This is The Engineering Heritage Skills Initiative blog about the project's activities in the North East of England.
Scroll down for the latest North East EHSI
news
The EHSI Project will close on Tuesday 31st of March 2015
North East Placement Providers
The EHSI project in the North East is very grateful for the vital role played by our placement providers who have agreed to put their time and effort into supporting an EHSI trainee during a one year traineeship. Without them simply wouldn't have been an EHSI project.
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Stephen Hopper was working on conservation and restoration projects at the museum. He has now graduated from the project and is working in an engineering role at South Tynedale Railway in Alston.
North East Maritime Trust - two traineeshipsRosie Power and Phil Smith are working part time at NEMT on heritage boat building and repair. Their traineeships are the equivalent of a one year traineeship spread over a two year period, they are both coming towards the end of their the second year of their part-time placement at the NEMT's South Shields boatyard. They completed their traineeships at the end of February and are both currently seeking employment.
South Tynedale Railway - One traineeship -
Zach Taylor has an engineering background and was working on engineering projects at Alston. Zach graduated from the project at the end of January 2015 and is currently seeking employment.
Zach Taylor has an engineering background and was working on engineering projects at Alston. Zach graduated from the project at the end of January 2015 and is currently seeking employment.
Stephenson Railway Museum - North Shields and NEMT South Shields
Joe Power has a woodworking background is working on conservation and restoration projects at SRM four days a week and works one day a week on boat building at NEMT. He graduated from the project at the end of January and is currently seeking employment.
Tanfield Railway - Marley Hill - one traineeship
Michael McCann started his placement at Tanfield Railway working mainly on the Restoration of locomotive 'Horden'. Later in the year Michael's placement was changed to a combination of NELSAM and Locomotion. Michael graduated from the project at the end of January and is currently working for an industrial machinery installation company.
HMS Trincomalee, Hartlepool - one trainee - New traineeship for 2014-15
Ryan Auton is our trainee at a new placement at HMS Trincomalee where he will be working on keeping the ship in good repair. He has been taken on by the HMS Trincomalee Trust as a ship maintenance hand.
William Lane Foundry Middlesbrough - New traineeship for 2014-15
We have recruited two trainees, Joel Vernon and Ryann Hodgson for another new placement at William Lane Foundry in Middlesbrough. William Lane have been kind enough in the past to host trainee visits to see the casting process, but now are providing placements in traditional sand casting techniques at the foundry. Joel and Ryann graduated from the project at the end of February 2015 and are both currently seeking employment.
Stanegate Restoration and Replicas - Haltwhistle - one traineeship
Stanegate have provided their fourth and last traineeship for Jamie Cowens, who this year has mainly been working on the company's contract to repair a former Peterhead Prison Railway Coach. Jamie will be the final trainee to graduate from EHSI when he leaves the project in early on the 9th of March 2015. Its most likely that he will then take up a role in the building trade.
NORTH EAST EHSI LATEST POSTING
After a long gap in postings due to a very busy December and January here's an update to the North East blog.
We have recently said goodbye to the majority of our Yorkshire and North East trainees who graduated from the project at our graduation ceremony at the Preston collection in Hutton Rudby in North Yorkshire on the 21st of January.
Through the generosity of the Preston family we were permitted to use the excellent facilities at the collection, to celebrate the achievements of the project, its trainees and our supportive placement providers. Without the support of our placement providers the project would simply not have been possible.
Here's a shot of the 14 graduates on the stage at the Preston collection with the collection's huge Gavioli organ in the background.
Left to right they are:-
Ryan Auton - HMS Trincomalee - Hartlepool
Jamie Cowens - Stanegate Restoration and Replicas - Haltwhistle
Zach Taylor - South Tynedale Railway - Alston
Dominic Wright - Rusty Bug Workshop - Skelton Cleveland
Phil Smith - NE Maritime Trust - South Shields
Joel Vernon - William Lane Foundry- Middlesbrough
Steven Hopper - Locomotion - Shildon
Peter Standring - Kirklees Light Railway - Clayton West Nr. Huddersfield.
