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December 2019 Working Party
Well here we are, the December working party and the last one for 2019. Whilst for a number of reasons we were a little 'thin on the ground' we nevertheless achieved quite a lot.
The man task was that of fitting the new chequer plate. A couple of us spent the bulk of the weekend attaching the side angle support and one section of the chequer plate, whilst another of us was busy cutting the complex sections around the cylinders.
It had already been decided to use new chequer plate and to adopt the same technique of fastening it as employed on NGG16 No.130 that is currently undergoing a sponsored rebuild back into service for the WHR. This involves attaching the plate using countersunk bolts in order for neater and hopefully safer platework. However before this could be attached we had to separately fasten the angled section that supports the side of the footplate. This again was fastened using countersunk head bolts so as the chequer plate then sits flush on top. All bar one fastening was completed for this, the last one having to wait until the old platework has been removed. Once the angle was in place we then drilled and tapped the angle and countersunk the chequer plate to fastened one side of the main left hand side piece of chequer plate.
We made a template for the chequer plate that will be attached around the top of the cylinders as there are quite a few valves and pipes to work around here. Once we were happy with the fit we then started cutting the plate itself for the left hand cylinder.
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The
new chequer plate being securred with countersunk head bolts
(left)
and the leading driving axle now fitted with the refurbished Canon Box
(right)
As always a weekend would be complete without some painting and a couple of items were dealt with here.
Between the November working party and this one the full time staff had also been busy for us and have completed the refurbishment of the Canon Box for the leading axle that the Krauss-Helmholtz pony attaches to via a ball joint. They have also thinned the flanges on the second axle, a practice started in South Africa.
Early next year the full time staff will also be working on the axle boxes and so some jigs had been made to check measurements.
All told a good finish to the year, and at a pace that hopefully we can continue into next year.
November 2019 Working Party
There was one main job to do this month, and that was to assemble all the suspension. Over the last few months a number of pins and cotters had been made and each time we tried a trial assembly there was always something else we needed, was not quite right or could be improve upon.
This month however, it wasn't a 'dry-run' but the full assembly, with everything being well greased as we assembled it all. This is another major step towards the re-wheeling. There are now just two pins that are in need of hardening and these will be fitted next month.
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A view of some of the suspension components in their final resting place.
Other jobs then concentrated on some of the other smaller bits and pieces, painting a number of items and touching up paint where it had been damaged, as well as modifying some of the pipework fittings. Some more was also done on the running plate. We had received the rolled sections this month, and whilst one had an error we were able to drop the other two into place ready for trimming and and work to cut slots and attach the crank clearance cover that we salvaged from the old sheets.
All told a satisfying weekend especially permanently assembling the suspension.
October 2019 Working Party
This month was spent concentrating on many of the jobs started either last or in previous months. The first of note is that of painting the wheels. There were a number of areas that were inaccessible due to the position of the wheels where they were originally positioned so with the wheels having been moved there were few areas that could be touched up. We also touched up a few other components at the same time.
One of the larger jobs is that of attaching all the lubrication pipework for the Krauss Helmholtz front truck. We'd made the brackets and fitted these so as they could take the various flexible hoses in previous months. This time we started the copper pipework bending this into suitable routes around the trucks frames. Whilst we do have a 4-way splitter needed for the lubrication system, the one we've been loaned does not the exact same connection point as the final one will have. Until we get delivery of ours we could only connect one of the ends to most of the pipework. One hopefully to complete next time.
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The new chequer plate being worked on for the RHS running plate.
Fitting
the new side chequer running plate is another job we continued with. It
kept one and sometimes two of our team occupied making an awful lot of
noise for quite some time!! We cut out the various slots for the arms
and clearance for the expansion link and prepared the latter ready to
take the hinged covers that we'd salvaged from the old chequer plates.
These can now be welded in place as soon as we're ready for them,
probably after final securing of the running plate.
September 2019 Working Party
The September working party was an excellent well attended affair with much achieved, although perhaps not quite as much as was liked on one job. Plenty of youngsters helping over the weekend, especially on Saturday that put us old-uns in the minority. Very nice to see.
One job that took by far the most effort, with two people working on it most of the weekend was painting the main driving wheels. These had returned a week ago from being re-gauged so were in need of cleaning and painting. These were cleaned on the Saturday then painted in undercoat. On the Sunday they received a coat of gloss black - and they now look splendid.
We also painted the wheels on both pony trucks as well as patching up damaged paintwork on the rear truck's frames.
