| January:
6th: Work commenced on fitting the new exhaust lagging and the new set of batteries. In the evening power was finally re-applied to the loco (first time since 2001?) and we had working lights once again. Triple pump appears to be seized and needs attention - it can wait for tomorrow! 7th: Elbow removed from triple pump and casing loosened off the water impeller. A good sharp tap with a lump hammer allowed movement with a spanner, the corrosion that had seized the pump having been loosened. After a couple of pins were replaced on the battery isolator switch the triple pump was motored a few times and sounded like a good 'un! Elbow replaced together with new gaskets. 14th: Cooling water pipes removed then Heat Exchanger ends removed. Leaking tubes all tapped and sealed and HX & pipework reassembled. Claude & Andy L from WRHA in attendance today, with Al borrowed from SRPS DG for most of the day! February: 3rd: All the broken studs removed from the guard iron threads and new guard irons fitted. Both handbrakes freed off and tested. Cab no.2 internal clean-up & painting commenced on bare metalwork. 4th: Old injectors removed by Stuart S, Scott & Andy Mac & new ones fitted. Crankcase inspected and oil pressure & dispersion checked. Air filters replaced. Coolant added, with a gasket replacement required in the heat exchanger pipework thanks to a leaking joint. One side window fitted, 7 to go! 11th: Problems within electrical cubicle prevent loco from being started. Many broken contactor interlocks, coils and studs need replacing. Several frantic phone calls made and requests for assistance made on internet forums. 28th: Spare electrical panel collected from Northampton & Lamport Railway to scavenge the old interlocks and coils in order to replace many of the ones in 26010's cubicle. These are currently preventing the loco from starting. March: 1st: Commenced refitting interlocks and coils inside the cubicle. Marty T carried on with the restoration of no.1 end cab that he'd started the previous week, with the rubbing down of the roof, one of the doors and a priming coat on the fibreglass roof. 4th: More refitting of interlocks, coils and broken studding in the electrical cubicle. The more that's done the more there seems to be that needs doing! Andy L. continued with the restoration of no.2 end cab, with some disc sanding of various rusty spots, followed by the replacement of one of the internal fibreglass roof sections thanks to Stuart, Mick, Alastair & Andy Mac of SRPS. 5th: Electrical cubicle finally completed (apart from a couple of Blower Relay broken studs that will need drilling & tapping) with help from Alastair. Yesterday's disc-sanded patches in no.2 cab all primed, together with the air tank straps. The last remaining seat in no.1 end removed for overhaul elsewhere. 10th: Cab stripping and repainting continues at no.1 end by Marty T., Ian R., and Steve W. Meanwhile, the refurbished contacts on the blower relay were replaced. Work started on cleaning the auxilliary & main generators, by Keith Buckley, Al Cowan & Andy McLean. At around 9pm the genny was Meggered and low readings were obtained, so a retirement to the pub was called for. 11th: Continued work on the gennies, isolating and testing various sections, and brushes. Eventually, just before 3pm, the decision was made to go for a start. With just about all the volunteers who were in or around the shed assembled in front of the engine, Stuart Sellar duly started 26010 and after a short cranking away it went, spitting and coughing a few bits out of the exhaust. After a few minutes the engine was shut down to adjust the fuel rack & governor due to it idling just a bit too fast. A second start was then made and it sounded a lot better, ticking away like it should. More work will take place on the generators to clean them both up, including the full removal, cleaning and painting of brushboxes. All in all, a good weekend's efforts, with thanks to all the volunteers who helped out, including Neil who made a start on the rubbing down & repaint of the recertified air tanks. 23rd: An evening's work was carried out by Marty T who managed to get the lower half of no.1 cab rubbed down and primed before giving the cab a quick sort-out in readiness for the weekend. 24th: After Steve arrived, No.1 end cab roof had its second coat of Vellum applied, as did the air tank straps. Lower half of the cab was painted Deep Bronze Green and various bits were masked up in preparation for Sunday. 25th: Top half of the no.1 bulkhead painted in Vellum, as were the window surrounds and the mid-section of the cab. All in all a good 3 days work from Martin & Steve. 