Posts Tagged ‘mnr’

Dereham Workparty Weekend 24th – 25th October 2008

August 4th, 2009 by Oli Smith

Here is a small report written by my own fair hand, sorry it’s been a while only I’ve been on a foreign holiday…………over to the Isle of Wight (well from Basildon to me it’s a foreign place it’s off the main land).

Any way the attendees/ criminal’s at this little soiree and believe me it was little as well… were the following…. Mickey Doyle, Gareth Broughton, Josh Quirk, and myself the Sheep.

Anyway we were all a bit surprised to see a badly damaged Mark 3 coach that had arrived down on the railway.. But never the less we all surrounded it like a pack/flock of sheep (I felt quite at home!).

So after all the usual comments re the coach, the Grid boys got to work…… not really much to report really. We just carried on where we’d left off the previous week i.e. sanding down, filling, painting and generally trying to tidy her up. As usual it didn’t take long for chaos and pandemonium to ensue. I was brutally antiqued by Messers Doyle and Broughton….. The child claims he tried to warn me, but had a momentary loss of voice!!!!!!!!!!!.

May I take this opportunity to send my very best wishes to Jon and wish him a speedy recovery from his bad back get well soon Jon mate…..

Get well soon also to Keith Wright who has spend the last month in an out of hospital and hopefully is now on the road to recovery.

Well that’s about it for this report (I said it’d be brief), hope to see as many that can make it this coming weekend at Dereham.

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 17th – 18th October 2008

August 3rd, 2009 by Oli Smith

A small band of hardy volunteers braved the elements on this particular weekend. Present were Gareth Broughton, Oily Smith, Alan Flockhart, Rod Eastman, Sean Sharples, Josh Quirk, Mick Doyle, Robin Fransham.

Saturday

Oli and Alan got down and started removing the engine room floor panels on ‘B’ side. A lot of sludge has collected under here over the years and it was now very hard for any water to drain away. The sludge was removed and the floor dried off properly and the floor panels taken outside and cleaned. A few more panels need removing to finish off ‘B’ side. Once finished this should really help the damp problem that we’ve had lately. Micky, Child, Sean and Rod had a real blitz on the ‘B’ side bodywork, most of which has now been filled and sanded down. Another good days work and she’ll soon be good for priming. Josh finished off the No 1 end cab side and removed the adhesive that was left behind by the Big T motif. Gareth and Robin made various checks to the batteries.

Saturday evening saw a jolly up to the blue door curry house (eh eh Sharples!), followed by a swift pint in the George courtesy of Sean. Several members promptly tried to debag Sean of his trousers but our attempts were hampered because he wanted to keep them!

Sunday

Alan and Gareth left early for a thing called work (wot’s that then!), leaving Sean, Oli, Mick and Child to carry on with the bodywork. The two gaping holes on ‘B’ side that were patched up with bin liners and No Nails have now been fixed up good and proper with aluminum sheet and copious amounts of filler – this will definitely do as a temporary fix until we can chop the sections out and weld some new steel in. Oli refitted the two cab floor panels and tidied up inside before continuing with the bodywork. Micky and Sean started work on a very tired looking No 2 cab end, which has already started to come up rather nicely!

All in all quite a productive weekend. She’s getting there!

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 23rd – 24th August 2008

August 3rd, 2009 by Oli Smith

The day greeted us with rain and whilst the others went for breaky at Morrisons I set to work on removing some more distorted alloy foot plates from the cab steps, the top plate and bolts chiseled off ok, but the second step was a real expletive deleted to get off, in fact it nearly came off in one lump and in the end I resorted to violence and borrowed a jemmy bar to lever it off. I had to leave this job as the rain was starting to get heavy and it was cascading down the side of the loco and it happened to be running right where I needed to chisel and by this time my gloves were soaked through.

Gareth and the get along gang arrived back from breakfast and we duly started the loco, she stared first time and all systems were working ok, the plan was to put 040 on the pit to check the traction motors but Chris Cheney needed to put his green DMU back together on the pit and guess where one half of the DMU was, oh yes down the end of number one siding so a lot of shunting had to be done first and guess who was the only person available to carry out the shunt moves – ME as both Graham and Tim were not in attendance, so myself and Chris
Cheney had a very enjoyable two hour shunt fest to position the relevant vehicles into the right place!

