RRRG new website top logo resized

 

Restoration diary

Reports of restoration work on 50029 and 50030.

May 21st-25th 2011

Dave, Chris & Tom spent a marathon five days on site. Dave sorted the spare brake rigging and began cleaning & un-sticking various parts, Tom continued working on the interior wood surrounds on the quarter-lights & drop-lights in 30's No.2 cab & Chris fitted the three remaining sections of 185mm cables to the field divert contactors, as he & I had decided a fresh pair of eyes might be able to devise a solution from pictures he had taken of the cables in 50050. He has also taken the auxiliary contacts off the 'proper' 50 reverser, to see if he can fabricate a new mechanism for the second reverser for Renown & begun cleaning debris from the No.1 end clean air compartment.

Tags:
Continue reading
4446 Hits
0 Comments

May 15th 2011

Dave spent the weekend on site clearing up the stores shed, then on Sunday helped Ian & Pete stretch 12 more stretch bolts on three big ends on the power unit, having made a new tool during the week. Having forgotten to reconnect the rad fan fuse last week (despite posting that I had completed the wheelslip board), I did so, then fitted the small relay board behind the fuse & mcb cabinet. This board has the Overload Interlock relay OIR, Generator Field relay GFR, No.1 motor blower relay BMR1 and the lighting time switch load resistor Z59. Two of the mounting bolts again required loosening slightly to fit the board in the somewhat tight space, and the resistor was removed to ease fitment. The lugs on the large cables to the GFR & BMR1 were cleaned and they were bolted on to their connections on the rear of the board, which again was time consuming due to the confined space to wield spanners.

Tags:
Continue reading
4031 Hits
0 Comments

May 1st 2011

Dave spent the weekend on site having a general tidy-up of the coach and container, then helped Ian & Pete torquing the big-end stretch bolts until the tool broke! After I had returned the wheelslip relay board to my house after the previous workparty, I removed the contact fingers from the relays and cleaned them (not the easiest of tasks as the fixing screws are tiny & probably hadn't been removed since the relays were originally made), straightened two of the contact fingers on one relay. They were re-assembled and fitted back onto the paxolin board with new brass cable connection bolts to replace to broken originals, checked for operation by dabbing a 110v DC supply onto the coil contacts and were found to be still working. The associated three 10k ohm resistors were also removed, cleaned, checked with a meter to see they were still working, and refitted. The brass rad fan fuse mounting pillars were missing, so they were taken from the spare broken board, cleaned & fitted. The mounting pillars for the plastic relay covers were removed as they were rusty, & were de-rusted, painted & refitted. The filthy relay covers were cleaned and refitted. Today, the completed board was mounted in the elec cubicle in Repulse, but required a small piece cutting off one corner as some cables that go past the board were hard against one edge, and two of the mounting bolts needed to be loosened as they didn't quite line up with the mounting holes. The board was then fitted and bolted in, the rad fan fuse was fitted & the external connections have been made.

Tags:
Continue reading
4812 Hits
0 Comments

March 20th 2011

Chris & Tom Thorn & Dave again spent the weekend on site starting to remove the removable rad grille section and the air filter frame in the passageway, to get at the motor blower inside. Chris B joined them today & by the end of the day, they had unbolted & removed the blower snail housing out through the hatch for cleaning. It is hoped the motor itself will follow soon, but due to it's weight, it will probably have to be lifted out through the roof. Ian & Pete removed all the cam followers from the power unit's B side for cleaning & to blow out the oilways with the compressor. I rewired part of the rear of the cleaned wheelslip relay board, using new brass nuts & bolts, as the original cable mounting bolts had all been sheared off sometime ago. Once the wheelslip resistors have been cleaned, and I have verified the relays are still working, the board will be reassembled & can then be fitted into the elec cubicle.

Continue reading
5003 Hits
0 Comments

March 6th 2011

Chris T continued sorting & tidying in both coaches, and applied the 'Smartwater' security stickers to the coaches & both locos, Tom continued work in the no.1 cab of Repulse, Ian & Pete continued fitting the water jacket flexible elbows from the engine block to the cylinder heads, but found two that seemed reluctant to fit, so left them for next time. I tested all the wheelslip resistors with my meter to make sure they were still intact, then removed two, without breaking the mounting bolts, to go with the one I had previously removed, and brought them home to fit to the board I took home last time once cleaned. Chris T thinks he has found a supplier of the Londex wheelslip relays, in case the original ones prove unusable & I will investigate this further. I persuaded the recalcitrant mounting bolts I mentioned last time to align with another relay board's mounting holes with elbow grease and a nylon hammer, test fitted the board, dismantled and cleaned the auxiliary contacts of the relays on said board and started cleaning the somewhat soiled 35mm cable lugs that connect to them.

