We've spent a good deal of time this quarter re-visiting some jobs which, for various reasons, were not quite finished originally.

An example of this is the pipe work between the frames.  This work was underway when the boiler was out of the frames, and access was easy. The day the boiler returned to Toddington, it had to go straight onto the loco chassis, and this brought the pipe work job to a halt.  With the boiler raised at present for assembly of the cladding, we've taken advantage of the improved access to get between the frames and finish off some of the pipe work jobs.  A number of pipe clamps and protective sleeves have been made in the machine shop, along with pipe couplings, as none of these parts are commercially available.

After the loco had been moved around the yard during various shunts, we noticed that the drain cock pipes from the centre cylinder had been knocked out of position.  Closer examination revealed that the front bogie chassis had come into contact with the pipes due to some of the tight curves in the yard. A check with the drawings revealed that the pipes had been fitted correctly to the drawing, but it seems that "Merchant Navies" weren't intended to negotiate such small radius sections of track. The mounting brackets for the pipes have been re-positioned, and the pipe runs adjusted to give the front bogie a little more room to swing.  We hope there's enough room now!

Still up at the front end of the loco, work continues on fitting the lagging and cladding to the cylinders. About half of the lagging pads have been made and fitted to the right hand cylinder, and the long job of making good all the mating surfaces continues, with the aim of achieving perfectly flat surfaces forming steam-tight joints.

The running boards have been on and off the loco many times over the years, but some have been re-fitted so that wiring conduit clamps could be accurately positioned and welded in place.  Also, the sand-pipe deflector plates have been made.  These fit around the base of the sand filler pipes to prevent spilt sand dropping into vulnerable areas as the sand boxes are being filled.  In addition, they provide bracing between the filler pipes and running boards, which makes for greater sturdiness all round.  As the filler pipes had to come off to fit these plates, we took the opportunity to correct the alignment of one of the filler pipes.

The last two sheets of boiler cladding have been fabricated and, after careful measurements, were fitted in place; they look very good indeed.  Numerous pockets for boiler fittings, mud hole doors, and washout plugs have been riveted onto various sections of cladding using copper rivets, and the boiler bands have all been made together with their tensioning clamps. There is just one more awkward cover for a pipe on the driver's side of the firebox to make, and the nameplate mountings need to be fitted, but otherwise the boiler cladding is complete.  This is a substantial step forward in the restoration, though it has all got to come off again for the steam test and fitting of the lagging. Then there's the matter of painting and lining out, jobs for the future!

On the underside of the boiler barrel, towards the rear, there is a large inspection plate called the Belly Plate.  During overhauls, the plate can be removed and the inside of the bottom of the boiler barrel cleaned and examined.  The original plate was removed and stored many years ago but when we came to it again, its condition was such that we decided to have a new plate made.  The studs that hold it in position were still in the boiler and it took considerable skill and patience to remove each stud without shearing any off.  New studs have now been fitted, and we've learned to be cautious with our boiler, as the Belly Plate mounting tried to catch us out.  Careful examination of the plate revealed that when it was made the operator didn't get the distances between the studs quite right, resulting in some being slightly closer together than others.  We have had to replicate this error accurately so that our new plate will fit the boiler.

A start has been made on machining the tender hand-brake mechanism.  This section fits within the hand-brake support bracket and has a coarse square section thread through which the hand-brake shaft moves when the fireman applies the brakes.  The external shape of the part has been roughly machined, but we've yet to start on the very tricky task of cutting the thread.  There's a pair of small but intricate pipe couplings between the loco and tender for one of the vacuum pipes. We had borrowed the fittings from 35005 so that we could take measurements and make a drawing, but we had an anxious member of the loco department asking for it back, as 35005 was scheduled to haul trains later that day!

A candidate casting for the tender brake-block holders was obtained and machined to match the brake-blocks we intend using, and the brake hanger arms. One complete assembly was then fitted up on the tender, and the brake-block lined up perfectly with the wheel. The completed holder and a drawing have been sent to a pattern maker so that we can have a quantity made.

The dished end ends for the vacuum reservoir tanks have had their new pipe fittings welded in place and the ends are now ready to be welded into the cylindrical section of the tanks, once we can find someone to make the cylinders.  We are impressed with the new smoke box made for "Owsden Hall", and will be making enquiries concerning where it was made, and can they make smaller cylinders, please? Indeed we would be pleased to hear from anyone who may be able to direct us to a firm who can make small, pressurised cylinders. We can be contacted via the website.