A different train of thought .

[Chuffer]

It`s been a while since an update on 30477 `Sir Lamiel ` overhaul update . Mostly because there have been weeks and weeks of mundane needle gunning of more of the internal surfaces of the frames and then the numerous spokes on 3 pairs of 6 foot 7 inch diameter driving wheels and slapping a good coat of primer on . Progress as also been hampered by having contractors on site setting up to renew the loco workshops roof and electricians upgrading the electrical installations which has necessitated moving things about a lot . The tender which is of the twin 4 wheeled bogie type generally referred to as a water cart type rather than the much more common rigid wheel base 6 wheeled tenders used on nearly all British built steam locos is now ready for lifting so that the 8 wheel sets and axle boxes can be dropped out and rolled away for inspection and refurbishing as necessary . Recent work has been removing the heavy horn tie castings that bolt across the phospher bronze faced horns that the axles boxes slide up and down under leaf springs . The ties prevent the axle boxes from falling out the horns .
The ties have been sand blasted and painted in primer and a start made on the first coats of undercoat . I nice job out in yesterdays blazing sun !!
Another job in progress is the steam cleaning of years of thick oil sludge that has built up in the exhaust steam feed pipes and the oil seperator that traps the oil sludge before it can get into the exhaust steam injector that feeds water from the tender into the boiler . A locomotive has two injectors to feed the boiler , one a `live ` steam injector powered by clean steam straight from the boiler and the other being an `exhaust ` steam powered injector . The exhaust steam injector has the advantage of using steam that has already done its job of powering the pistons rather than robbing the boiler of fresh steam that is neaded to powere the loco . Thus the demand on the steam making capabilty of the boiler is reduced making it more ecomical on water and hence coal . I will cover how the oil gets into the steam in a seperate post but suffice to say it has an unlikely link with the famous home of US car manfucturing - Motown !
Photos show the horn ties , exhaust steam pipes and the oil seperator being linished before getting a coat of primer on , and the water cart on the jacks ready for lifting .

 

[Chuffer]

By the way , if anyone fancies a new toy , the owner is now selling this magnificent beast . A snip at £ 300,000 . Now where did I put my Piggy Bank .

 

[Chuffer]

Master linisher at work on the oil seperator yesterday whilst trying to make the most of the shade cast by 30777 `Sir Lamiel`s ` boiler .

 

[Oneball]

Is that a 9f on the adjacent road?

 

[Chuffer]

Is that a 9f on the adjacent road?

Indeed it is and what fantastic locos they are . Don`t get fooled by the green livery and the name ` City of Leicester ` . They are just the owners personal whim . They were all painted plane unlined black livery being heavy freight engines with exception of 92220 which was the last steam locomotive built by British Railways in 1960 and was outshopped from Swindon Works in beautifully lined out Brunswick Green livery and is in the National Railway Museum at York .

 

[Roscobbc]

By the way , if anyone fancies a new toy , the owner is now selling this magnificent beast . A snip at £ 300,000 . Now where did I put my Piggy Bank . View attachment 18688

In the scale of all things 'expensive' (like some classic cars, classic and current aircaft, boats etc) that represents remarkably good value - imagine if you owned your own full size track.............

 

[Oneball]

Indeed it is and what fantastic locos they are . Don`t get fooled by the green livery and the name ` City of Leicester ` . They are just the owners personal whim . They were all painted View attachment 18691 plane unlined black livery being heavy freight engines with exception of 92220 which was the last steam locomotive built by British Railways in 1960 and was outshopped from Swindon Works in beautifully lined out Brunswick Green livery and is in the National Railway Museum at York .

Didn't see the photo above of the whole thing! As Rosco says seems cheap compared with some car prices

 

[Chuffer]

Didn't see the photo above of the whole thing! As Rosco says seems cheap compared with some car prices

As you guys said , you get a lot for your money but you also get big upkeep bills to go with it too . I am not sure how long its current boiler certificate is valid for but you will need a boiler off the frames job every 10 years to opperate on a Heritage Railway and would be lucky to get away with a £50 K bill each time at present day costs . Then throw in any other mechanical work needed on running repairs and maintainance and you are pouring money into it big time . Also being such a huge loco weighing in at 133 tons 16 cwt . with a long wheel base you would be limited as to which Heritage Railways you could run it on . That`s why its current home on the Great Central Railway is ideal as it is the UK`s only preserved ex main line railway rather than an old country branch line . You need a good operating deal based on hours steaming in revenue service to cover your massive overheads . I still want one though ! Just gonna have to make do with memories of driving sister loco quite a few occasions in the past .

 

[CaptainK]

Reading the above (thanks Chuffer), I too was surprised by the cost of the steam loco. For some reason I thought they would be a lot more. I knew the maintenance of them would be horrendous though. Talked to a few people at steam traction rallies about their road steam locos and the maintenance of them - and just assumed bigger railway locos would be even more. Still, it'd be amazing to own a steam loco.

 

[Chuffer]

In the scale of all things 'expensive' (like some classic cars, classic and current aircaft, boats etc) that represents remarkably good value - imagine if you owned your own full size track.............

An interesting comparison in the `expensive` classic stakes . An Aston Martin DB4 Zagato Continuation would set you back £6 Million and you cannot even drive it on public roads . The A1 Class Pacific Continuation named ` Tornado ` cost only £3.1 Million to build when completed in 2008 but you can`t drive that on public roads either .
I did get to drive it when `fresh out the box` in 2009 though after running in trials had been completed .
Here we are at full chat climbing Eardington Bank on the Severn Valley Railway . Wonder if I can my hands on a DB4 Zagato ?

 

[CaptainK]

Owww,, that's exciting you got to have a go playing with Tornado. Nice one.

