Sunday 2 April 2017

Maintenance Update (wax, loose, copper, Didcot)

Wednesday 29th
With assistance from several Loco depot chaps, the boiler and tender were drained of water and the ash pan emptied of ash.


Brian waxed the remaining lower RHS of the tender, but because of some steam-cleaning that was taking place in the shed, the whole of the tender became covered with condensation! This made polishing an impossibility.

Somebody discovered that the bolts holding the smokebox stays onto the front running board were all loose. Furthermore, because of their round heads it was a challenge too far to tighten them up. So, Gil got a Loco Dept chap to tack weld the heads down!


This ruined John G’s paintwork, so he had to clean up the mess and repaint the bolts.

John had spent the morning painting rail chairs, so was well positioned to touch up the loco.


I applied a top coat to some chairs before having a go at polishing. The cab side wasn’t a great success. That is to say, rather than the dull 7-year-old paint coming up like new, the new (patched up bits) became dulled down to match the old!

So, I gave up and polished copper and brass in the cab instead.


Bruce disappeared before I had chance to find out what he’d been doing!

Saturday 1st April
Disappointing news: the trip to Didcot is off! I quote:
“As you perhaps know we have no road access and rely on rail transport for getting larger items onto site, which includes coal, materials, rubbish (going out) and locos. … we are experiencing tremendous problems in just getting our day to day requirements sorted.

In trying to get 2807 into and back out again is proving really difficult and I may not even have space to off load her onto our “pad” let alone couple her up and move her...

So it is with great regret that I am having to cancel the hire of 2807 for our Gala.”

Bruce reports on the day at Toddington:
“As Saturday was the first day of the Volunteer Recruitment Fair there was not much 'actual' work done. 2807 and Foremarke Hall were on display in the shed and both had been set up with steps to allow access to the footplate. Brian put a light into our firebox so that visitors could see what it was like in there.

Several departments had information tables and Stuart set ours up next to the loco. He then manned it for most of the day, giving out information and selling raffle tickets.

John T spent the morning cutting bolts off some of the rail chairs and John G did some painting on the side of the loco away from the visitors.

The rest of us were busy talking to the visitors and spreading the word about the railway and in particular 2807 and its history.

It was noticeable how interested they were in the exhibits and how readily they entered into conversation with the various departments.

At lunchtime the CSP directors had a board meeting so John T and Bruce manned the stall in Stuart's absence.”


Roger

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