This weekend was fast turning out to be one seeing plenty of use of the paint brush as we also painted inside the front drag box. All you'll have read below, the previous weekend saw some of the works staff lower the front coupling to the height required to run on the WHR and also to install the new front coupling box. It was apparent whilst doing this that the inside of the dragbox had never been painted so this was needle-gunned clean, all the debris was vacuumed out and a coat of undercoat applied on the Saturday followed by top coat on the Sunday.
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The main drivers after
being returned from regauging and after being painted in
undercoat (left)
and painted in black gloss (right)
Not finishing with the paint brush, we painted all the ends of the suspension arms that were crack tested a couple of months ago.
The main job we wanted to make good progress with was attaching the lubrication pipework to the Krauss Helmholtz front pony truck. We'd made the various brackets last month and these were attached to the frames this month. we did a trial fitting of the flexible pipework that will lubricate the ball joint and the sliding box it sits in. The pipes and fittings were then removed and, you guessed it, the brackets were painted! We would have liked to have started the copper pipework but only got as far as annealing the of copper pipe for it. We dit hawever attach the bracket to the main frames for the flexible hoses down to the Krauss Helmholtz pony truck. This was of course, after it had also been painted!
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The Krauss Helmholtz front truck showing the flexible pipes for the sliding ball joint trial fitted.
Whilst all this was going on two of the team started work on another panel for the new side running plate. This involved removing the lubricator and the old panel and measuring up and marking out the various slots that are needed in it. This was then cut to size and slots cut in it, although we never got around to trial fitting the piece.
Some other components that will be needed when we re-wheel the loco were identified and refurbished where required, although we did find one piece missing that will need to be made.
All in all it was a very satisfying weekend with plenty achieved, even if the majority of it was the much needed painting.
Pre-Sept Working Party News
The weekend before the main working party two of the full time staff did some work on the fron buffer beam of the loco. This was adjust the height of the coupling to the Ffestiniog and Whelsh Highland Railways' standard and involved the cutting of a new slot in the buffer beam slightly lower than the existing and filling in the existing slot. A new drag box assembly to take the new coupling was then welded in place.
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The new front coupling arrangement.
More photos here.
August 2019 Working Party
This month work continued on the suspension where were were asked to check the suspension arms for cracks. We though this had already been done however, as it hadn't been documented we needed to redo the non destructive testing.
The pony trucks had been returned from Boston Lodge last month, however, they were both left upside down so with the help of Huw, one of the full time staff manning the tractor, we turned these over. This allowed us to fully secure the hardened wear plates to the top of the axle boxes as well as giving us access to start the lubrication pipework for Krauss-Helmholtz front truck.
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Trial fitting of some of
the lubrication components for the Hrauss-Helmholtz pony truck (left)
and a section of new chequer plate in place (right)
On top of this we started the renewal of the loco's running platework. This had suffered over the years, and indeed some sections had already been replaced at some time and even these weren't in the best of health. We started by removing the left hand side lubricator and removing the sheet beneath it that side. This was then replaced with a new section from the chequer plate we'd been provided with a couple of months ago. We then removed the splasher and the expansion link oiling access cover from the LHS running plate as these will be reused in the new sections of chequer plate.
We started the lubrication for the Krauss-Helmholtz truck with the making of the brackets to act as the securing points for some of the flexible oil hoses that will be needed.
All in all a good weekend with jobs progressing on a number of fronts.
July 2019 Working Party
Unfortunately your scribe here was unable to attend the weekend, however others were there and so following is a brief summary of what was achieved.
There was a mixture of jobs done or completed and of those completed, one was the finishing off of the drilling of the bolt heads to take the securing wires for the main axle boxes' oil well retaining plates. All eight are now done. A second job completed was the fitting of the right hand cylinder cladding.
A third job was the shaping of the two large cotters for the suspension compensation arms. These needed 50thou taken off their thickness and then slightly re-profiled. These were finished and are now ready for hardening.
In some free time between jobs some further work was done on the spectacle plates that was started last year.
And finally some planning was done towards the locos running plates as to how we section it to get the chequer pattern of the plate toline up and to get it done in as few a sheets of chequer plate as possible.
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The driving wheel axle
boxes having had the oil well securing bolts drilled for securing
wires (left)
and the reverser in place and being worked on by the full time
staff. (right).
Other points of note are that the two pony trucks have now been returned to us after being worked on at Boston Lodge. This work mainly concentrated around having the axle boxes and wheelsets fitted as well as removing a bend in the rear truck's frame. The other activity to report is the refurbishment of the reverser by the full time staff at Dinas. This is being modified in a similar manner to those on the NGG16 Garratts. It will make them far easier to adjust to remove the effect of any wear and to make them easier to refurbish in future.