 

[Chuffer]

Owww,, that's exciting you got to have a go playing with Tornado. Nice one.

Yep ! Sure was fun not to mention a great honour as it was brand new and the media and public interest was massive .

 

[Chuffer]

It`s been 9 months since my last `Train of Thought ` post , where has all the time gone ? A lot of work has gone on during that time but much of it has been very un glamorous work with many hours of needle gunning and linishing acres of steel surfaces and components and painting them in oxide primer that would make for very dull reading . However , this week was a significant turning point that should hopefully see the critical boiler work proceed with more pace . A boiler inspector visited to carry out very in depth Ultraconic testing of the boiler and firebox to determine the steel thickness at regular intervals . The amount of test points can be seen in the photos marked out in white and thankfully every measurement was within acceptable tolerences which is a huge relief as repair costs could have easily run into many hundreds of thousands of £ `s and slowed the rebuild down considerably not only in the amount of hours the specialist work it would incur but in raising the funds to pay for it . Another stroke of luck we had at the beginning of the year was when an inspection of all the 1000 + copper firebox stays that hold the inner and outer firebox sections together flagged up that only 50 needed replacing due to `wasting` on their specified diameters due to the intense heat and corrosive environment they are exposed to . Those 50 threaded copper stays that screw into the firebox cost £500 to purchase and thankfully we raised that amount on our sales stand during the Great Central Railways ` Winter Gala` weekend back in January which was not bad going by just selling second hand books , videos and donated general railwayana . If all or most of the 1000 + stays had needed replacement we would be looking at a bill of big bucks !!
The newly fitted copper side stays can be seen cleaming in the gloom of the firebox in the photo . And collegue Dave screwing them in from the outide .All this good news on the boiler condition means that orders can now me placed for the hundreds of steel boiler tubes that carry the heat through the boiler and the much larger diameter flue tubes that carry the heat from the firebox to the superheater elements . Once these have been aquired the rebuild of the boiler can really progress and be a major step forward towards our target date of 2025 to have `Sir Lamiel ` back in steam and running again for his 100th Birthday .

 

[phild]

Wow, there's a lot of hard work going into that.

 

[Chuffer]

Wow, there's a lot of hard work going into that.

Still a long way to go but progress is steady . We really need more hands on the job as there is a nucleus of just half a dozen volunteers working on it and rarely all at the same time . Mid week days it`s usually just me and my mate Alan .
The driving wheels are now up to undercoat stage as too are the frames and axle horns . Next stage will be gloss painting and once the inside of the frames are done we can begin to install some components such as the oil seperater and exhaust steam pipes that power the boiler feed injectors that have been referbished .

 

[CaptainK]

Good going Chuffer. Shame you don't have as many hands on deck to help out. I'd help, but 1) I'm too far away, 2) I work during the week, 3) I only have just about the skills to make the tea and get the biscuits to keep the workers working

 

[Chuffer]

Good going Chuffer. Shame you don't have as many hands on deck to help out. I'd help, but 1) I'm too far away, 2) I work during the week, 3) I only have just about the skills to make the tea and get the biscuits to keep the workers working

You have got the job ! Making the the tea is a crucial part of the smooth running of operations . You can stay overnight and kip in our Main Line Support Coach to make the journey up from the west country worthwhile .

 

[Chuffer]

Another day spent yesterday crawling into tight spaces with a brush and pot of undercoat . I sware the really awkward areas were assigned to apprentices back in the days when locos when through works for overhaul . After many hours of needle gunning , linishing and flatting down we now have half the length of of the inside of the frames in gleaming Signal Red gloss paint . It makes a good comparison with grime and rust we were confronted with in the previous photos . The forward half of the frames ( and the most cramped ) is now at undercoat stage and plan to apply the red gloss next week . Why Signal Red ? This was chosen by the railway companies of old and then British Railways back in the days when labour was not an issue and armies of young cleaners on their first rung of the ladder to learning to be a fireman were employed to clean locos inside and out . The red paint would immediately make any stress cracks in the frames stand out as coal dust and oil crept into the crack and a driver doing the daily oiling up and inspection of his loco would spot it and report the fault .
The refurbished Davis & Metcalf oil seperator has now been bolted into place and the next stage will be to lift the newly cleaned out and painted heavy exhaust steam injector feed pipes into place and bolt them up . This set up uses exhaust steam drawn from the cylinders to power the injectors that force water into the boiler to keep it full of water from the tender tank . Because that exhaust steam will have emulsified cylinder oil in it the seperator is needed to extract the oily sludge from the steam so as not to contaminate the water being fed into the boiler .
The pair of wheel sets for the leading bogie of the tender have returned from contracted out wheel turning at Tyseley Locomotive Works in Birmingham where the shrink fit steal tyres on the wheels have been re - profiled as the tyre depth is fortunately still within permitted tolerences thankfully . ( another big expense saved ) .
These have now been needle gunned , primed , undercoated and gloss painted as too has the leading bogie truck so re assembly can soon take place . These can then be refitted to the tender and the trailing bogie and wheels sets can be removed and the whole process repeated .

 

[Roscobbc]

A couple of questions relating to railways in general. How is it that huge sections of tail track can now be butt welded (and avoiding the clack-clack sound and perhaps excess wear to carriage wheels).......but summer/winter expansion/contraction doesn't appear to be a problem? - how long do the wheels last before needing new 'tyres'?

 

[Mad4slalom]

A couple of questions relating to railways in general. How is it that huge sections of tail track can now be butt welded (and avoiding the clack-clack sound and perhaps excess wear to carriage wheels).......but summer/winter expansion/contraction doesn't appear to be a problem? - how long do the wheels last before needing new 'tyres'?

Wrenching on the vette must seem a doddle after that loco work.some serious spanners required