Tags:
Continue reading
4351 Hits
0 Comments

February 20th 2011

Dave spend the day cleaning the brake chain & mechanism in the no 1 cab of Renown, Ian, Pete & Chris B removed the 12 remaining fuel pumps to be sent for overhaul & I tidied some more completed cable runs in the cubicle of Repulse, started to bend the fixing bolts for the board mentioned last time & examined the three boards with the wheelslip relays & their resistors. There are three wheelslip relays & three resistors on each board & one board is required per loco. One board seems to have been removed from a 50 rather roughly, as the one corner is broken off where the one fixing hole was, so that one is not usable. The other two boards are intact but someone had tried to remove the resistors before we acquired the boards, and sheared off their fixing bolts level with the boards in the process. Many of the cable fixing bolts for the relays are similarly sheared and can be replaced with brass ones, but the resistor bolts will need further investigation, so I brought one board home to see if I can devise a way to re-secure them.

Tags:
Continue reading
4683 Hits
0 Comments

January 30th 2011

Dave, Ian & Pete torqued the remaining 10 cylinder heads down to 600 ft lbs, a somewhat lengthy task, having to remove and replace two of the large head fixing studs which had damaged threads. Dave had spent the weekend on site again & during Saturday had fitted new flooring in the no2 cab of Repulse. Chris B unbolted three fuel pumps. Tim & Dom had a good tidy up around our locos and coach, and removed old cab flooring round to the bonfire site, and I fitted and wired the battery charge diode, tidied up some sections of cabling with cable ties & Chris B helped me thread a long section of 16mm cable into the cubicle which connects one of the circuit breakers to terminal bar 7. With that last section of cabling fitted, all the fuses and mcb's are fully wired, and the small relay board that goes in front of them can now be fitted.

Continue reading
4431 Hits
0 Comments

January 16th 2011

Tim & Dom did housekeeping duties around our vehicles, then started hoovering accumulated debris from under the cab floors of Renown & the rad compartment passageways. Ian & Pete fitted the last three big end bearing caps into the power unit. Dave started to free off the siezed handbrake mechanism in the no1 cab of Renown and cleaned & painted more cab parts. Now Steve & Sarah have recovered from their car crash enough to be more active, they visited site & I discussed various options with Steve for replacing severed cables inside Renown. They then removed some of the flooring alongside the elec cubicle and by the brake frame & started removing accumulated debris from under the floors. We had a quick look to see if any of the severed cables could be matched with their 'other' ends, and we think we may have identified those to the DSD relays. I test fitted a small relay board inside the electrical cubicle of Repulse, but the fixing bolts need bending a little to bring them back into alignment with the board's mounting holes. I also fitted the Battery Charge Diode. Kev Hand made a surprise visit & returned both reversers he was storing for us, as we are now in a position to permanently fit the proper one into Repulse.

Tags:
Continue reading
5098 Hits
0 Comments

December 11th 2010

Dave Rolfe continued measuring, cutting and fitting flooring into the no.1 cab of Renown. Chris Bodell painted some more cab fittings & panels, and varnished the completed flooring in no.2 cab, Ian & Pete fitted two big end bearing caps now the suppliers have sent Ian the nuts for the stretch bolts that they were out of stock of. They were in the process of fitting a third cap but one of the four stretch bolts seemed unwilling to fit, so they had to remove the cap to see what the problem was. Nothing was obviously amiss, but by then the light was fading, so they didn't refit the third cap. My two GWR mates (Matt & Roger) who had visited a few weeks ago again came up, this time armed with some 185mm through-crimps and a large hydraulic crimper, so in the morning we did a test joint to see how it looked, and the result was encouraging. After crimping both sides of the crimp, a layer of heat-shrink sleeving was applied and heat-shrunk. A large amount of insulation tape was then wrapped round the crimp over the sleeving, then a second layer of heat-shrink sleeving was applied and shrunk. We used the group's 1000v Megger to check if there was any leakage to earth, and the Megger result was a full-scale needle deflection to the Megger's capacity of 2 Mega Ohms (2 million ohms). Any reading over 1 megaohm is considered good, and as the Megger only registers up to 2 Meg, the actual reading would therefore have been higher, which means this type of crimp, which is rated at 11,000 volts, should be more than adequate for both the severed main traction cabling and the main ETH cabling, as the maximum expected traction voltage is around 1000 volts. If I can find someone with a higher-capacity Megger, I will repeat the insulation test. Joining the cables in this way will remove a significant amount of time, effort and expense from the work needed to complete Repulse. After lunch, we crimped the last couple of 16mm cables, connected them, then Matt connected four cables to resistors on top of the cubicle which I am too much of a shortarse to reach.