June 2019 Working Party
Held the same weekend as the railway's Past, Present and Future event , we were again slightly lower on numbers than usual, however, progress was made, although with a setback where after having some components made we found that the drawings did not match reality!
So, the jobs we concentrated on were mainly associated with the suspension. We assembled together all the suspension components and with those already attached to the loco we checked them all looking for possible issues. In doing so we did find one bush missing on a compensation arm and so that will need making and pressing in. We attached, or rather swapped over all the old small cotters for the new ones that we'd made. There were also two large cotters that were missing and these had been cut out for us by the full time staff and so one job we did was to contour them to fit into their relevant 'home'. We went through all the pins and cataloged what was needed by way of washers and double checked the dimensions of those pins we still have missing.
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The new small suspension
cotters having been hardened were fitted in place. (left)
and the two large cotters after being shaped to the correct
profile. (right).
Once all the component checks had been completed we went about making some clips to hold two of the suspension pins in place, then, after an aborted attempt to remove a pair of pins put in when the loco was first put on its wheels, we moved onto some of the jobs left from last time.
These consisted of drilling the various holes to attach the right hand cylinder cover and drilling the holes in the axle box oil well retaining plate bolts so as the locking wires can be fitted. With the former, the cylinder cover still needed a bit of fettling to get it to fit better so in the time left not all holes were drilled. A job for next time. With the latter we've now completed six of the eight axle boxes so again the remaining two will hopefully be finished next time.
Another point of note is that this weekend saw the Society's AGM being held and so we all attended on the Saturday evening. Each year there is a presentation, the 'Token of Appreciation' that is given to someone that the Society Board feels has gone beyond the call of duty in helping the Society achieve its aims. This year it was very gratifying that the recipient was Ben Smith, one of our group's younger members who has been involved in the project from the start. Well done Ben and well deserved.
May 2019 Working Party
We were slightly lower on numbers this weekend due to various reasons and an initial impression was that we thought we'd not really achieved that much, especially as some of the jobs done were quite labour intensive. However, looking back it's apparent that we did achieve quite a lot in the end.
Continuing from last month was the completion of the grease pipework for the two pony trucks. I say the completion, in that all the pipes are now in place, however we still need to silver solder the fittings onto the ends as as well the add joint.
As we were some of the suspension cotters missing we decided to make a complete new set The smaller cotters for the top of the suspension hangers had been laser cut for us and so we finished them by grinding and filing these into the correct profile to fit snugly into the hanger. These will now be sent away for hardening.
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The new small suspension
cotters having been ground to shape (left)
and the main axle boxes being worked on (right).
We also worked on the driving wheel axle boxes, as were the full time staff by re-machining the white metal bearings. The design for the axle boxes have changed over the years whilst in service in South Africa, no doubt to bring their design to being similar to that for the NGG16 Garratts. One aspect of this however, is that there were a pair of bolts missing that attach the axle box oil well to its securing plate. The oil wells had the tapped hole but there was no hole in the securing plate. These were therefore duly drilled. Unfortunately as the holes in the oils wells were in somewhat 'random' positions they all had to be individually measured and the plates customised to suite each axle box. Nothing new there then!
Working on the same axle boxes we also started to drill the bolt heads that secure the oils well and its securing plate to the bottom of the axle boxes. As the last thing one wants is for one of these to fall out all the bolts have securing wires to prevent them coming loose. We duly tightened up each set of bolts to find the best face on the bolt head to pass thewire through then drilled these. We completed two boxes, so that leaves six for next time.
Finally we started drilling the holes in the cylinder cladding so as it can be fitted to the loco rather than have the cladding lying around potentially getting damaged. We managed one cylinder in the end, the left hand side, so will do the right next month. We didn't have the correct stainless bolts at the time so it was temporarily held in place with standard hex bolts.
April 2019 Working Party
As mentioned in the news section last month, the frames are now back in the loco shed so this is where we spent most of the time this month.
We did spend some time moving a cupboard and toolbox down to the loco shed where the full time staff had left some room to put them. After that it was 'down to business'.
Since last time, as well as the frames being moved, they'd also been lifted and the driving wheelsets taken out as there's still some outstanding work to be done on these. As part of this the flanges of the driving wheelset (axle 3) will be thinned slightly. This had been done on the centre axle of the NGG16 Garratts and has proved highly successful in making the locos run freer around the tighter curves.