31st: Window surrounds at no.2 end were "dry" fitted, with various assortments of packing required due to the minor variances in the aperture dimensions. All the air tank pipework was refitted and ends primed. No.1 cab pipework & conduits were undercoated and the firebell received finishing "touch-ups". The cab roof section from no.2 end drivers side (previously test-fitted) was removed and both sections were stripped back as far as possible to a solid base. Finished off the day by applying an undercoat to the two roof sections and the air tank ends primed earlier in the day. April 1st: No.2 end window surrounds were fitted and sections of wood were made up in order to attach the roof sections. No.1 end conduit received its coat of Light Orange, various green parts were touched-up and the day was ended with fitting of the air tanks at no.1 end. 2nd: The tanks fitted the night before had their "front" unions tightened, although access behind the bulkhead is so limited a different method of tightening may be called for. All the wooden sections at no.2 end were fitted after the wood preserver had been allowed to dry overnight and the old wooden roof supports were also refitted - a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Both the drivers & secondmans cabside switch panels were screwed back in place before the undercoated roof panels were refitted. A coat of Vellum was applied to the roof and top part of the bulkhead after the tank supports were refitted, in preparation for fitting the tanks. 3rd: No.2 end air tanks were refitted, although the middle tank decided not to play ball and the pipe will not fit right through the bulkhead. Further thought & deliberation over this during the next couple of days of recuperation! Thanks to Andy L & Steve W for the Sat & Sun, and to Marty T for stopping the full 4 days and putting up with my ever increasing desparation and annoyance! 132 man-hours put in during these last few days! [Edit: whoops, missed a few hours off- it was over 150!] 6th: Wired up engine room light switch in no.1 end cab and finally found that the lights do indeed work! Thanks to Stuart for finding a suitable switch. 7th: Finished installing the air tanks, with bit of brute force & ignorance working wonders in order to get the 1" pipe through the bulkhead aperture for no.2 end middle tank which had been a struggle for a few days. Stuart spent most of the morning and afternoon getting both cab desks working again, several years worth of grime having had the effect of locking all mechanisms. Eventually, 26024 was buffered up and used for a main res air supply to test the air tank connections and pipework - fortunately all was well and there was just the odd minor air leak which was soon nipped up. The remainder of the afternoon and most of the early evening was spent with Stuart & Mick cursing the no.1 end change-end switch. We did however manage to get no.2 compressor working (no.1 was not working when it was at N&LR) which was a good confidence booster. 8th: Further work was about to take place to find out the cause of the age-old no.1 compressor fault, but when going for an engine-start one of the brand new battery cells decided it had had enough and promptly exploded, leaving battery acid & debris in the battery compartment. After a thorough investigation it was found that the cell in question looked like it could have actually been damaged when it was delivered, so a warranty claim will be the next step. The offending cell was removed and terminals changed on the other cells in the crate to give 47 out of 48 cells for a start-up. Once this had been done the loco duly started ok (as had been done several times during the last few weeks to give everything a good warm-through) and whilst we managed to get no.1 compressor to start, after a short while there was a blue flash and we thought that was the end of it. After yet another searching investigation we found that a brush had pretty much melted itself, the root cause being a severed cable with original sheathing that had obviously been the reason why the compressor had been a sod to get going for all these years. Once it was replaced with a new, crimped terminal piece, it ran like a good-un, giving us two working compressors. As well as this, both blower motors are working fine (after some more terminal reconnecting by Alastair to prevent the thing melting!). Collected Marty from Linlithgow in the afternoon, after his weekend of wild debauchery & partying in Liverpool & Glasgow :-) and he duly got stuck into cleaning & painting no.2 cab once again. Andrew & Gavin Harper removed the offending copper studs from the electrical cubicle that would prevent power being applied to the traction motors, as the studs had somehow become two pieces instead of one - these will be replaced with brand new studs, which for some strange reason are threaded 1/2" BSW at one end and 5/8" UNF at the other. Thanks to Andrew for organising the delivery of new copper bars, the dies for threading them and for all the help with this onerous task. Marty and myself continued in no.2 end cab until well after 11pm, etch priming all the bare, cleaned aluminium and sorting out the beading above the windows. 9th: Cleaned no.2 cab out ready for next week, and gave it a good vacuuming, then had to make a dash to see a couple of DRS Tractors thrashing about in the locale on a couple of workings! Thanks to the recent birthday boy Andy for sorting out the battery box and the dodgy cell after we'd scarpered. |
