Overhaul update
Lots to report from the boilershop and success with cylinder cladding…
On 17 February, the right hand cylinder lagging was fitted. Gravity was not our friend and the lagging for the lower end kept falling off. The problem was solved by attaching the bottom part of the cladding sheet and stuffing copious amounts of lagging into the space.
The cladding sheet was then attached by all its mounting bolts. This had proved a difficult task in lining up the bolt holes before the lagging’s fitment, but having to simultaneously compress the lagging added an additional challenge, successfully overcome.
This left only the lack of the cladding bands to be addressed, tackled 24 February by removing the bolts one at a time and working the bands in from the top downwards.
With the experience gained, the entire job – lagging, fitting cladding then the bands – was completed in one day on the left side.
A question puzzling everyone was how the snifting valves were supported below the front of the running plate. Finding two brackets marked LH and RH snifting valves led to the next question: where were they mounted? After much searching and experimentation, the answer was finally discovered and the RH bracket trial fitted.
...and another view.
Graham’s workbench again, a new arrival being the sight feed lubricator supplying oil to the smokebox regulator.
The minor adjustments needed to the ashpan to allow it to fit flush with the foundation ring are now complete.
A lot has happened in the boilershop in the last two weeks, the most obvious being that the boiler has been rolled on to its left side. Almost all stays are now fitted, and almost all riveting done.
The outstanding riveting was to the foundation ring corners, now all complete. The square to the left is a tapered reamer for tapping the holes for a washout plug.
This is a corner from inside the inner firebox. The radius is much smaller, so the rivets more closely spaced.
A wider view inside the firebox. The protruding studs are supports for the grate.
Work has started to trim the excess metal around the firehole door.
Various rods and pipes run the length of the boiler and need supports along the way; new ones are being fabricated.
Some of those pipes and rods inside the top of the boiler. The large diameter one is the front section of the main steam pipe in course of being fitted.
To the right, the main steam pipe emerges behind the timber packing compressing it against the rear section...
...to which it is clamped by this rather complex arrangement comprising four studs and nuts, which the boilersmiths were in the act of tightening. The three seen are easy of access, but the fourth is on the far, lower, side of the pipe.