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Our new home in the loco
shed (left)
and two ball joint housings and arms fitted for the rear pony truck's
side control mechanism (right).
With the wheelsets taken out we removed the axle boxes and these and all oil wells and its supporting plate were marked up from whence they came. We also reattached the frame ties to keep the frames rigid, and connected most of the grease lubrication flexible hoses into the horn guides.
We refitted the ball joint fittings to the frames for the rear truck's side control arms and started completing the grease lubrication pipework to these. There's still some to do that we should hopefully complete next month. We also moved the location of the grease block for the front side control arms from the right hand side to the left so as it's on the same side as the rear. Again there's still some plumbing next time.
One last job was to reattach the reverser. We had removed this as the original plan was to send it away, however with the frames now being in the loco shed the reverser will be worked in in situ. The plan is to alter the design to be the same as those on the NGG16s as these have been altered to an arrangement whereby it's easy to remove the play between the screw thread and the screw block.
March 2019 Working Party
Unfortunately just a few of us were available this weekend that did limit our progress - as did the weather, it being gale force winds and horizontal rain!! Just getting from one shed to another resulted in an absolute soaking, never mind it being difficult to talk let alone think above the noise of the wind and rain against the building(s)!
Having said that the weekend did result in a lot of planning, especially as regards the lubrication for the Krauss Helmholtz pony truck where we planned out what flexible hoses will be needed to get the pressurised oil feed to the various points needing lubrication on the truck. This also included the lubrication needed for the sliding shoes that support the frames on the truck at the axle boxes together with that needed for the canon box on the front axle. All useful planning that will enable us to get on with these jobs next month.
It has also been decided that we will replace all the loco's running plate with new chequer plate. The existing has suffered with far too many modifications over the years and is looking very tatty. The railway company is also rebuilding an NGG16 and this has been fitted with new plate and it makes it look very smart indeed. Therefore the company has decided that we should do the same to 134. Also well use the same type of countersunk bolts to fasten it all down so as to reduce the trip hazard from the plethora of bolt heads that would normally protrude.
With this in mind the company had arranged for a couple of sheets to be made available for us the plan the task. We therefore measured all the various sections needed from the existing running plates and planned out how many sheets we'd need in total - quite a few!
So, all in all and apart from the weather, whilst limited work was done physically we did an awful lot of planning for future jobs.
We also had encouraging news this weekend as we were informed that the frames will be moved back into the loco shed. This will be allow us easier access for a number of jobs, especially that aforementioned of replacing all the running plates.
February 2019 Working Party
A quick update this month, mainly as your scribe was unfortunately unable to attend the working party.
There were several areas of work this month, however not all were on №134. We were again asked to add some more Wax Oil protection on №133. A job we concentrated on last month however we didn't quite complete all areas. There is still a bit more to do by way of adding an extra coat in places.
On №134 we had our new pins for the Krauss-Helmholtz pony truck' ball joint side control springs returned from being hardened so these were duly fitted. We were also asked to dismantle the Safety Valves for inspection so these duly taken apart.
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The Krauss-Helmholtz Pony Truck with the ball joint side control springs fitted.
We also managed some jobs to help the full time staff on the NGG16 service locos.
As mentioned previously, just a brief report for this month, so hopefully normal service will be resumed next time.
January 2019 Working Party
A new year dawns for us, and one that will hopefully see our boiler refurbished and the restoration moving on at a better pace.
We will have plenty of jobs to do to prepare the frames ready for the boiler so this year's activity will therefore concentrate of those. It will include jobs such as fitting the pony trucks and fitting all the suitable couplings so as the loco and tender can be safely moved around safely.
However, before we get started into these, the task we were given for this weekend was to ensure no further deterioration of 133 took place. This involved covering all the motion and boiler in waxoil, a protective coating that is very good at keeping moisture out and wicking it away from the components. The bulk of the weekend was therefore spent removing any loose material then applying the waxoil. We also made various covers to close off a number orifices of the boiler.
We were however, also reunited with our trailing pony truck wheelset that had been returned from Boston Lodge. This was cleaned and given a coat of primer before being temporarily put under the pony truck. In order to get the pony trucks ready for receiving their wheelsets we unsecured the pony trucks from where they'd been stored vertically along the side of the workshop to their rightful orientation on the floor!
So that was it for the first working party. It was nice to see a couple of new faces to the team and, and whilst they are involved with the running of the railway as a guard and fireman, their hope is to join us when they can. Thanks to the two of you.