Ryann Hodgson - William Lane Foundry- Middlesbrough
Rosie Power - NE Maritime Trust - South Shields
Joe Power - Stephenson Railway Museum N. Shields and NE Maritime Trust - S. Shields
Josh Smith - North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Josh Smith - North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Callum Darraugh - North Bay Railway - Scarborough
Jamie Godwin - Adam Dalgleish Engineering - boilermakers - Stockton-on-Tees
Another update from the North East, this time it concerns Ryan Auton our EHSI trainee at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool.
Ryan has been doing a variety of work on the ship recently.
Lets look at some deck caulking repairs that Ryan did earlier in the autumn when the weather was a lot better.
First the tools and materials. Ryan kindly laid these out on a table below decks to give readers an idea of what's involved. The caulking material is oakum, which is strands of hemp fibre which has been soaked in Stockholm Tar. The oakum is twisted into a rope and hammered into the gaps between the deck planks, once any rotted or water laden caulking has been removed. As the shots below show caulking irons come in various sizes depending on the depth of the caulking and the gaps between the planking.
All that careful work is then sealed against water ingress by with hot tar.
These two shots how some caulking on the top deck and a more complex job in and around one of the capstans, where water can become trapped. In this case quite a bit of rotten caulking was removed due to rain water penetration.
One morning in the autumn a broken shackle was discovered which secures the gaff, part of the rigging on the aft mast, from which the Royal Navy Ensign is flown.
The shackle snapped and although the considerable weight of the gaff was taken by other parts of the rigging it was important the shackle was replaced before the ship was opened to the public. Here's a close up of the snapped stainless shackle with shows signs of a possible brittle fracture.
Here's a shot of the aft mast.
This shot shows the gaff running at an angle left to right across the shot.
The snapped shackle was holding up the chain in the middle of the shot which in turn was supporting the gaff from the aft mast.
The captain's cabin, which is used for functions such as weddings, was also recently re-painted, Ryan's job was to paint the lower green section. Here's a panoramic shot of the captain's cabin after the repaint.
Ryan's next job will be dealing with the removal of some rotted inner hull planking near one of the cannons on the gun deck,
This shot shows that some of the inner planking has been removed to inspect the space between the inner and outer hull planking. No real signs of rot so far but..............
Get a little closer and the planking shows the need for some new timbers.
Earliere this week I visited EHSI trainee, Joe Power at The North East Maritime Trust in South Shields.
Joe works at two placements, one day
a week at NE Maritime Trust (NEMT) and four days at Stephenson Railway Museum (SRM).
We've seen Joe at SRM before in blog postings; I thought it would be
interesting to see what he gets up to at NEMT.
Joe has been helping out making a new piece of stringer for
the port side of the hull of lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan. The piece of oak that Joe has been shaping to replace a
piece of rotted wood has virtually no straight lines in it, so it’s quite a fiddly
job. In this shot Joe offers up the piece of replacement stringer
to the hull to test the fit.
In this shot Joe holds the
piece of oak away from the hull so the shape of the piece is easier to see.
Joe shows me a piece of
African iroko hardwood, which Joe will use the make a new NEMT trust sign, which
will be fitted to the boatshed's gable, to replace the original shown below, which has
deteriorated in the wind and weather.
As well as working on the
lifeboat, Joe has been helping out on the rebuilding of a Tyne foy boat. As this shot shows, this
vessel is having much of its hull and planking replaced.
Here’s a shot from the stern
of the foy boat, which has already been repaired, note the two sighting posts
that have been fixed to the stem and stern as reference points, to ensure the hull remains straight
when it’s being rebuilt.
Back at SRM, Joe has fitted a
new drawbar and hook to the museum’s Peckett locomotive. This was following attention
by contractors, who built up the hole in the buffer beam that houses the
drawbar, to correct wear and bring it back to its original size. Here’s a close
up of the hook and the refurbished hole in the buffer beam in which it now fits.