From no.2 end cab, shed mate D5394 receives major attention on the other road |
The other shed mate, 37025 |
New batteries awaiting unpacking |
Another shed mate, North British shunter D2767 |
A stripped bogie from 26024 sits in front of D5310 |
Stuart Sellar makes up the final battery connection |
The other side, batteries all fitted |
Lights on! Only the two outer markers are currently wired up. |
Just to prove it! |
A tail light is also tested. |
Al & Claude reassemble the heat exchanger |
One of the four brand new guard irons |
Andy L. fits the air filters in place. Some will be removed at a later date for a repaint, around half of them having already been done |
Andy Mac finds himself in a tight spot whilst changing out the injectors |
The old injectors, ready for a good overhaul |
The spare injectors, having been overhauled & ready for fitting |
With the door off, Stuart Sellar examines the crankcase |
Con rod looking in a pretty good state, considering the length of time out of service |
Andy L. has a good look inside the crankcase |
The back of the electrical panel that has seen almost every single nut, bolt & washer removed, to change out interlocks, coils or studding. |
The finished front part of the panel, with new coils, interlocks and all studding now tight - ready for pushing the button for a start! |
26010 & 26004 coupled together for probably the first time in almost 20 years. |
The bodyside windows have now been refitted - cheers Mick! - so the loco does not have to be inside the shed 24/7 anymore. |
Just to prove all the windows are in, here's the other side! |
Three 26s and a 25 - probably a first for any railway in pres'! |
Keith Buckley starts cleaning the auxilliary generator, 10th March 2007 |
Nothing but the best for 26010 - Tesco's finest toothbrush is put through its paces |
Two stages of genny cleaning - at the top is a cleaned section, below is the reason why it needs cleaning |
More toothbrush cleaning action |
Buckrail lovingly cleans one of the main gen brush boxes |
A brushbox undergoing a good clean |
A fairly clean main generator, with one brushbox removed. The anti-tracking paint on the PTFE will have to be removed at some point, presumably painted on in BR days |
Keith puts everything into giving the genny a good polish |
Martin Taylor painting inside no.1 cab |
Stuart Sellar & Alastair Cowan set the engine governor, as initial idling speed was a wee bit fast |
The power unit needing a good clean-up and repaint at some point |
Main generator after cleaning |
Cab no.1 with paint stripped or rubbed down and primed |
The roof sections have seen a couple of weeks worth of attention and now have their first topcoat of paint, in the original 1950s/60s livery of Vellum |
The secondman's side having had similar treatment |
The cut down the centre of the fibreglass panel will be covered with an aluminium strip at some stage |
Air tanks are rubbed down & repainted by Neil, having been recertified a couple of weeks previous |
Fire in the hole! 26010 starts for the first time in around 6 years. Photo courtesy of Steve Wells |
The diesel shed quickly fills with clag. Photo courtesy of Steve Wells |
Locos glow in the afternoon sunlight on Friday 23rd March - L-R 08443, 26024 (26010 behind) and 27001. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
D5310 on Saturday 24th March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.1 end cab drivers side at 7pm on 23rd March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.1 end cab at 10pm on 23rd March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.1 end cab drivers side at 3pm on 25th March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.1 end cab secondman's side at 3pm on 25th March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.1 end cab roof at 3pm on 25th March. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
Air tanks from no.1 end painted and ready to go back up. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
No.2 end cab requiring more work, following completion of cab 1. Photo courtesy Martin Taylor |
Marty & Andy strip the drivers side sction of no.2 cab roof, 31st March 2007. |
Marty - Presenting the undercoated roof sections, 31st March 2007. |
No.1 end pipes & conduit undercoated, early hours of the morning of 1st April 2007. |
Secondmans side roof section fitted in no.2 end, 2nd April 2007. |
No.2 end roof sections and air tanks refitted, 3rd April 2007. |
No.1 end, with finished conduit, bulkhead & fitted air tanks, 3rd April 2007. |
A wisp of exhaust as D5310 idles outside the MMPD at Bo'ness, 3rd April 2007. |
26024 & 26010 bask in the sunshine on 7th April 2007 |
Stuart & Mick try and rectify the faulty change-end switch in cab 1 on 7th April 2007 |
Cab 1 desk working at long last after much graft from Stuart Sellar - 7th April 2007 |
Working engine room lights as well - 7th April 2007 |
Cab 2 looking a bit better with roof, air tanks and window surrounds installed. Marty is currently on with the paintwork, etch primer on the secondmans side at the mo - 9th April 2007 |
