Just before we rested for the festive season our fitter undertook a number of tasks in the ongoing restoration of the locomotive. These included work to the damper, fixing a bend, filling draft holes and realigning the mount and sorting the shaft and wiper to deal with excess play and fitting these items. The dump grate and rod linkages were also fitted along with the gauge glass drain nozzle for the ashpan. Work was done to the rear spring compensator bracket which has been fitted and also involved cutting off split pins and fitting new ones.
As will be seen on pictures taken at the time of our Christmas BBQ the butterfly doors for the fire box are in place. Now that the boiler has been fitted to the frame some steel sheets and lose materials around the frame have been moved along with work to the sanding tubes and fitting the mechanical lubricator and removing the blow down valve. Since Christmas our volunteers have been back into it and some of the pictures you will see with this blog involve work done since they resumed in mid January including bringing some stored items from Maldon to Newport and in particular the compressor (many thanks to Danahers Mitre 10 who sponsored the pick up) – our fitter is back as of late January.
As always, if you want to be involved in the project please contact John Hoy (0419 372 696) and Peter Lorenz (0429 961 150).
VGR Mechanical Blog 