Work days on the weekends will be Saturdays – generally 8.30am to 4.00pm commencing now.
It may happen on Sundays as well but that will be ad hoc arrangements with individuals. The challenge with the weekends is to have personnel on site who can guide others in what to do.
THIS WEEKS ACHIEVEMENTS – week ending 14 July 2023.
Reinstallation of studs on top of the boiler.
All flue tubes were expanded at the smokebox end.
All small tubes and 11 of the 21 flue tubes beaded at the firebox end.
The plate sections for the new fusible plug openings have been made ready for welding in.
Sandblasting has been arranged for this coming week.
Repairs to and manufacture of a number of new cladding support bands (these support the cladding at various points on the boiler).
More fire cement for the firepan has been ordered.
The tender is now reconnected to the loco.
Sorry no photoes this week.
With the progress in the last week we are only a week or two away from our first hydro-static test.
CURRENT PRIORITIES –
Completiong of the beading and re-expansion of flue tubes at firebox.
Completion of stud fittomg nad then fitting of blanking plates.
Weld in the new fusible plug firebox sections.
Gritblast the outside of the boilerand rest of loco/tender. (This is arranged for week beginning 17 July). Then paint boiler shell with hogh temp paint and rest of loco with undercoat.
Hydro test the boiler.
Cladding repairs.
Casting of fire bricks for the floor and walls of the firebox.
Stay tuned next week’s update for details of the upcoming working bees as we look to up the work rate to a 7 day a week effort with the aim of getting the J back in service by September.
THIS WEEKS ACHIEVEMENTS – week ending 7 July 2023.
Completion of stud removal on top of the boiler.
Flue tubes at the firebox were expanded in.
Repairs on the cladding continued.
Again, slower progress than we had hoped in the week just gone. The stud removal was a protracted exercise because rather than being studs quite a few were actually all-thread bar. While using all-thread is a quick fix to install, it has the problem that after a few years these corrode in the hole and then are much harder to remove than a mid steel stud. The all thread because it has corroded also risks damaging the thread in the hole if you do manage to get it to turn for removal. Baz ended up having to cut the studs out with oxy-acetylene and then chip out the remaining bits – 4 of these took the best part of a day to do alone.
Another challenge with this week’s progress was the expander we thought we had for the smokebox end of the tubes wouldn’t work. It fitted okay, it just would not “bite” so would not expand the tube at all. We have now sourced two expanders from Steamrail (thankyou) that we hope are suitable, so hopefully this coming week we should complete the expanding of the flue tubes.
As luck would have it (or not) the new expander for the firebox end of the flues has arrived. We will now also have to order a new one for the smokebox end in next few months for our future needs.
Photo shows all the studs now out around the injector inlets to the boiler on left and right side, with the whistle mounting holes in the middle.
CURRENT PRIORITIES –
Expansion of flue tubes at smokebox.
Beading and re-expansion of flue tubes at firebox.
Beading and final expansion of small tubes at firebox.
Make and fit new studs for the top of boiler fittings.
Weld in the new fusible plug firebox sections.
Gritblast the outside of the boiler. (This is arranged for week beginning 17 July).
Hydro test the boiler.
Cladding repairs.
Casting of fire bricks for the floor and walls of the firebox.
Since our last post our fitter has been beavering away with all the niggles to get the boiler ready for its test. We are just about there and the only issue is adjusting the fitting of the J Pipe. We are hoping the boiler test will happen on 22 July and if passed this will be a big moment in the progress of the restoration. Otherwise our volunteers have been steadily working on cleaning and getting parts ready for the reassembly. The photos with this blog show what has been happening, and as previously advised, once the boiler is hopefully passed it will go back on the frame and K160 will start to look like a locomotive again. We intend to celebrate this milestone once achieved with a BBQ at Newport with our volunteers and anyone else that wants to attend. As always if you want to get involved the contact people are John Hoy (0419 372 696) and Peter Lorenz (0429 961 150).
For readers of this blog the post for work done in June will not be done until the middle of this month. There has been good progress and as per usual there will be information provided along with photographs.
THIS WEEKS ACHIEVEMENTS – week ending 30 June 2023.
More stud removal and replacement. All the studs in the cab have been replaced and the focus is now on the studs on top of the boiler – all 27.
Repairs on the cladding continued.
More fire bricks were cast.
It was a little slower progress than we hoped last week but this coming week we should start expanding the flue tubes. We have been held up on progressing this task as we needed to source a size we didn’t have for the firebox end, but this has now occurred. A big thanks to Puffing Billy for making available the one we needed. Also, we have purchased a brand new one, so we are self-reliant in future and it arrives next week.
Photo shows Baz removing one of the studs for the safety valve.
CURRENT PRIORITIES –
Expansion & beading of flue tubes at firebox.
Expansion of flue tubes at smokebox.
Beading and final expansion of small tubes at firebox.
Gritblast the outside of the boiler.
Weld in the new fusible plug firebox sections.
Cladding repairs.
Casting of fire bricks for the floor and walls of the firebox.
VGR Mechanical Blog 