Tags:
Continue reading
7014 Hits
0 Comments

November 14th 2010

Dave started fitting new flooring in the no.2 cab of Renown, Tom continued work in the no 1 cab of Repulse, Chris T & Tim continued loading items into BG2 and rebuilding the horn air feeds in 30 with parts taken from the cab of 50037, Chris B spent the day painting power unit coolant and oil pipes, Ian & Pete refitted the last cylinder head and began fitting some of the water piping, Dom lifted the remains of the rotten flooring in the no.1 cab of Renown & cleaned out the accumulated debris underneath & Mark brought some recently acquired spares to site & undid the remains of one set of the severed generator cable conduits in the clean air compartment. Two ex-GWR colleagues of mine visited today, partly for a look at progress on 30, partly to advise me on possible ways to join the severed motor cables under the cubicle floor without having to rewire with expensive new cables, and partly to lend me their hydraulic crimper to put new lugs on a few more 16mm cables.

Continue reading
4039 Hits
0 Comments

October 31st 2010

Ian & Pete fitted three pistons and two heads during the day, Chris B continued working in the no.2 cab of Repulse refitting internal panelling, and I fitted several 16mm & 35mm cables I had crimped new lugs on, where the originals had been cut off & fortunately they were still long enough to re-fit them without incident.

Tags:
Continue reading
4171 Hits
0 Comments

October 17th 2010

Very busy weekend on site. 50037 saw another two days effort on body preparations for its repaint. Vast amounts of filler were also removed from under the driver's screen revealing the full extent of the dents from a major impact sometime between 1982 and 1984. 50029 saw the spare cubicle doors removed from no 2 cab for storage in BG2. 50008's engine received further attention with more water jacket elbows refitted and head tightening. BG1 had a major tidy up after racking had to be dismantled to enable a new workbench to be loaded within it. And finally both locomotives were winterised with heavy tarpaulins fitted to keep the weather out of the engine rooms over the winter. Bodies on site Chris Dom Tim Pete Steve Sarah Dave Tom Chris.

Tags:
Continue reading
4370 Hits
0 Comments

September 19th 2010

As I have missed the last two work parties for various reasons, this report will cover the period from the last update on July 4th. Dave & Chris Thorn, assisted at times by Chris Bodell & Mark Burrows, have continued to sort and load the items stored outside into the second BG. Chris B has also made good progress cleaning & painting in 30s no.2 cab, and refitting various covers & wooden trims. Ian & Pete have continued re-fitting pistons with new rings, big end shells and stretch bolts, and torquing down cylinder heads. All the above continued today, and Tim & Dom made an appearance to catch up with our Flying Dutchman; Paul Sturm, who was visiting from Holland. Paul spoke at length with us to see the progress we have made since his last visit two years ago, then very kindly bought us all a drink at the end of the day at the Church Inn by Darley Dale.

Tags:
Continue reading
3852 Hits
0 Comments

August 1st 2010

Dave made some more space in BG2, before he and myself forklifted 6 turbos on to pallets ready for loading into the north end. We also palleted up a fan motor and scrapped the frame off a compressor. I painted more turbo and intercooler pipework, using our new spray gun.

Tags:
Continue reading
3642 Hits
0 Comments

July 4th 2010

Ian, Pete & Dave hoisted up and fitted another three overhauled cylinder heads to the power unit, and torqued them, and another head previously fitted, down to 600ft lbs. Chris B cleaned & painted some sections of intercooler & turbo pipework & I carried on tidying the small control cables with cable ties & attempted to fit the last three remaining sections of 185mm cable to the field divert resistors, but found them all apparently the wrong length and with crimps fitted at angles which at the moment prevents them from being bolted to their connections on the reverser.