Chris finally positioned 040 on the pit and Gareth went to work checking the traction motors and whilst Gareth did his electrical tests I repositioned a sanding pipe that had in the past been clobbered and the frame had been bent forward and the pipe was scraping a wheel on one of the bogies.

After last weekends last minute find of a sticking fuel pump caused by excess waste oil contaminating the fuel plunger, a full strip down and flush out of the rocker waste drains and associated pipework was required. This was completed by myself and Keith W on the Saturday, a rather dirty job with much sludge being washed out of the drain pipe. All fuel pumps were degreased and re-lubricated with light oil, before a start was made to check that everything was ok, she started fine with just the parking brake interlock valve causing a slight problem, but built pressure and was ready to go!

It was agreed that we would go for a test run to Yaxham after the last train on Sunday, so she was then put to bed for the night.
Sunday morning (or should that be early afternoon by the time we got up!) was spent shunting and getting things in the right order for the evening’s test run, when all shunts were complete she was positioned over the pit so that all traction motor commutators could be visually inspected. Whilst this was going on Keith W went around the inside of Oystermouth making sure all covers were secure and there was no loose items or tools in the engine room that could vibrate loose and cause us problems. All the cantrail grilles were bolted down and the radiator mesh was secured. As usual last minute checks revealed that the fire bottle head which had been shorted out for testing purposes, required further attention before she could be run. This resulted in Robin getting his fingers slightly warm by the melting copper wire he was holding whilst trying to replace the short! She was then fired up, built air and moved away under power up the sidings to allow the steamer to get over the pit, then back up the MOD road to await her first run on the MNR!

With Chris Cheney at the controls we left Dereham at approximately 18:00 heading for Yaxham. At the Dereham level crossings a little banter between a transit horn and ours raised a few smiles – I’m sure you can guess who’s was loudest! After the level crossings she was opened up and away she went – leaving the crossings in a thick clag! Yaxham was reached at about 18:10 and a few photos were taken. Checks were made to the wheel bearings, oil level/pressure, water level, radiator elements, control modules etc, with everything looking good it was decided that a further run would be beneficial. So onwards we went, numerous starts and stops for operational purposes – crossings etc gave plenty of thrash to test the turbos etc, with a noticeable clearing in the exhaust as we progressed – all good signs! The next observation stop was at the level crossing just before Kimberley Park station, where the above checks were performed again which discovered no problems, the obligatory photos were taken and a discussion ensued as to our next move. With spectators on Kimberley Park station awaiting us and the fact that so far so good, it was decided that a full run to Wymondham was in order. Over the crossing we went and paused in Kimberley Park station to await the crossing gates to be closed behind us, this allowed the party that was going on at the station to come and see 56040.

The party was a wedding reception and the children (and the not so young children) were duly invited to have a look in the cabs and sample the horn, creating good PR for the railway and the group. (Is this the first time a wedding has been gatecrashed by a Grid?). After some thank you cake from the party off we set for Wymondham, again reached with no problems, more photos and checks were made before setting off back to Dereham. The return was made similar to the outward journey with regular checks, on approaching privately owned Hardingham Station a figure on the platform was seen, we stopped and was invited for a coffee. After a brief rest we departed again for Dereham were we went into the MOD road, final checks were performed and she was put to bed for the night. All involved went to the pub for a celebratory drink grinning like Cheshire cats!

The test run was successful and no faults were found, the turbos wound up nicely as required, the radiator elements appear not to be leaking, the AWS worked fine, the DSD worked ok, in fact you could say 56040 OYSTERMOUTH is almost back to her wonderful self, just a little more TLC to her makeover and a bit of pampering to go!