Cab 2 drivers side in a similar state - 9th April 2007 |
Although still a little cluttered, no.2 cab is coming together, 15th April 2007. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
No.2 secondman's side, 15th April 2007. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
No.2 end driver's side, 15th April 2007. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
The centre panels and gangway access door, 15th April 2007. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
The driver's desk doors, 15th April 2007. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
The task of manufacturing several new high-voltage contactor studs has been carried out over the last week by Andrew Harper & Stuart Sellar. This shows the 5/8" UNF end of the stud, the other end being 1/2" BSW. |
One of the overload relays showing the reason for replacing the studs. The 1/2" BSW stud (soldered in place) had snapped or sheared. This has happened to five of these studs, all of which have been thoroughly checked. |
A completed stud, different threads at each end. |
An overload relay (without studs). |
D5310 outside the shed on the evening of 19th April 2007 |
Primed wheel rims? What could that be for? |
Inside the oil filter housing, black custard at the far end indicates an oil change is long overdue |
Al Cowan up to his arms in it |
The only way of cleaning it properly was to take it outside and give it a damn good steam cleaning, just after midnight |
The next day the housing was fully stripped, primed and painted prior to being refitted |
The space inside the engine room without the filter housing |
Al removes the black custard from the sump, which was then cleaned out as much as possible with diesel |
Crankcase door was also cleaned and a new seal fitted |
Alastair, Steve & Matt look forward to the next evening's test runs |
At last! Out on the line, after several small runs up and down the yard at Bo'ness to warm things through, 26010 approaches Kinneil Halt with 25235 attached as insurance. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
Up the hill at last! 26010 at Birkhill after a successful test run over the entire running length of the B&KR .. next step is a drag back down the hill for a second run. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
Ready at the bottom of the gradient near Kinneil, 26010 awaits its ill-fated 2nd test run, failing only about 2-3 mins after this photo was taken. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
Dragged back to the TMD, NBL shunter D2767 ready to put the 26 back onto the pit road. Photo courtesy Steve Wells |
Stuart Sellar & Al Cowan carry out as much work to the main generator as is humanely possible in an attempt to get the loco back up & running in time for the diesel gala |
Cleaned and newly painted with anti-tracking paint |
Newly cleaned up brushbox and a brand new set of brushes awaiting fitting |
After fitment, the main generator looks like new |
Unfortunately, although the armature and brushes proved to have healthy readings, one winding was found to have a very low resistance to earth - the Separately Excited field - seen here with both end terminals removed for testing |
Sat in the station at Bo'ness - the afternoon of Saturday 28th April, for display at the diesel gala. Photo courtesy Andy McLean |
So close yet so far away - what could have been on two of the turns for both days of the diesel weekend |
Ready to be propelled the short distance to the TMD |
Back in the shed, awaiting removal of the main generator |
Refitted a few days earlier, the newly cleaned oil filter housing |
No.1 cab in a driveable condition, with a borrowed secondman's seat |
Nose doors opens, oil lamp fitted, D5310 looks the part but will be going nowhere for the time being |
Roof bolts all removed from one side |
... and most removed from the other side |
D5394 & 37025 sit alongside the stricken D5310 |
With the roof now off, Mick Smith & Al Cowan remove parts to allow the generator to be lifted |
Al removing the inlet manifold... |
... and amazed at the amount of grease and general crud in the rear of the generator |
The top half of the labyrinth seal removed, it can be seen how the seal works on the shaft |
Alan Anderson heats the exhaust stack to remove an old, broken stud |
Half the labyrinth seal after degreasing and repainting |
Close up of the seal arrangement |
One half of the generator rear cover prior to degreasing & repainting |
Afterwards, the rear cover and the removable plate which allows the engine to be "barred" over |
After taking crank web deflection measurements, the engine and generator were split |
Looking down on the genny from the engine itself. Photo courtesy Alastair Cowan |
The genny, taken from above the electrical cubicle. Photo courtesy Alastair Cowan |
D5310 on its way out of the shed for the genny lift |
Being shunted to the crane position on the headshunt |
With flat wagon in place, Brian the crane driver positions himself ready for the lift |
Banksman, Stuart Sellar, readies the crane for the lift |
