34081 overhaul updates

[Spamcan81]

Hi,
Newby here.
The strip down of 34081 is almost complete and we'll soon begin the long and painstaking task of reassembly. In the meantime Chatham Steam is getting on with the boiler overhaul and currently making good progress.
An extract from Kingsley's (one of the overhaul team) blog.
"August 31st.
Another great turnout today.
Roger. Got stuck into the bogie chassis cleaning.
Doc. Started the stripping of the primer on the Delta which the faulty Phosphoric acid had allowed the rust to leach through.
Alan.P. Was working with Roger on the bogie. Alan is also starting a log of member's hours worked on the loco.
Mick. Was cleaning and prepping the whistle operating rod assembly and was last seen attempting to prime an 18ft length of 1/4" dia rod which was behaving like a snake.
Ambie. Still on the chassis clean and now with the new cleaning agent that Al got, even better.
Alan.C. Worked on the drag box with the needle gun.
Barry. Valiantly attempting to repair the fine mesh gauze in one of the sump breathers.
Richard. P. Bought up the laptop which has kindly donated for our logging records.
Alan got stuck in to some paint jobs and has taken the shed plate away to highlight the white on the plate. He also gave Ambie assistance on the 'higher' sections of the chassis clean.
DOC. Although involved with 656 was also involved under the front end on the linkage for the drain cocks.
Graham. Working under the front end removing the three centre cylinder drain cocks and the linkage.
Jim. Also working with Graham and then subsequently temporarily reassembling the cocks and linkage for photos.
Mike. Tackled the rear diaphragm plate. We 'suggested' he did this outside as the the needle gun produced well serious noise!
Myself. Cleared some items into the green, top coated the axle and horn block lubrication assemblies, found the whistle shaft assembly, tagged and photographed the centre drain cocks and linkage in situ and reassembled after removal/
13 people today and all busy. It's really wonderful to see such turnouts and the lovely atmosphere being generated. Long (but not too long) may it continue.
We now know that when she goes back into traffic, we will have a very strong support team for Al on the service and maintenance front as every one will have have proper hands on experience."

 

[theblackwatch]

I presume it will operate at the Nene Valley once its overhaul is complete? And idea when the loco is likely to be back in traffic?

 

[Spamcan81]

I presume it will operate at the Nene Valley once its overhaul is complete? And idea when the loco is likely to be back in traffic?