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 26th – 27th July 2008

August 3rd, 2009 by Oli Smith

A very hot day at Dereham, Gareth Broughton/Jon Batley/Robin Fransham and Keith Wright were in attendance.
Work achieved :-We fired her up and she built air straight away, held it and took power – as good as gold!
We shut her down to work on a few air leaks on the No1 desk which were cured by removing a panel and tightening up a loosened union, and we looked into a fault on the AWS which involved us spending a few hours under No1. bogie.

We rubbed a magnet under the AWS dome with no success so the next thing was to remove the AWS dome, after finding the correct size socket in Jon’s tool box, we undid the dome, but due to the lack of space under No1 bogie, and indeed the 26 degree heat it was a slow process. Once all the bolts were undone, the dome still would not budge, it seemed there was rivet of some sort holding up proceedings so we borrowed a small bladed screwdriver off Keith Wright to see if we could prize the dome off but Jon duly broke it (sorry Keith!) so Jon resorted to drilling out the offending rivet with a cordless drill – cue hot shards of metal down Jon’s boiler suit and copious amounts of laughter form Gareth and Robin, couple that with Gareths passing of wind made it a great place to work!

Once the dome was succesfully removed Gareth went to work with his electronic trickery to see if there was a fault within, all we could hear was a ‘clicking’ as the magnet passed across, whilst Gareth/Jon and Robin were having their party under No 1 bogie, Keith W went to work on No 2 cab re-assembling the dials/switches (the right way round this time, ahem!).

Keith also cleaned up the sun visors in No 1 cab, by removing them and giving them a deep clean!

We left the AWS fault and fired her up again and she built air again, slightly slower this time, but again held it ok and took power. Shut down again and worked on some more faults etc, then started her again, this time she built as expected and took power. Now we think that it is possibly little bits of corroded pipes etc floating about in the system and intermittently sticking non-return valves or some of the EP valves on the parking frame, thus causing the pressure not to build.
When we did the tests we bled all the air out using the valves on the tanks next to the compressors and there was quite a bit of damp and bits coming out, we think this should eventually settle down – just a matter of working everything through the system. On the last attempt we loaded up the reservoirs and then opened up the isolation cock allowing 6 bar to blast through the system rather than build up all the system slowly, this had the effect of blowing her nose and dislodged a few bits and bobs.

The DSD speed switch unit was removed for repair.

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 24th – 26th May 2008

August 3rd, 2009 by Oli Smith

Attendees for this work party were as follows:
Sean Sharples, Graham Miles, Josh Quirk, Keith Wright, Andrew Wilson, Gareth Broughton, Mark Lynton, Sue Jarvis, Jane Bibey, Chris Cheney, Robin Fransham, Mickey Doyle, Alan Flockhart, Mark Hallett, Oli Smith

I only attended on Saturday 24th May and this report covers that day. We started work about 09.45 on 56040, we all knew roughly what we were supposed to be doing and simply got on with our tasks (which is great!) as we don’t need to be constantly told what to do and how to do it. It was good to see Brillo up and Mark and Sue again, congrats on getting your Mid Norfolk P.T.S certificates also it was good to have Mick back from his soiree with the Red Arrow’s in Cyprus.
Garlic and myself set about changing a starter motor (God those things weigh a ton!) first carting the knackered one out and then getting the good one in and believe me this was no easy task, well done Garlic!!!!,
It was good to see the new compressor joint go in that the maintenance boys have made for me at my works.

Well done Robin and Keith the cab for fitting it – job done.
Good to see Alan man up the sharp end up to his armpits in grease getting stuck in. Thanks also to Chris for loaning Garlic and myself his socket set to enable us to change the starter motor – thanks very much Chris you are a star!
It was great to see “Keith the cab” back, no pun intended mate, after his op and getting stuck in. We tried to start 56040 up after the new starter motor was fitted and she duly obliged – superb!!!!!
After being shut down we thought we would give the Teddy Bear punters a treat and fire her up again, but would you believe it she just doesn’t seem to like an audience and she just wouldn’t start.
After a few slight technical adjustments she duly obliged.

Josh, Mark and Graham carried on with the painting of the bogies and bodywork and the quality of the painting is phenomenal. Josh also helped out in the engine room.
Whilst this was going on members of the work party were busy putting the rocker covers back on.

