 Down
in the pit next the wheels David was applying new paint to the end of one
of the ballast tanks. Just above his head can be seen one of the new brake
pins made at the RPSI Tech class sitting in its new position. |
 Outside,
Mark was cleaning up eight brake hangers with a wire brush held in a grinder.
These parts were not too badly corroded and before long Mark had handed
them over to James for a coat of black paint. |
 Back
in the van, Edward was putting undercoat on metal parts that have already
had their two coats of primer. All the wood that can be seen here is either
scorched or rotten and needs to be replaced. |
 David
then turned his attention to loosening seized nuts on part of the brake
gear with a propane gas flame. The heat expands the nut slightly and also
breaks down the rust adhering it to the threads. |
 Inside,
Ben was cutting through rusty split pins with a grinder. The split pins
keep the brake blocks in place - and Ben wants to take them off so they
can be properly greased and the cross stretcher cleaned up for painting.
Behind Ben the buffers and strengthening plates for the Larne end bufferbeam
can be seen. |
 Ben
was careful not to smash the brittle brake block by simply trying to knock
it off the cross stretcher. He decided to heat it up so that it would expand
and release its twenty year old grip on the end of the shaft. This strategy
worked well and all eight blocks were removed without serious breakage. |
 Here
Ben test fits a brake block into the hangers we saw Mark cleaning earlier.
In the meantime they have been painted and put into position using the
pins made at Monday night's tech class. |
 Next
Saturday our protagonists were back in action. Bob and Ben are going to
dismantle one of the brake van's springs so that broken and mishapen leaves
can be replaced. With the strap held in the device on the floor, each leaf
was knocked free with big hammers. |
 Two
pins hold the top three leaves of the spring together - they were so rusty
they needed to be cut through. Here Ben does the job with Bob looking on. |
 Underneath
the van one brake stretcher was fully reassembled with new washers, pins
and split pins. David looks pleased with the result of his exertions. |
 On
Wednesday Mark and James made their way to Whitehead. Bob and Ben had dismantled
the defective spring - now it required two new leaves. James set to cut
some spring steel from an otherwise scrap similar spring. |
 The
long leaf was cut into two smaller sections roughly the correct size - |
- and the desired shape was marked out in chalk, including the slot which
was to be cut in the ends. |
James soon discovered that tempered steel is very tough stuff to cut. Sparks
flew everywhere for very little material removed! |
Eventually two new leaves were roughly cut out, ready for drilling, dressing
and then tempering. They can be seen just to the left and right of the
original leaf in this picture. |
 Mark
was continuing the job of emptying the ballast tanks so the structural
members can be cleaned and painted. He now has automation - an electric
kango hammer! Annoyingly, the ballast of brake blocks has yet to yield
more than one suitable for the van that carried them. |
 Phil,
taking a break from the unenviable task of descaling the underside of the
van, did much the same for part of the outside surface. The only difference
here, apart from being able to see what you are descaling, is that the
needle gun can be brought to bear, giving a much better finish. Underneath
it is very difficult to wield power tools effectively. |
 David
prepared the floor girders for a new floor. Two coats of primer will keep
the moisture away from the structural steelwork. |
 Back
in the workshop, the seemingly endless task of loosening nuts continued.
James is using an oxygen - propane mix to heat the nut up almost to red
hot, before trying a spanner. The process usually needs repeated several
times before the nut is satisfactorily loose. |
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