Tags:
Continue reading
4257 Hits
0 Comments

June 20th 2010

Due to various reasons, we decided to cancel the last work party. This weekend Ian and Pete made a list of parts needed to complete the top end engine overhaul so they can hopefully be ordered this week from the supplier. They then continued refitting the new big end shells we had in stock, temporarily using old nuts on the stretch bolts, as we wait for more new ones. Finally, with the help of Dave and forklift truck, they brought the remaining overhauled heads round from the shed, ready for refitting to the power unit. Tim, Dom, Chris B, Chris T & Dave moved a significant amount of the items in the shed into our newly-acquired second BG for storage. Mark B brought two car loads of spares he has been keeping in his garage to also go into the new coach. I finished laying in the control wiring for the reverser, and started tidying up the loose wiring with lots of cable ties

Tags:
Continue reading
4452 Hits
0 Comments

May 22nd 2010

We cancelled the last work party as it was the diesel gala and we had been told there would be no yard access. Today, Ian & Pete torqued down two more cylinder heads, but as they were working on the side of the power unit next to Renown, they found access difficult for the four-foot long torque multiplier, so just tightening two heads down to 600 ft lbs of torque took virtually all day. I sweltered inside Repulse finishing connecting the cables onto the main neutral terminal bar, then started sorting the control cables for the reverser. I also compared a large 1000mfd electrolytic capacitor (the size of a large baked beans tin) that I have been loaned, with ones we have on the input boards for the KV10's, to see if they will fit, and I found they did. We need four of these capacitors per KV10 input board, but as ours have not been used in at least 10 years, I have been advised they will probably no longer function, and I have been trying to source replacements. We had an unexpected call for help from Peak Rail in the afternoon, as one of the P.Way gang fell of a rail wagon and sustained possible hip, neck or back injuries, and we assisted the ambulance crew carrying the man to the ambulance.

Tags:
Continue reading
5554 Hits
0 Comments

April 25th 2010

Dave continued cleaning & painting the second turbo, and yesterday examined the two remaining turbos on the power unit & found they both rotate freely, which is good news. Ian & Pete torqued down two cylinder heads to 600fpt, then examined the camshafts in the power units still in the locos to see if they were in better condition than the section that has some water damage in the ex-008 unit, but found both sections examined were in similar condition due to having stood idle for so long, so an off-site repair is looking likely. Chris Bodell continued his dirty work cleaning the clean air compt at No1 end, and has almost finished the one side now. I continued wrestling with the field divert cables, but found one marked for the one position that appears about two feet too short, so this will need further investigation.

Tags:
Continue reading
4157 Hits
0 Comments

April 11th 2010

Ian, Pete, Chris T & Tom washed down both locos for their appearance at the upcoming PR diesel gala & by the end of the day, both locos looked pretty good. Chris B has taken on the unenviable task of cleaning debris from the No.1 end clean air room, and by close of play it was difficult to see where his overalls stopped and his head started! Dave Rolfe has dismantled and freed off the stuck turbo and is now cleaning and painting it. I fitted the last two missing sections of 185mm cable to the field divert resistors, and spent the rest of the day wrestling with the six 3mtr lengths that drop down to the reverser, as they need to be fitted in a certain order to avoid having them tangled, which requires fitting and removal multiple times until you get it right, not that easy due to the confined space of the thin-man's passage and they are quite stiff due to their size.

Tags:
Continue reading
6099 Hits
0 Comments

March 28th 2010

On arrival at Peak Rail today, we discovered copper thieves had cut the four cables under No.2 end bogie to one of the traction motors. Two Peak Rail coaches had also been vandalised. This was reported to PR management. After examining Repulse, we discovered no other obvious damage & the other five motors seem to have escaped untouched. Ian, Pete & Dave stripped the seized turbocharger & removed both sets of bearings & although the shaft would move slightly along its axis, it stubbornly refuses to rotate, so this will be investigated further next workparty. I continued sorting & fitting the cables to the field divert contactors & resistors, discovering we are two lengths short, but have several duplicate surplus lengths which have been marked with their positions & could be used as spares or for Renown.

Tags:
Continue reading
4541 Hits
0 Comments