Jane as usual fed us, thanks mum again, you’re a real star considering your on board catering commitments to the Teddy Bear specials you still managed to squeeze in time to feed us.
Well after getting quite a lot of work done on the old girl we discovered some circuits that needed some attention they had been inoperable for some 8 years and needed some looking at. Hopefully we can make some headway in that department this coming weekend, as we now have a group of top notch techno boys on the case – you know who you are so enougth said!
I noticed I was getting a few comments when taking all the photos of what was happening, remember if it’s not recorded it’ll be forgotten and we need to keep an accurate record not only for ourselves but for other members of the Grid group who for whatever reason cannot make it to Dereham, to keep them up to speed with ” Oystermouths ” progress. Don’t forget also that we are volunteers not paid staff!

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 29th – 30th March 2008

August 3rd, 2009 by Oli Smith

The working party over the weekend of Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th March went very well, and although we had a smaller turnout than previous working parties, a lot of work was still carried out. Graham Miles, Sean Sharples, Jon Batley, Oli Smith, Josh Quirk and Jim Knowles carried on the task of cleaning and painting the bogies and brake air pipes. Their work is starting to have some marked visible results, with one half of one side of “Oystermouth” from the mainframe down, now being totally renovated.

Keith Wright carried on with the renovation of the No 1 cab on “Oystermouth”, although he did cause some major worrying, when I noticed that he had painted the cab desk in a bright shade of pink ! ! I was trying not to look or sound ungrateful after all of Keith’s hard work . . . . but pink ?? Luckily it turned out this was only the undercoat, and the finishing topcoat would be grey. What had made made me think that this was the finished product, was that all the cab gauges and switches were all screwed back in. What I hadn’t realised, as I hadn’t been able to get to Dereham for the middle weekend in March, was that this was done for the MNR Diesel Gala, where “Oystermouth” was on display in the bay platform. It might have had an effect on the number of people volunteering to drive “Oystermouth”, had the finished interior been pink ! ! A big butch Grid with a pink interior . . . . oh my gawd ! !

Carl Rayner fabricated a new angled plate, to patch the hole in the air inlet on one side. While Carl did a very good job of this repair, the metalwork forming the surrounding area is showing signs of corrosion, and this will mean that in a couple of years time, we will have to carry out more repairs to this area. The roof is actually the biggest area of “Oystermouth” in need of major anti-corrosion work, with a lot of rust present at cantrail height and with holes further up at the top, as evident by the water leaks when it rains. Luckily this doesn’t stop us getting “Oystermouth” started up and hauling trains, but eventually we will have no choice but to remove the roof and carry out some major anti-corrosion repairs in a couple of years time ??).

On the Saturday, David Woodhouse came over with his JCB and forklift attachment, and helped Micky Doyle and myself to fit the second compressor to “Oystermouth”. This is the last large item to be re-fitted to “Oystermouth”, and marks a major event for the Class 56 Group, as for the first time in our ownership and for the first time in many years, “Oystermouth” is a fully complete locomotive (bar a few switches, etc). Micky and myself then tightened the four mounting bolts on this compressors, and the four mounting bolts on the other compressor, that was fitted to “Oystermouth” during the February working party.

Over the rest of the weekend, I refitted all the air pipes and hoses to both compressors (sealing them all with PTFE tape), including one that we thought we didn’t have, but luckily Carl found hidden in our spares container. When I refitted the expansion tank to the second compressor, its mounting holes were offset and in a different position to the first compressor. This meant that with nothing to base the re-assembly on, I had to make a guess as to which way round it all went. Luckily I got it right first time, which was nice, as having to drop the compressor back down to turn the expansion tank and cradle around would have been a real pain ! ! The only thing to complete on the air pipe side of things, is to tighten both loco to expansion tank pipe connections. Unfortunately it’s impossible to get a spanner or adjustable spanner onto this. The only thing that will do this job is a 48mm crowfoot spanner, which will cost about £40 to £50 and would have to be a special order. An alterative might be to see if I can get one made. I assume that BE / EWS had a special tool for this job ! !

