Scenes from the January Working day

The restoration team had their first working day of 2018 on Saturday 21st January when the angles were riveted to the rear drag box plate.  The following pictures were taken during the process.  It must be stressed that the work could only take place with the co-operation of the works manager and his staff in providing access to the space and equipment.  This is much appreciated.



Ben and Cameron checking the gas lance at the start of the heating process

 

The process starting by heating the rivets



Georgie making sure the rivets are heated to the right temperature



The air powered riveting machine being used to make sure the results are consistent

Rueben and Matt setting up ready for the next rivet

All the angles riveted up and ready for the final machining of the side angles

The angles at the side of the plate will now need to be machined to form a tight joint between the angle and the plate.  This will be carried out in the loco works again with the co-operation of the team in the workshop.

Painting is continuing on the wheel sets and hopefully these will be turned out in Maunsell Green before too much longer.

 

The monthly "Official" working days will continue throughout the year with the next few dates being: February 10th, March 24th and April 14th. If you ar3e interested in helping with the physical work, or publicity and sales, please e mail us at the address below.

 

Thank you

Clive

Please remember that this work can only continue with the donations, support and interest that is forthcoming from all of our supporters. 

 

If you would like to help us to continue this work with a donation, please go to our BT MyDonate page

 

 https://mydonate.bt.com/events/27

 

 or use the QR code below.

 

To contact us please E Mail us on thefenchurchfund@gmail.com

 

Thank you for your continued support and interest, it is much appreciated. With your help we should have a rolling chassis by the end of the near and hopefully a working loco in around 4 years.

Work since Christmas

There has been plenty of work progressing since the festivities, including machining and painting.  The angles that are to be used to fix the brake cylinder to the rear dragbox has been machined true and the faces are now exactly at 90 degrees.

Machining the angles

Ben Dingley machining the angle irons for hanging the brake cylinder from.

 



Carefully taking the first cut



 

Machining in progress



 



The finished article! Both outside edges are now perfectly at 90 Degree’s to each other.

Reaming the drag box holes 

Meanwhile the rear dragbox and angle irons were reamed through to finish size ready for riveting. This finishing with a bridge reamer ensures that the plate work and angle iron holes are perfectly inline and round!

 

Matt carefully reaming the holes

 

The reamed holes with a chamfer to allow the rivets to locate the plates correctly

Machining the coupling strengthening plate

Ben has also been busy at the beginning of the new year machining up the reinforcing plate for the front buffer beam where the draw-hook goes through!

 

Set up ready for machining to take place 

 

Machining in progress cutting the reliefs for the front buffer beam angle iron!

 

A day’s machining and the plate is ready for the front buffer beam assembly.

Wheel Painting

Thanks to the continuing support of the Works Managerwe are making progress on the wheel painting.  All the pitting is being filled on the wheels to produce a smooth finish when the top coat is applied. It would be impossible to carry out this work outside during the winter months.



Steve Booth has been busy filling in casting pits and sanding back the spokes for a lovely smooth finish



 

The fruits of Steve's labours.

A lot of time and efforts goes into the preparation work but this should pay off when we finally get to final top coat! The spokes are now starting to look very smooth compared to when Steve started!

Buffer Beam

The rear buffer beam has be brought into the relatively dry and less cold Villa for cleaning and drilling of rivet holes.

The Rear buffer beam set up on the tresstles

 

Following wire brushing the arc marks are again visible.

This work can only continue with the donations, support and interest that is forthcoming from our supporters. 

 

If you would like to help us with a donation, please go to our BT MyDonate page

 

 https://mydonate.bt.com/events/27

 

 or use the QR code below.

Thank you for your continued support and interest, it is much appreciated.

Hope you all had a better new year than me! I spent from Boxing day round to the 3rd of January in Hospital, hence the lack of updates.  Hopefully a few reports should come through from the Villa Team in the not too distant future.