Final Week of the Year!

Tuesday, Christmas Eve, was all hands on the Tombola and Sales Stand for the last day of the Santa Specials which was well worth while as we raised just under £1,000 to replenish the coffers.  One lucky lad won a Hornby Santa’s Express train set.

On Friday, the team were putting the finishing touches to the many sections of crinoline before they are all refitted to the boiler which will then allow us to trial fit the cladding sheets.

We also started a job for the GWR Railcar team – fabricating a steel jig to be used for alignment of the cab windows.  This was built from lengths of angle to fit around a supplied frame which were then cut and tacked together, 

strengthening strips added across the corners 

and then fully welded.

Sunday mainly involved making bits to enable the cladding bands to be clamped around the sheets.  This is achieved by riveting a slightly curved, right-angled brackets to each end of the band and, through these, a length of studding is passed and, using nuts, tightened together which clamps the band to the cladding sheet.  Sections of studding were cut to length 

after which a nut was welded onto one end.  The brackets involved marking out a length of flat steel and then heating and bending to 90 degrees 

after which the holes for the attaching rivets and for the studding to pass through were drilled.  

After that, the ends were shaped and a chamfer ground onto the end.

This shot shows the studding lengths and a couple of the finished brackets.

Other work included making a start on working out routing for various bits of pipework.  This shot shows a plumb line being hung from the brake ejector to see where it needs to run under the floor to the vacuum system.

Finally, a very Happy new Year to everyone following the project.

Week Three

This week was two days working at Rolvenden and two days on the Sales Stand at the Santa Specials.  Tuesday’s main job was moving 4253’s tanks from the field into the yard in readiness for a trial fit with the cladding to check clearances.  This involved first moving the cab out of the way, 

followed by lifting the tanks with the loading shovel to move them across the field 

to next to the roadway.  

After that, they were lifted by the road railer 

and swung round to sit between roads 1 and 2.

Other work included clearing out the blocked drain by the coal pile which had resulted in quite a large lake, bolting some of the last bits on the 541 tender tank 

and trial fitting 4253’s brake ejector.

On Friday, the blast pipe was taken out of storage and, after running down all the retaining studs, 

was bolted into place.  This will enable us to centralise the chimney before drilling and bolting that into position.  The smokebox handrails were refitted 

and the last bits of crinoline were painted 

and then hung to thoroughly dry over Christmas.

We manned the Sales Stand at Tenterden over the weekend 

despite Sunday serving up some serious wind gusts and have one more day to go on Christmas eve.  And on that note, we’d like to wish all our shareholders, supporters and post readers a very merry Christmas and a Happy new year.

Week Two

Five working days this week, three on the tools and two at the weekend on the Sales Stand at Tenterden for the Santa Specials.  Tuesday started with hoovering out all the debris from inside the 541 tender tank, cleaning down and painting the coal space

The outer side panels were showing some blemishes after last week’s painting so these were rubbed back, addressed and repainted and the front panel received its final coat.  

Despite the cold, the crinoline team were outside removing some of the bits they’d trial fitted in preparation for lifting the boiler and putting it back in the frames while others oiled up the loco’s motion.  The lift itself was scheduled for Thursday to coincide with the steam crane’s load test and driver refresher training and was quite a damp, misty and unpleasant day.  It only took three attempts to position the lifting strops so the boiler rose level and it was then lifted, swung round 

and lowered slowly into position with people at strategic points to watch the gaps

until it was finally in place.

After that, the chimney was lifted and lowered into rough position on the smokebox and then clamped down to prevent movement.

Once the blast pipe is fitted, we can then centralise the chimney over it, mark and drill the mounting holes and then bolt it permanently into place.  Finally, a shot of the people involved.

It was then shunted back into the shed so we can now continue the work in the dry and warm, This was the first time in very many years that 4253 has moved with a boiler and a full set of side rods fitted.  

Friday was spent re-erecting the sales gazebo at Tenterden ready for the weekend, refitting some of the parts removed from 4253 to enable the boiler to be refitted and taking off the firehole door mechanism so we can trial fit the backhead cladding sections.  

On Sunday, the majority of the team were fundraising at Tenterden while the remainder did some final painting on the tender tank which will now be left to thoroughly dry over Christmas and did the final welding and painting on the crinoline bands.

Week One

The 541 tender tank is coming down the home straight now with all the countersunk rivets dressed back and the external panels sanded flat along weld lines 

followed by another coat of primer on the side and rear sheets.

On the front panel, the toolbox doors were all rubbed down, the coal hole door fitted, 

the welding of the shovelling plate finished and a primer coat applied.

Also, the closing panel in the coal space was fully welded in and then dressed back as necessary.

4253’s boiler crinoline bands have all been finished and the support strips that join them together are now being measured, cut and trial fitted.

The next job is making the many separate sections that make up the backhead cladding which also requires a lot of measuring, 

marking out and cutting of steel sheet.

The smokebox dart bar has been given a clean up and a coat of heat-resistant paint.

We had planned on manning our Tombola and sales stand at the Santa Specials over the weekend but the strong winds defeated us.  It didn’t take us long on Saturday morning to realise that it was a hopeless task trying to set up as everything was getting blown all over the place and the gazebo itself was in constant danger of taking off.  We eventually packed everything away again, reduced the height of the gazebo to its lowest level and attached ratchet straps wherever we could in the hope it would remain in place.  Not what we wanted as this is one of our primary fundraising events.

Day 1 (Final Week of November)

This week was a full one starting with taking the 541 tender tank fire iron rack out of storage, 

lifting it into the coal space and then positioning it to drill the mounting  holes and bolt it into place ready for riveting.

Alongside that, the closing panel for the coal space floor was cleaned and weld prepped 

and was then lifted onto the top of the tender ready for fitting.

All the countersunk rivets that were put in last weekend have been dressed back flush with the outer platework.

The crinoline team continued to slog away with measuring, cutting 

and then welding up more bits 

followed by trial fitting and then tweaking the curves in the press.

The top joining bars that connect all the hopes have now all been completed and fitted.

On Sunday, the fire iron rack had all the mounting holes reamed out and was then riveted into place and the coal floor closing panel was positioned, levelled up with the adjoining platework and was then tack welded in

and more seam welding was undertaken in the water space.

Others were making a start on the fabrication of the backhead cladding which will be made up of many sections so as to fit round all the various backhead fittings.

In addition, the Santa Specials started on Saturday so we also had people manning our sales stand up at Tenterden Station for the weekend to raise funds for the project.