On the floor of the workshop
lies a volute spring, that will be fitted to the draw hook this week. The
spring puts the drawbar under tension and helps to smooth out the drawbar
forces as the locomotive accelerates and decelerates the train.
Posting for the North East 20.10.2014
Last week, all EHSI trainees attended a blacksmithing master class at Adrian Wood's forge at Hornby in North Yorkshire. On Thursday 16th and Friday 17th it was the was the turn of the North East trainees and some from the Yorkshire group to get some experience at the anvil.
Here's a group shot at the start of the two day session.
Here's a close up of two of the handles.
Posting for the North East 09.10.2014
Last week, all EHSI trainees attended a blacksmithing master class at Adrian Wood's forge at Hornby in North Yorkshire. On Thursday 16th and Friday 17th it was the was the turn of the North East trainees and some from the Yorkshire group to get some experience at the anvil.
Here's a group shot at the start of the two day session.
Left to right Ryan Auton HMS T, Joe Power SRM/NEMT, Michael McCann Locomotion NELSAM, Jamie Godwin ADE, Ryann Hodgson and Joel Vernon W Lane, Zach Taylor STR, Jamie Cowens Stanegate, Steven Hopper Locomotion and John Stelling EHSI Gang Leader.
Later in the session we see the interior of the building with trainees in action at a number of forges, working on their various projects.
Lets now look at individual projects. Carrying on from the first session on the 14th and 15th Phil Smith and Rosie Power worked voluntarily for the North East Maritime Trust on the ironwork and pintle shaft of the rudder of the 'Henry Fredrick Swan' lifeboat.
In this shot Phil holds the work piece with a piece of tube inserted between the two sides of the strap, whilst Rosie operates the fly press, to flatten the strap, to make both sides parallel and thus a good fit on the rudder.
In this shot Phil Smith looks at the parallel straps that he has made to replace the rusted ironwork on the original rudder. After heating the ends of the straps were cropped so that they wouldn't foul the pintle shaft when fitted to the hull.
After cropping, Phil slowly cools one of the work pieces.
After cropping, here's the two finished work rudder straps.
Later, the straps are test fitted in place, on the old rudder, to check for fit.
During the two day session, Adrian Wood kindly welded up a new pintle shaft for the rudder, using part of the old shaft, which was welded to new material brought by Phil, from the NEMT.
After Adrian had butt welded the pintle shaft, Phil dresses the weld with an angle grinder.
The work done by Rosie and Phil, supported by Adrian Wood, has made a very useful contribution to the restoration of Henry Fredrick Swan's, rudder assembly.
Jamie Cowens from Stanegate Restoration decided to make a carriage key by forging. Due to the small size of the job these keys would normally be hand filed to shape but Jamie thought he'd tackle the job by forging.
In this shot we see Lee Webber showing Jamie the technique he needs to use to forge the handle of the carriage key.
Here's a shot of the handle after Jamie has punched a hole in the handle.
After he's made the shaft of the key he tries the fit of the shaft on the handle.
Here's a shot of the components of the key, on the anvil, after cooling.
Later the shaft is riveted to the handle, after localised heating with an oxy/propane torch.
Jamie Godwin decided to make a pair of tongs, to use when he's hot riveting at his placement at Adam Dalgleish Engineering in Stockton.
In this shot he is starting to made one of the tongs.
Adrian gives Jamie advice about forging the tongs.
Work in progress, here are the two tongs cooling beside the anvil.
In this shot Jamie starts to thin out the handle of the tongs, in blacksmith trade, these are called 'reins'.
Joe Power who has placements at Stephenson Railway Museum four days a week and one day at the North East Maritime Trust decided to make a large and small Roubo workbench clamp.
These clamps are pushed into a circular hole in a workbench and they rely on the friction of the shaft in the hole and the springyness of the steel from which they are made. The tool is named after an 18th century French carpenter and cabinet maker Andre Jacob Roubo, who developed a design for a joiners workbench, that incorporated this simple but very effective design of clamp.
