Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th January 2012, Castlecroft Shed/Carriage & Wagon Works, Bury

Saturday 14th January 2012, Castlecroft Shed
Attendance: Many!

Today's aim was to take Ernest up to Castlecroft to Refit the B end roof section, add fuel and treatment, top the coolant up and finally change the engine oil for the correct grade.

The first job was to shunt D9531 from C & W, and in very cold temperatures it wasn't an easy task. Firstly 08, D3232, had flat batteries, so 33109 had to be employed, which only just started. After 30 mins of shunting, 33109 was on its way to Castlecroft with D9531 in tow.

Upon arrival, the first task was to fuel D9531. Over the years D9531 had developed 'Diesel bug' so some treatment was also added to help kill any remnants. While it was fuelled, opportunity was taken to top the coolant up to replace some lost due to a hose clip failure.

With fuel and water sorted, an attempt to start D9531 was made, but in the minus temperatures it took a couple of goes before firing. The engine was allowed to run to warm the oil up, then the loco was shunted over the pit where the engine was then shut down, with suitable buckets found, the engine oil was drained out of the sump and disposed of.

In the absense of a suitable tundish, a traffic cone was found and modified to create one! The new 40's grade oil was then poured into the sump. Whilst the oil was being filled, another team got to work preparing the B end roof section to go back onto the loco.

The resident Coles crane lifted the roof up and into position on the B end. With a few bolts entered and the roof secured, the chains were then disconnected and the crane disposed of. We then went round the roof section entering bolts one side at a time. This took some work with bars to move both frame and roof section into position allowing bolts to pass.

With side bolts in position, the next job was the Sealing strip between roof and cab. With bars and swear words both in use, the strip was eventually passed between cab and roof from below. A couple of bolts were entered, but many were found to be out of line. The roof was still sitting quite high, so all the side bolts were gunned down to the frames, bringing the roof section down enough to enter a few more, although some remained out of alignment. It was decided that the remaining bolts would be left and tackled the next day.

With the oil now changed, the engine was re-started and the transmission manually filled to put the power unit under load in order to bring everything up to running temperature quickly. The power unit was revved under load to around 1000rpm to aid this process. Once temperatures were achieved, checks were made and everything seemed to be happy. With D9531 piped up to 33109, the opportunity was also taken to do some more air system testing.

D9531 was then shunted into a consist with 33109, D2956, D2062 and the 4 locos moved off South, through Bolton Street Station, to the Carriage & Wagon works. D9531 was shunted back into No4 road and 33109 disposed of, the end of a very productive day.

A big thank-you to all those who helped out today!

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Sunday 15th January 2012, Carriage & Wagon Works
Attendance: 6

With D9531 safely back 'home' Adam, Jason and Andy Walton continued working through items from the snag list. Three of the paintwork team were also on site making further preparations. Adam and Andy's first task was to remove the exhaust and horn covers from the 'A' end so that a coat of gloss paint can be applied. Next the 'B' End hand rails were taken off to allow the paint team full access to the newly fitted bonnet roof. Some of the bolts were awkward to get to and a couple had to be sheared off, these will be drilled and tapped out at a later date.

Adam then moved on to modifying the fixing for the temperature gauge switch fitted to the cab bulkhead. It was decided that it should be fitted in such a way that the switch could be removed without having to take parts of the cab apart. This was easily resolved by putting some shorter bolts in the other way round.

The remaining troublesome mis-aligned bolts between 'B' end roof section and cab bulkhead, that had been left during yesterdays lift, were looked at next. Andy enlarged the holes in the bonnet so that further bolts could be placed in the holes and tightened up. Jason had been working on fabricating an anti-vibration bracket to secure the vacuum tank and, with this now complete, drilled some holes and then bolted it all together. The Vacuum tank is now held solid and did not move.

Final tasks to be completed included the removal of bolts where covers will be fitted in each corner of the loco, Adam removed the old bolts and Jason ran a tap through to clean up the threads. Adam also took a look at how and where the cab heaters would be refitted inside the cab but, as it wasn't clear, had to leave this until the exact position can be confirmed. This brought the weekend to a close and with that tools were tidied before leaving.

As mentioned earlier, a big thank-you to all those who came along and helped over the weekend!