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| Both Main Air tanks in position | First attempt at refilling Final Drive oil |
Once done, tools and equipment were packed and loaded to take back and D9531 shunted off the pit ready to return to the works. With a path available through the Station, D2956 did the honours on the return trip to Baron St, where we were greeted by 37901 shunting. After waiting for other shunts to be completed, 37901 returned 'Ernest' back into Road 4 of the loco works. A very productive and satisfying day.
Sunday 20th, Baron St
Attendance: 3
After such a successful and productive day on Saturday, a few of the team decided to complete some tasks on D5705. However Graham Mortimore arrived and was eager to get on with making all the bodyside doors fit without the aid of a boot! This task took up most of the morning and included manufacturing some parts as required.
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| 37901 assisting with shunting at Baron St (Late Saturday) | Graham preparing for Marker light drilling |
In the afternoon, Graham looked at mounting the marker lamp units, the ones at A end need the threads tapping out, and B end need drilling out. Graham managed to get one marker lamp on the B end mounted, the other still requiring the old studs drilling out and tapping. Chris test fitted some samples of windscreen rubber to check if it was suitable so more could be ordered and towards the end of the day Jason sourced some suitable bolts to finish securing the B end side frames to the locomotive.
Again another productive weekend, and start up day draws ever closer ...
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