I also refitted the electrical conduits to both compressors, but I left the connecting of the magical “blue smoke” wires to our resident expert Gareth. Unfortunately, if the wires are connected up wrongly, the compressor will run in reverse, which will damage it. Not what we want, after all the hard work we’ve done. I connected the earth lead on one compressor, but the second one had it’s mounting post missing, so I’ve left that for Gareth as well.

Once this was all done, I drained the old oil from both of the compressors, and filled them with the new compressor oil we had in the container. Once this was done, Josh cleaned the underside of both compressors and then finished painting the undersides black, which we couldn’t do when they were sitting on their pallets in the goods shed.

A big thank you to Jane as well, for the excellent food that kept the lads fuelled over the weekend.

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 23rd – 24th February 2008

July 22nd, 2009 by Oli Smith

COMPRESSORS
1st compressor fitted (to station side) needs jacking up and bolts fully tightened, but all 4 bolts are fully engaged in the nuts so it is safe to move the loco.
The air and electrical connections need remaking.

2nd compressor has been rebuilt with parts obtained from Metcalfe. Thanks to Alan and Mickey who worked late on Saturday evening (Alan worked until10pm I believe).

The fact we have never seen 040 with a compressor underslung meant she looked a bit strange for a while but this has to be the major achievement of the restoration so far. Well done everyone!

OIL
Hallett oil delivery arrived at 9-15AM.

To my surprise the SF47G did change the oil in 47 596, so we used the oil from 596 to fill 040 for flushing & initial system testing.

This took longer than we thought as reducing the flexible pipes down using Jubilee clips proved less than easy. At one point there was so much oil flying about we considered chucking the Oystermouth nameplates and getting some Torrey Canyon or Amoco Cadiz ones made up!

Eventually we used the bulk filler connection- and Mark Hallett’s big pump and got oil into the sump- it settled at about an inch below the standing max mark on the dipstick.

The Hydrostatic tank was filled up and then the two oil filters elements were replaced.
The crank case doors were removed ready for oil priming tests and the lube oil pipes were removed to allow access to the cam trays which have been refitted.

Unfortunately the priming test did not proceed due to one of the local push buttons in the engine room being full of water. However we do know the priming pump runs as the other push button had jammed in and the pump ran as soon as the circuit breaker was in.

The first signs of life from the old girl were the priming pump running (for about 10 seconds) and then the fire bells ringing!

The waterlogged switch will be repaired /replaced and Gareth is going to make up some dummy sensors for the fire bottle system.

BATTERIES
A couple of defective cells were exchanged with some of the ones Edward brought over- surprisingly the common view on these cells is that they are all in rather good condition.

BODY, BOGIES AND CABS
Work continued – the bogies are starting to look really good now, and the No 1 cab is going to look superb. Keith Wright (or Keith the Cab as he is now known) is doing a really good job. He has undercoated the drivers desk and all the instruments have been removed .(In fact I had a Booths flash back when I saw the gaping holes where the speedo etc have been removed)

EXTRA DETAILS ON BOGIES/CAB (NO 1 END) by Jon Batley

Graham Miles, Jon Batley, Oli Smith and Sean Sharples concentrated on the the bogies at No 1 cab end, Jon finished scraping off the old paint on the cab kickplate, it’s now nice and shiny! Sean and Oli did a great job painting the bogie and associated pipes, Graham continued painting the brake/main res pipe cocks and connectors. On Sunday Jon started removing the paint from the multi-working socket and painted it in primer ready for repainting, Oli Smith went under the loco in the pit and got filthy cleaning the underside of the sanding boxes and the buffer beam.

FUEL SYSTEM
Coarse fuel filter filled with clean diesel and lid refitted (missing studs replaced from ex-56044 filter housing – thanks to 56044 and Alan Flockhart.

COOLANT SYSTEM
The coolant system was filled in anticipation of turning her over on the starters but we didn’t get that far so we drained her down as a frost protection measure.

