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Extra April 2012 Working Party Day

On Sunday 29th April a small group attended Dinas to finish some work not completed during the previous working party. This was to ensure the tender was ready to travel the line so as it could attend the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway's Spring Gala during the May Bank Holiday period.

The work included the completion of the couplings, the adjustment of the handbrake after it was removed for the fitting of the tender body, the sealing and checking of the vacuum pipes and brake. Finally the adjustment of  the springs to ensure a level ride and that the horn keeps could be properly secured. All small jobs but still a fair amount of effort in total.

The tender will now be moved to the WHHR in the days following where it can be viewed during the Spring Gala.  T shirts will be available there as will a print of how the loco will look when complete.  For more details of the latter see the Merchandise page.

April 2012 Working Party Report

The feature of this month’s working party was the arrival of the tender body and it’s fitment to 133’s tender chassis. We’d been working on preparing 133’s tender chassis for some month’s now so it was nice to see it now in use to hole 134’s tender. This will enable it to be moved around the railway for special events to act as an ambassador for the restoration project.

The tank had previously been to the Railway for the 2011 Superpower event however it was displayed on the trailer unit it was delivered on. As some ‘finishing off’ work was needed it was returned to the builders, Brunswick Ironworks in Caernarfon, after the event.

The Saturday however, saw the return of the now completed tank and it craning into place onto the tender chassis.

The tender body being lowered onto 133's tender chassis.

More pictures are available in the April working party page and on the contracted work page for the tender.

This was quite a big job in making sure all was well with the installation, however, other work was also completed during the weekend. This consisted of vacuum testing the through brake pipes and the continuation of drilling out more rivets on the rear drag box. This is beyond economic repair and so drawings have been produced for its complete replacement with a new fabricated unit.

By the next working party it is hoped that the cylinder re-boring will be complete, this being done by Boston Lodge in-situ on the loco.

March 2012 Working Party Report

The work on this working party concentrated on the loco's frames and the removal of the read drag box.

The rear drag box is considered to be in such a poor state such that it is need of total renewal. This job however, could not be tackled until the rear frame stretcher was back in place from its refurbishment so as not to leave the rear of the frames with no structural support. Now that the rear frame stretcher was bolted back in place at the last working party we can move to replace  the drag box. 

As the drag box form part of the structural integrity of the frames the first job was brace the rear of the frames so as they cannot move and distort whilst the drag box is not present. To do this some suitable steel was welded into place as can be seen below:

The rear of the frames braced ready for removal of the rear drag box.

Once the bracing was in place then drilling commenced to remove all the rivets holding the drag box in place.

The other main job of the weekend was the fitting of the 'new' reverser. The reverser has had a new shaft fitted and all the bushes replaced. The work done to this brings the component up to as new condition and will be good for many more years service.

The reverser refitted to the frames.

February 2012 Working Party Report

This working weekend turned out to be more of a ‘consolidation’ weekend with minimal work done on the loco or tender.

The first job on Saturday was to position the portal lifting frame from the Penrhyn Castle Museum above 134’s tender frame as this is where it’ll be of most use in view of its lifting capacity.

Over the past year or more the group has been preparing various dismantled components ready for either repair or refurbishment. The opportunity has now arisen for that work to be done at Boston Lodge, the Ffestiniog Railway’s workshops. Jobs to be done will include fitting new bushes to spring and brake rigging, repair of cracks in components through to the refurbishment on the two tender bogies with bracket and frame repairs. The rest of Saturday was therefore spent sorting those components ready for their transfer by rail to Boston Lodge.

Another job was to bring 133’s tender frames out of the carriage shed ready to receive its last bit of attention prior to delivery of the tender tank. At the same time as the shunt to release 133’s tender, a B-wagon was also retrieved from a siding ready to load with the components for refurbishment.

Sunday was then spent loading the B-wagon with the components. This was a job that had to be completed in the day as there was a train due to go to Boston Lodge the following day onto which the B-wagon could be attached. Once these components were out of the way and in the wagon we set to and tidied the shed. This involved the removal of various reusable 'fittings' from saved scrap items, that then allowed said items to be finally scrapped, the collection of all surplus timber that had attracted its way into the shed over the years as well as the storing out of the way of a few more castings. Following a final brush round on Sunday afternoon this left the shed in a much clearer and tidier state.

