Saturday 18th to Wednesday 22nd February 2012, Bury

Saturday 18th February 2012, Carriage & Wagon Works
Attendance: 8

The day began with Alan running Ernest up early to warm it through, the mission for himself and Martin was to find and eradicate air leaks on the brake system.

Chris was tasked with sorting a fuel leak from the lift pump motor. Upon removal of the pipework and the pump from the motor, the fitting was found to have stripped its thread, but fortunately the damage to the thread in the pump was minimal. Chris then spent the majority of the day trying to find a replacement fitting, with no luck, so the fitting was converted from ermeto to BSP and a piece of reinforced flexible hose and jubilee clips used to connect the two together.

Chris Guntripp and Andy Walton kindly flatted down the cab sides and and fronts ready for a 3rd coat of gloss the next day. Andy then carried on flatting down the side doors for the B end and once side of the A end. Matt Lindley carried on with wiring in the headcode boxes and marker lamp units.

Jim, Dave and Kris made a start on drilling out the B end handrails where bolts had snapped off. Once done they then moved onto the loco to weld on supports for the 15mm copper pipe on A end side frames, this pretty much made up their day.

Rob Mason continued with cab floor fitting, a lot of the pieces needed fine tuning to make them fit properly, he also made a start on covering the bridge section of flooring.

Early evening, D9531 was used to shunt a wagon out of the depot and finally moved itself on to the adjacent road ready for the next days sanding and painting session.

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Sunday 19th February 2012, Carriage & Wagon Works
Attendance: 6

Chris began the day by sanding down the filler on B end roof section, this took up most of the morning. Rob Mason continued with work on the cab flooring, and began sticking lino down on the various pieces. He also fitted the bridge section with aluminium edging strip. Colin was also on site flatting then glossing the cooler group side grille that had been removed the day before.

Once Chris had finished sanding, D9531 was run up and driven outside to be dusted down of all the filler. Once done it was brought back inside the depot. Matt started wiring in the exhauster speed up choke and front sanding valve on the A end, Chris then tack ragged off the cab and B end roof section.

Around 4pm, the dining set was stabled back inside the shed and Chris started to gloss the entire cab. Graham Thornton and Tim Baker tack ragged off the doors and glossed them. Once chris had finished the Cab he then moved on to undercoating over the filler on B end Roof section and then called it a night.

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Monday 20th February 2012, Carriage & Wagon Works
Attendance: 2

Chris started the day by flatting down and priming all four marker lamp units, once done he moved on to masking off the yellow stripes on the B end nose doors, this took some time to do as none of the original striped remained for guidance, once done he then white undercoated them and proceeded to flat down the stripes on the A End doors. Chris then masked the yellow stripes off, this end being much easier with the stripes still visible from the previous paint job, then proceeded to undercoat them.

The windscreen contractor then arrived to fit the remaining two screens. Problems had been enountered using rubber mounting so these were bonded into place. Chris and Gilbert lightly flatted down the entire B end roof, side frames and battery boxes while the window man was on site.

Once the windscreen man had finished, the entire B end was dusted off and tack ragged off. Gilbert and Chris then proceeded to Green gloss the entire B end roof, side frames and Battery boxes. After this the white undercoat on the wasp stripes was found to be dry enough, so Chris and Gilbert took an end each, applying a coat of yellow before packing up for the day.

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Tuesday 21st February 2012, Loaded test runs to Ramsbottom
Attendance: 3

The aim for today was to prepare D9531 for a loaded test run down the ELR main line to Ramsbottom and back in the afternoon.

Chris started the day by draining the coolant out of the cooler group. He then removed the burnt out coolant level switch and replaced it. Alan was busy soldering up wire for the instrument lighting. Once Chris had finished fitting the switch, Nick joined him and the pair proceeded to bail the coolant back into the header tank.

Chris then decided to refit B end horn box, which Nick assisted with, they then moved on to fitting the water header/exhaust cowl and A end hornbox. The cooler group side grille was then refitted and Nick topped the serck system up, then oiled the side rods up while Chris topped up the governor oil.

'Ernest' was then fired up and moved out of the depot. Alan & Nick took it through to Castlecroft to top up the coolant and transmission levels. Chris went and prepared 20087, insurance loco for the day, and took it through to Castlecroft where he assisted with topping the levels up. Once done, Chris passed back through the station with the 20 and Alan took D9531 to Carriage Siding No2 to collect the Mk2 air brake set and took it up into Platform 4. Chris then dropped the 20 on the back end of the formation. After a brake test, D9531 headed out of the station with the consist for Signal 12 at Ramsbottom.

A steady, low power run first of all to Burrs where a quick stop and check round the rods and axle boxes was made. All was well so we then proceeded to Summerseat with a little more power applied. We stopped again at Summerseat station where another check round was made. Once done we headed through the tunnels to Signal 12, had another check round then headed back to Bury.

On the second trip the engine was opened up further but was only achieving 1300rpm at maximum power and the governor was causing the power unit to 'hunt' when idling. A stop was made at Summerseat to check things over again then we proceeded through the tunnels again to signal 12. Upon arrival however the engine shut down as it ran down from full power, mainly due to the engine governor not responding as it should.

The consist headed back to Bury where D9531 was hooked off in Platform 4. 20087 then took the stock down to Baron Street and D9531 was stabled back in the Carriage & Wagon depot. A successful trip out although, as these things often go, we returned with a few more problems to iron out.

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Wednesday 22nd February 2012, Carriage & Wagon Works
Attendance: 2

Alan was keen to investigate the governor issues today and Chris began the day making a outstanding job list up. We were asked to do a shunt to move Class 40, D335, and a Stove R van into the station. We did this but wasted some time sat in the station waiting for a steam loco on test to clear.

We eventually got a path and returned to the depot and carried on where we found that the Serck system was discharging oil and could have a leak somewhere. Chris mopped all the oil up and the engine was run up, then the fan put under load and run up to full speed. We soon discovered that the leak was from the vent, the system being over full and it was naturally finding its own level, panic over!

Next job was to have a look at the engine governor which had caused a couple of problems on the test run, so the A end horn box was removed to allow easier access. Chris was in the cab, moving handles as required, with Alan making ajustments below the bonnet. The governor was set up as close as possible to try and resolve the 'hunting' whilst idling and increase the engine RPM on maximum power. The fruits of these labours will require another test run to observe the results properly.

Chris then mopped up more of the Serck oil from the cooler group and, with the heavens wide open, we decided to call it a day. Hopefully some further test runs can be fitted in later in the week.

The end of another mammoth stint on D9531, although work will continue pretty much daily now. Thanks to everyone who has helped and put other things to one side to assist 'Team Ernest'.