In this shot Joe starts roughing out the small clamp.
After a good deal of work the small clamp is finished.
As the large clamp needs bit more work to shape the blank to the right size, Adrian helps out with the pneumatic hammer, which makes short work of the job.
Later Joe works on the larger Roubo clamp, as the photograph shows this is a much more substantial clamp.
Little and large, There's two days work in this photographs, but the symmetry between the two clamps is, I think impressive.
John Stelling also took part in some forging, making a rake for his army field kitchen.
Michael McCann whose has placement is currently shared between at NELSAM and Locomotion in Shildon decided to make a chipping hammer.
He used tool steel to make the hammer head, which he planned to mount on a twisted wire handle in the traditional blacksmith's style.
In this first shot we see him beginning to shape the head of the chipping hammer.
In this shot he uses a wire brush to clean scale from the work piece.
Here's the finished head.
Ryan Auton from HMS Trincomalee decided to make a caulking tool for working on the decks of the ship.
In this shot, he's widening the blade of the tool steel work piece.
Later, with John Stelling's help, the fly press is used to make the indentations in the shaft of the tool, which Ryann planned to fit with a blacksmith style wire handle, to keep his fingers out of harms way when caulking the decks.
Steven Hopper from Locomotion made a fireside companion set for the wood burning stove at home.
In this shot he's turning over the ends of one of the work pieces to make a handle.
later in the day we see him forging the business end of the rake.
Joel Vernon and Ryann Hodgson from William Lane foundry decided to make some very small foundry trowels, which they planned to use to smooth out the sand when making moulds using complex patterns.
Here's a shot of them sharing the same anvil shaping the trowel handles.
In this shot Joel uses an angle grinder to clean up his trowel.
Here we see Ryann drilling the holes for the rivets which will hold the blade to the handle.
Here's the finished trowels. Joel used a piece of decorative scrap for his handle, which explains the finish in top photo. Ryann planned to finish off his trowel at work and fit the sharp tang with a more comfortable wooden handle.
Zach Taylor from South Tynedale Railway helped out John Stelling, by making a tie down handle for one of NELSAM's military vehicles.
In this shot he's upsetting the end of a work piece to create the ends of the handle, which he will eventually pierce to make the holes, through which, the bolts, fixing the handle to the vehicle chassis, will pass.
in this Shot Lee Webber shows Zach how to pierce the work piece.
In this shot Zach uses a sharp punch to start the process of making a hole in the work piece.
In this shot we see one end done and one to go.
Later Zach planned to bend the work piece to this full size pattern, which he drew out on a piece of plywood.
Posting for the North East 09.10.2014
I visited the North East Maritime Trust in South Shields earlier this week and was able the work that EHSI trainees, Rosie Power and Phil Smith.
Lets look at progress on on lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan, the big project the trust's volunteers have been working on, for the past few years.
Volunteers are getting on with the huge task of caulking the hull to make it watertight, when its eventually launched. Here's a close up shot of an area of caulked hull planking.
The hull sports a coat of primer and the scaffolding is up, to allow access to the top of the stern and the whaleback which is mounted on the stern.
Looking inside the stern, work continues on completing the fitting of the whaleback to the hull.
Rosie and Phil have now turned their attention, to the repair of a foy boat that the trust is currently rebuilding.
Here's an overall shot of the Foy boat. As can be seen it needs substantial work to make it usable once more.
These boats were used to handle the mooring lines of larger vessels. The name Foy is associated with the rivers of the North East of England.
Phil and Rosie are currently working on replacing the apron, which has snapped at some time and needs replacement This is a piece of timber, that connects the keel to the stem in the bow of the boat. In this shot, Phil Smith has placed the old apron in the position the new timber will be in when fitted to the hull.
Here's a shot of the old apron sitting on a block of oak, which will later, be cut to size and shaped, to become the new apron.