NIGHT TIME SHENANIGANS (report by Jon Batley)
Eight of us Keith B, Keith W, Sean, Gareth, Josh, Alan, Jon and Oli hit the town for a well deserved curry after a hard days work, the Indian was fully booked so young Josh took us all to a Thai Restaurant. A great time was had by all and its events like this which makes the weekend so good, I don’t think that I’ve laughed so much in ages, it was my first time out with the group for a weekend and it was great to get to know the guys on a personal level, not only are they great to work with but the social side of the group is second to none, and I urge any prospective Class 56 members/volunteers to come and sample a weekend/ night out with the team.

After the meal we went to a local pub and chilled out with a pint (or two or three….). A perfect end to a great night out, thanks lads I will be back next month for another night out!!

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 26th – 27th January 2008

July 22nd, 2009 by Oli Smith

A small workparty was held over the above weekend. Attendees were Josh Quirk, Carl Rayner, Sean Sharples, Jon Batley, Keith Wright, Gareth Broughton, Roger Elliott.

Report courtesy of Alan Hawkins.

The weekend of Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th January went very well, with Carl Rayner, Sean Sharples, Jon Batley and Josh Quirk, carrying out some more deep cleaning of 56040’s engine room on the Saturday. A not very glamorous job, but an important one all the same, because as well as making the engine room into a better working environment, it reduces the risk of accidental fire.

Keith Wright has volunteered for the job of refurbishing the cabs of “Oystermouth” back to pristine, and on the Saturday he made a start on deep cleaning the No 1 cab, in preparation for eventual repainting.

While the lads were busy working inside “Oystermouth”, I started the re-assembly of the first compressor for “Oystermouth”. By the Sunday afternoon I had completed this task, with the fitting of the mounting cradle and expansion tank assembly, being the first time these items had been back on one of our compressors in about a year (see enclosed photos). The completion of the re-assembly of this compressor, means we have now reached a significant milestone, as we are now ready to refit one of the largest missing items back onto “Oystermouth”, bring closer the day when she will run again.

After discussion with Keith, Gareth and Roger, we’ve decided to fit this first compressor on the side of “Oystermouth” that faces Dereham station building. The reasoning behind this decision, is that there are no passenger trains running on the MNR at the moment, and fitting a compressor on this side will necessitate working with a forklift sitting on the main running line. Last Sunday, Roger (in his capacity as MNR shunter) and myself discussed the actual fitting, and have agreed on a working plan and a date for this fitting to take place. As a result, the next working party is set for Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th February.

If everything goes to plan on that weekend, we should also be able to re-fill “Oystermouth’s” engine with oil, ready for the next stage of testing / restoration.

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 19th – 20th January 2008

July 22nd, 2009 by Oli Smith

A small workparty was held over the above weekend. Attendees were Josh Quirk, Carl Rayner, Sean Sharples, Chris Cheney, Graham Miles and Jane Bibey.

A short report is below courtesy of Carl Rayner.

A small band of Group members attended this weekend. My own intention was firstly to paint the second compressor, which is now ready for re-assembly by one of the Technical Officers. I also wanted to tidy up both containers, partly to lessen the chance of someone breaking their neck and also to free up more space for the next influx of spares, which is likely once the two poorer compressors are split. Graham Miles also dropped off a second water pump.

On the Sunday, Sean Sharples began a pet project of his own and began preparing the bogies for repainting. Even with the help of Josh Quirk and myself the enormity of the task soon became apparent, three wire brushes being no match for the accumulated grime and brake dust collected over ‘040’s working career. Unfortunately the pressure washer at Dereham was unavailable and so it was recommended that a liberal sloshing of redundant engine oil over the bogies would both give some protection from the elements and loosen up the brake dust for when the washer became available. Jane Bibey helped out with this in between the far more important task of keeping us all fed. One side of one bogie and one buffer beam was completed before ‘040 needed to be shunted elsewhere. Sean was later assisted by Jon Batley in clearing the engine room of oily rags and giving some of the internal paintwork a clean.

Now that the container was tidy, Chris Cheney took the opportunity to give the recently arrived batteries the once-over. These turned out to be in rather good fettle, and a quick check of the oldest cells on the locomotive soon found a likely candidate for replacement, before rain and bad light stopped play around tea.