Of the work on the engine, one job was the moving of a vacuum pipe support bracket on 133’s tender as during the shunt from out of the shed we’d noticed that it was getting quite close to a bogie axle box on curves and pointwork. On the loco templates were cut for new cylinder end cover joints.

January 2012 Working Party Report

The January working party achieved a great deal on many different fronts over the weekend. This ranged from work on 133's tender frame, 134's loco frames and work on various components thereof.

On 133's tender rolling chassis, the hand brake is now fitted and operational.  Following the work done by Team Wylfa in freeing off the brake shaft, all the linkages including the brake handle were refitted and now we have a working hand break. There are still some joints that need a bit more work, together with the removal of some flanges that have worn onto brake blocks due to them having been poorly fitted, however, it shouldn't stop the tank being fitted sooner rather than later. Some work is still needed on the vacuum brake as well, however again this can be done after the tank is fitted, however it is hoped that Team Wylfa can attend to both the aforementioned outstanding jobs before that happens. It is the aim that the tank can be fitted during or just before the next working party. 

The rear frame stretcher now installed with temporary bolts.

On the Loco itself, the rear frame stretcher was bolted into place. This task involved making two podgers to align the holes. Podgers are drifts with a long, shallow taper which are driven through misaligned holes to bring them into line to allow the bolts to pass cleanly through the holes. Whilst the stretcher still needs to be fitted with the final 'fitted' bolts into reamed holes, in place of the original rivets, it will now allow the rear drag box to be removed. Toward this an assessment was done as to the best method of adding extra bracing to the rear of the frames when it is removed. Once the new drag box is in place then all the temporary bolts will be replaced with 'fitted' bolts at the same time as the drag box has the same treatment.

Now the full extent of the cylinder misalignment is known the cylinders can be re-bored to correct the error. The work is anticipated to start shortly and will involve the cylinders being re-bored in situ. In preparation for this all the piano wire and alignment fixtures were removed. 

Work also continued on the central grease blocks, with one side now fitted to the loco running plate frame.

The final item to report was the inspection for cracks of all the suspension components. This used the dye penetration inspection method and involved a number of us getting rather pink from the red dye used. A few minor cracks and poor welds were found and so these will be repaired before the components are refitted to the loco or tender.

Postscript to December Working Party Report - January 2012

Team Wylfa started the New Year with a modicum of success on their first working party of 2012 - the seized brake shaft from 133's tender that Andie Shaw and Pete Randall successfully removed and took to the Clip Shed workshop during the December working party just before Christmas has been freed off. With the rust scraped and wire brushed away from the shaft / bearing interfaces, these were then soaked for a short while with some 'magic mix' - a mix of paint thinners and oil. Some 'gentle' persuasion with a sledge hammer followed and before long, the outer bearing had been carefully levered off and bearing and shaft cleaned. The inner bearing was then freed off in short order - it is 'trapped' on the shaft between a pinned collar and crank arm - both of which are 'rust welded' to the shaft. These would have to be burned off so as this work on 133's tender is only to make it useable 'for now' on a temporary basis, there is no intention of doing major refurbishment by making a new shaft and crank arms. The opportunity to drill the cast iron bearings and tap them 1/4" BSP for the fitting of grease nipples has been undertaken - there was no provision for lubricating these important parts of the brake system from new..! Next visit will see the assembly thoroughly cleaned and painted ready for refitting at the January Working Weekend. 

Work on 133's tender missing front end vacuum brake piping was also undertaken during this working party. Just before Christmas, measuring and cutting of replacement pipe spools was done. Half of these spools had threads cut on their ends during the evening with the remainder to follow by the end of next week's working party. We may get around to assembling them on the tender too if they are completed early enough in the evening.

The whole of 133's tender brake system should be in a functional state by the end of the January Working Weekend thus making it suitable as the short term home for 134's new tender tank.

2008, 2009 & 2010 reports are now in the Archive