Yes, we have an agreement to make the NVR her main operating base for a few years once she is back in traffic. This will not rule out visits to other railways though. As for a "return to steam date," it's the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015 and I feel it's an absolute must to have her running in time for that. We hope to be ready early than that of course and barring any hiccoughs we should be as current progress is very encouraging indeed.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
September 14th
Kingsley Harris reports
"A good day again yesterday with good progress being made on clearing up the backlog of painting. Thanks Mick.
Roger has about finished the Delta topside. It just needs overturning and the final prep and paint can continue.
Al had moved the Delta wheelset over to the other side of the loco (to avoid spoiling the paint job on the Delta frame). Doc is now continuing the job of prepping the wheels, an arduous task as so much dirt accumulates in the wheel pockets.
Al had also managed to remove the large cotter pin securing the piston rod to the crosshead. The piston rod will now need pressing out out of its taper in the crosshead. The piston can then be removed and wear assessments made.
Alan was continuing on the chassis cleaning (and making great tea so I'm told!) whilst Barry and Richard are making progress at the cab end with needle gunning and Phossie applications.
A decision has to be made very shortly as to whether we need to remove all the oil supply pipe work from the cab oil boxes to the axle boxes on either side.
Also some discussion was had regarding leaving all wheel rims unpainted but polished, a very attractive feature and one that the support crew will be able to maintain. It was decided to ascertain whether the wheel rims will polish up i.e. if the turning grooves are too deep, then it's not probably not realistic. So the jury is out on that one at the moment.
DOC and I got involved in sorting out errant tag numbers on the parts list and for those in the mess room at the time there was a lot of talk of cocks-left, right but mostly centre.
The rear cab floor (the part the tender fall plate rests and slides on) is going to be removed an a new checker plate floor fitted. The tender fall plate has sustained some damage whilst shunting around last year , but hopefully will only need straightening."
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Saturday 17th September saw a weekend work party for a change. Narrative by Kingsley Harris as usual.
"Great day yesterday.
Doc and Roland had been busy on the Delta.
Rowland, who has owned a garage and has also serviced lorries will bring some more mechanical expertise to the team and will be a regular Wednesday worker in perhaps 2 to 3 weeks time. His initial contribution yesterday was cleaning the Delta lateral control box of all the old grease. When the Delta is finally painted we can then test the delivery of the new nipples, repack with grease, bolt on the sliding dust cover (ready finished in the B&W) and then await the fitment of the axleboxes and wheels. I'll be getting the Marine type ply tomorrow so Barry can make the 2 wooden dirt excluders for the axle. The Delta can then be stored in its correct place under the chassis. That's why Al is stressing it is so important to really get stuck into the chassis.
I checked with Roger on Saturday to see if we could turn the chassis over. He said it was OK, so under the supervision of Al, Allan, 'I've got an NVQ in crane operation don't ya know' Collins turned the Delta upside down. A quick examination revealed nothing serious and also there is considerably less work to do as all the insides of the channels had been completed and also the amount of corrosion seems significantly less than expected. The Delta, after lowering onto the curved parts of the frame was supported on a trestle to make the work easier.
Rowland and Allan also removed the rear checker plate and supports for DOC to renew and also allow the chassis to be properly phossied.
I've made a start on getting the lube pipes into a fixture based on the holes in the base of the oil trays in the cab. It's a bit like threading spaghetti into a colander but upwards. We have to get all the pipes into the fixture. The functions are identical BUT they will only assemble one way and thus avoid undue stress on the whole assembly.
When Andy and I disassembled them in 2010 I took a photo of the box they are bolted to and numbered each pipe position and very astutely labelled them so there would be no problem in the future. However a combination of oil, rain and so forth removed virtually all the numbers so that's why we have a literal puzzle on out hands! When we have the pipes correctly located we then intend to take off one pipe at a time to clean up. Volunteers please? "

 

[Mvann]

For anybody interested, 656 is a Danish 0-6-0 tank engine that is being worked on by the NVR's mechanical engineering group. Work is going well on this engine. New cranks have been forged and are away being machined at the moment. Hopefully, funds permiting, the chasis will be fully rewheeled soon. One journal needs work on and also a new spring needs making for the draw bar under the bunker. It is estimated that £1000 will be needed to get to a rolling chasis stage and £18000 to get work started on the boiler. If the money can be raised, this loco could be back in action within 2 years.

 

[Spamcan81]

For anybody interested, 656 is a Danish 0-6-0 tank engine that is being worked on by the NVR's mechanical engineering group. Work is going well on this engine. New cranks have been forged and are away being machined at the moment. Hopefully, funds permiting, the chasis will be fully rewheeled soon. One journal needs work on and also a new spring needs making for the draw bar under the bunker. It is estimated that £1000 will be needed to get to a rolling chasis stage and £18000 to get work started on the boiler. If the money can be raised, this loco could be back in action within 2 years.

Looking forward to seeing 656 back in action but wouldn't it be best to start a thread especially for this loco so people know where to look to follow progress?

 

[45669]

Many thanks for these updates. As I have moved away from NVR territory it's nice to be able to read about current progress.

 

[Mvann]

Looking forward to seeing 656 back in action but wouldn't it be best to start a thread especially for this loco so people know where to look to follow progress?

Yes it would, but as 656 was mentioned in Kingsley's report, I thought it might be worth pointing out what 656 was.

