Overhaul update
The boilersmiths have completed their work on our boiler pending the insurance hydraulic and steam tests, so it is again outside to make room for other work inside the boiler shop.
Our last report showed the firehole doors assembled and almost complete. Here they are fully finished with the hinged flap to reduce the amount of secondary air admitted when the doors are open also in place. The brackets, top, hold the oil tray.
A couple of items needed for the steam test still are being worked on by SVR staff, one of these being the safety valves. This is the base, and the difficult job of cutting the threads has been successfully completed. This was done using a special cutter on the lathe, the problem being that the threads go all the way down to the flange where space for the cutter is very limited. Drilling the eight mounting holes is the next job.
. . . following which it can be reassembled like its partner.
The regulator valve must also be assembled and installed in the superheated header before this is fitted to the boiler. Hand scraping the faces following the application of engineers’ blue to reveal the high spots is a long and tedious process.
The face of the valve itself is not too onerous as it is entirely get-atable . . .
. . . but the grid inside the header is a different matter. Machining merely gives a rough surface free of rust and deep pits but with many machine marks; these must then be removed by hand scraping with constant checking for high spots with a surface plate to achieve an entirely true and flat surface.
The Fund’s working party did more work on the boiler crinoline and continued with painting accessible parts of the boiler.