In this shot Phil holds in place the piece of timber, which will eventually become the stem, in the bow of the boat.
Whilst Phil was showing me the foy boat, Rosie was working on a wooden holder, which will be used to carry personal protective equipment such as ear defenders and goggles, around the boatyard.
Later Phil and Rosie launched salmon boat ' Spring Tide'.
They were providing a ferry service, for trust members who needed to cross the Tyne, to assist Peter Weightman with moving, 1936 built fishing boat 'Sovereign' In the move to the trust's neighboring boatyard, owned by boat builder Fred Trowell, for repairs. 'Sovereign' will be towed by another of the Northumbrian Fishing Heritage Trust's boat's, 1947 built Rachel Douglas.
In this shot Rosie waits for Phil to lower the trailer down the slipway with his van.
Phil sculls Spring Tide, to moor and fit the outboard engine.
Engine fitted and ready to go.
The following day I crossed under the Tyne to visit Joe Power at the Stephenson Railway Museum.
No photos I'm afraid, but whilst I was there, I looked at the display in the museum created by the N Tyneside Steam Railway Association, covering the history of the railways in the local area.
Click on these links to see more about the colliery railways and associated shipping activity, that at one time, dominated this area of what is now North Tyneside.
https://ww.historypin.org/map/#!/geo:55.016608,-1.497544/zoom:11/
To use the History Pin website type the postcode into the search function NE29 8DX
To use the History Pin website type the postcode into the search function NE29 8DX
Posting for the North East 18.09.2014
Yesterday I was in NELSAM, where I took the opportunity of taking some photos of Ryan Auton who is working away from his normal placement at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool.
Ryan needed to carry out some work, not available at HMS T, to enable him to gather evidence to submit for his NVQ. The particular job was the repair of the framework of a Blackpool tram, now housed in a new shed at NELSAM to house the collection of the North East Traction Trust.
The Blackpool 'Hovertram' No.735 had been involved in a collision, which had damaged the wooden framework of the tram's bodywork.
Read more about NETT at http://www.neett.co.uk/
In this shot we see Ryan testing the fit of a piece of timber which will become one of the uprights in the trams rear entrance doorway.
Posting for the North East 16.09.2014
Yesterday I was in NELSAM, where I took the opportunity of taking some photos of Ryan Auton who is working away from his normal placement at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool.
Ryan needed to carry out some work, not available at HMS T, to enable him to gather evidence to submit for his NVQ. The particular job was the repair of the framework of a Blackpool tram, now housed in a new shed at NELSAM to house the collection of the North East Traction Trust.
The Blackpool 'Hovertram' No.735 had been involved in a collision, which had damaged the wooden framework of the tram's bodywork.
Read more about NETT at http://www.neett.co.uk/
In this shot we see Ryan testing the fit of a piece of timber which will become one of the uprights in the trams rear entrance doorway.
Here's a wider shot of the tram.
Both sides of the door needed repair, here's a close up shot of the left hand side, where you can clearly see the replacement framework, installed by Ryan.
Damage on the left hand side was less serious.
Looking at the bottom of the left hand side of the doorway, Ryan also had to scarf in new wood to replace an area shattered in the collision.
Looking inside the doorway, there are mounting brackets that connect the wooden framework to the tram's underframe. I'll keep an eye on progress and post more shots as the job moves towards completion.
I was also in Haltwhistle where at Stanegate Restoration they are making solid progress on the Peterhead Prison Railway coach, using the description coach, loosely!
In this shot you can clearly see the problem the team at Haltwhistle have been faced with. The coach body, like many, was 'grounded' at a local farm after the prison railway closed.
So the wooden structure rotted from the ground upwards.
This meant that the new wood had to be scarf jointed into place, on all 16 upright structural members to replace the rotted wood. The coach body will eventually be painted a grey finish, which it is hoped will help to disguise, the large amount of new wood that has had to be inserted in the structure
The pitch pine structure that was above the ground is undamaged, apart from locations where bolts that pass through the wooden structure and have rusted, causing the fixings to 'burst' and damage the wood. Again this is a common problem that Stanegate have to face, when rebuilding 'grounded', railway vehicle bodies.