 

[Spamcan81]

Been a while since I posted an update. Quite a lot of progress since my last post and our band of volunteers grows ever larger. We have 25 engaged on a regular basis with the Wednesday gang - not all at once but always a healthy number - and we are about to start a monthly Saturday gang. Hopefully this will grow like the Wednesday gang and become more than a once a month thing.
February 29th.
"Another really great day (half in my case) with no less than seventeen turning up including a new lad, Ashley, on his first day. Pat Waring delivered a load of non calorific chocolate for our team to consume. In the spirit of friendliness they scoffed the lot before I arrived and then polished off a Stollen cake in the afternoon. Still, they are hard working, growing lads. Pat is the widow of Eddie Waring, a regular driver of 92 Squadron.
Today the centre cylinder top was finished with its second green primer coat and all studs fitted. Just needs the fireclay now - a great job, well done!
The chain adjustment bracket was freed and now moves easily in both it's planes.
John Haydon has found a very easy method to remove the oil pump from the base of the sump - he's got Tony to do it! The wonders of RAF management in action.
Roger, whilst cleaning the oil bath top, found a 3" long crack which is easily repairable. It doesn't seem to have been caused by stress but more likely mechanical damage.
Excellent progress is being made on the insides of the frames by Roland as is the sump preparation by Doc.
The bogie wheels are about ready to be sent away so we moved them under the rear of the chassis, cleaned the whole of the area they occupied and air lifted the front driving axle into the vacant space. There is enough room to move the wheel half a revolution back and forth to make cleaning easier. Now we have this room, each wheel can be fully serviced in turn. We must remember to clearly label the axle and wheel side of this wheel set. The others are identified by the chain drive sprocket and the rear by the speedo drive attachment holes on the LH crank.
The RHS journal of the driving axle is having attention to its journal to remove the slight taper that been produced in the last 30,000 miles of service. This work is being done using a set of " scrapers" set in a frame around the journal and then laboriously turned by hand. It is easier with two people so who better than Barry and Alan who are now joined at the hip! By constant measurement and adjustment the journal should finish up with a constant diameter. The journal bearing can then be remetalled and scraped to suit the new diameter.
Again through the kindness of Roland we now have a brass wire brush which is fixed to the bench grinder (kindly donated by Steve Dando). The grinder is now attached to the bench and is giving Mick hours of endless pleasure cleaning up the various nuts and bolts for reuse.
Kevin was invisible for most of the day stuck between the LHS cylinder and slidebars cleaning the chassis. All this very close attention to detail will show up in the overall appearance.
We had a major clean up of the oil contaminated card floor covering and will in future use corrugate as it's more absorbent and easier to handle.
Had a suggestion regarding using the two storey building as a 92 Squadron Mess hut. At the moment we have so many people that, a) We have to take it in shifts with the non 92 chaps and b) we don't have enough seats.
So I approached the NVR regarding it's future use and was pleased to be told that it's John Whitby's responsibility. Now we have quite a hold over John so I expect an arrangement will be reached for what could be an excellent solution to the current overcrowding problem - a nice problem to have by the way.

Kings.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Very remiss of me but I forgot to mention the regular Tuesday gang who work on components off site. This brings the number of volunteers working on the loco on a regular basis to over 35.

 

[NIMBUS]

Good update. Thanks!

Time flies - it hardly seems two minutes since I watched the long, protracted progress of getting "92 Squadron" back in one piece at Wansford over many years. It will be good to have another big loco available on the NVR - the days of the Standard class 5 and "Britannia" on running weekends seem a very distant memory now.

 

[Spamcan81]

Good update. Thanks!

Time flies - it hardly seems two minutes since I watched the long, protracted progress of getting "92 Squadron" back in one piece at Wansford over many years. It will be good to have another big loco available on the NVR - the days of the Standard class 5 and "Britannia" on running weekends seem a very distant memory now.

It's just over 35 years since she first arrived at Wansford and I just don't know where the time has gone. Restoring a Barry wreck is never a quick job but it so happened that fund raising managed to keep pace with the work rate and thus we entered traffic without ever getting in to debt. This meant that 34081 started earning the money for the current overhaul from day one instead of paying off any loans.