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Dereham Workparty Weekend 5th – 6th January 2008

July 22nd, 2009 by Oli Smith

Attendee List:- Jon Batley, Jane Bibey, Gareth Broughton, Keith Bulmer, Kevin Carty, Chris Cheney, Mick Doyle, Robin Fransham, Mark Hallet, Alan Hawkins, Mark Linton, John Martin, Graham Miles, Josh Quirke, Carl Rayner, Sean Sharples, James Steward, Andrew Wilson, Keith Wright.

General Comment;

An impressive turnout for the weekend’s working party. The decision had already been taken that a number of tasks not directly linked to 56040 had to be undertaken during the course of this weekend and the large
turnout allowed this without too much impact on direct tasks.

Goods Shed;

The objective was to clear some space in the goods shed and progress work on the two compressors we need for ‘040.
Turbo’ #1 – was removed from the goods shed ready for collection by another party at a later date.
Turbos #2 & #3 left in position as these items proved difficult to move without getting the fork lift truck inside the shed.
Compressor #1 (2A115D – The grey one)- cleaned and painted black and can be reassembled once KB obtains the spare seals, gaskets and piston rings identified during the weekend.
Compressor #2 (2A115B) Cleaned ready for painting, waiting parts and reassembly.
Compressors #3 & #4 – One of these has a defective motor and the other has a seized crankshaft- it is proposed to strip these down to make one good compressor and strip the remains for spare parts. This work is not urgent so far as 56 040 is concerned but is urgent in terms of clearing space in the Goods shed.

Actions;

KB to identify and purchase sufficient parts for compressors #1, #2 & #3 (plus some spares).
One compressor to paint.
Both compressors to re-assemble and fit to loco.

Batteries;

Edward delivered the full set he had. The pedigree of these 12 batteries is unknown as they were originally cascaded from a 56 at the NVR, although we are grateful for these as we have developed some considerable expertise in resurrecting batteries, which many people would consider beyond use. (Our battery experts are Chris Cheney and Mark Hallett.)
These were unloaded and placed in the 20′ container – a task that sounds easy but it takes two people to lift one of those batteries.
John Martin also brought us two batteries, which are in excellent condition. John tested the cells on ‘040 with a hydrometer, his opinion was that most of our battery cells were better than those on 56003. He confirmed our thoughts that three of our batteries were not so good and proceeded to swap two of them for the good batteries he had brought and planned to mix and match cells from the three poor batteries to make up a third good battery which should give us a complete set capable of turning 56 040 over when the time comes.

E Bay purchases;

Two new oil filters placed in the stores.
Four still in KB’s office (Two sold to ES -see next.)

Wheeling and Dealing;

During Saturday we sold a turbo’, three fuel injectors and two lubricating oil filters to another party. (Paperwork to be sorted out.)
In addition we brokered a deal between Edward and Paul Mobbs (31438/31530) whereby Edward bought some cantrail filter elements for 56 098.

Camshaft oil trays;

The work started during the previous working party was completed with the oily mess (and rainwater) being cleaned out of all 16 cam shaft oil trays. A dirty job but someone’s got to do it – thanks Sean and Jon.

Pressure Tester;

Tony Middleton’s pressure tester was returned to its original condition. We had to change the clamp ring as the original lugs on Tony’s were longer than on our bulk filler and clashed with the bodywork on ‘040.
Tony needed this back for an upcoming pressure test on 50035. We appreciate the loan of this equipment, which gave us peace of mind that the liner seals on ‘040 are in reasonable condition.
Alan has taken this and will tie up with Tony to arrange delivery back to him.

Permanent Way duties;

Four C56G volunteers helped Paul Mobbs position materials required for upcoming
P-Way work.

Personal Track Safety certification;

Four members were certified for PTS during Saturday afternoon.

Food;

Jane provided lunch and breakfast for all volunteers. Thanks Jane.

Anti-social behaviour;

Alan Hawkins ordered a vindaloo curry during the evening visit to the curry house-enough said!

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