This shot below shows the next steps Stanegate are taking to install the floor of the coach.
The Structure of the prison coach is very unusual.
The bottom of the right angle bracket in this shot will be level with floor boards. Below this will be fixed, a perimeter floor support beam, which will be notched to fit between the uprights, ending level with the exterior of the uprights.
There will be then conventional cross beams to carry the floor, with the wall planking fixed to the inside face of the uprights.
What's most unusual, is the the coach uprights will then hang outside the underframe below the top of the underframe. The body will not just rest on top of the underframe, and be bolted in place, as is the usual practice. Notice a couple of the window bars which await fitting.
I mentioned bolts. Stanegate are keen to keep the coach's appearance as a true to the original design as possible. All the original bolts that hold the coach were one off blacksmith made items. The vast majority have rusted through during the coach's time on a farm.
Stanegate have recovered all the heads of all the rusted bolts and have matched them with suitable lengths of studding. The heads will then be welded to the lengths of studding which when installed in the framework and painted should look very much like the originals.
In these two shots Stanegate trainee Jamie Cowens grinds a bolt head and then examines it to ensure its suitable shaped for welding.
Here's a selection of the team's work ready for welding.
Elsewhere in the workshop, the corrugated iron roof has been painted, ready for fitting when the time comes.
Yesterday I visited Tanfield Railway, here are some shots of the work that our EHSI trainee Michael McCann has been involved with.
In this first shot we see the buffer beam that Michael was working on in an earlier post, is now in the process of being fitted to the locomotive's frame.
In this first shot we see the buffer beam that Michael was working on in an earlier post, is now in the process of being fitted to the locomotive's frame.
In this shot Michael and volunteer Brian High are removing a stubborn fitted bolt.
In an earlier post we saw Michael using a Rotabroach tool to
cut the hole in the buffer beam for the draw hook, this now, just requires the
removal of a small amount of material, to bring it to a finished size.
Posting for the North East 15.09.2014
I happened to visit Locomotion on Saturday the 13th and took these shots of the restoration work being carried out on former GWR pannier tank No.5775, which appeared in the 1970 film 'The Railway Children'. The locomotive is now getting its top coats applied and very smart it looks too.
Posting for the North East 12.09.2014
Aircraft don't feature too much in our pages. Here's a couple of shots of the fuselage of 1965 built Trident 1C G-ARPO which is preserved at NELSAM by the Save the Trident Group. In this first shot Michael McCann dips the roller in the paint prior to handing it up to Tony Jarrett who is applying the second coat of yellow paint to the upper part of the fuselage.
Posting for the North East 02.09.2014
I happened to visit Locomotion on Saturday the 13th and took these shots of the restoration work being carried out on former GWR pannier tank No.5775, which appeared in the 1970 film 'The Railway Children'. The locomotive is now getting its top coats applied and very smart it looks too.
Earlier today I was at Tanfield Railway
Michael McCann was working with Brian High on the buffer beam of Andrew Barclay Locomotive 'Horden'. Here's a shot of them working on removing a very tight fitted bolt from the buffer beam.Posting for the North East 12.09.2014
Aircraft don't feature too much in our pages. Here's a couple of shots of the fuselage of 1965 built Trident 1C G-ARPO which is preserved at NELSAM by the Save the Trident Group. In this first shot Michael McCann dips the roller in the paint prior to handing it up to Tony Jarrett who is applying the second coat of yellow paint to the upper part of the fuselage.
Next move is for Tony to apply the paint, there's quite a bit to do! The plan is to paint the aeroplane in the distinctive 1970's colours of Northeast Airlines. The tailplane, wings and engine nacelles were removed when the aircraft was moved by road from Teeside Airport. The group plan to re-assemble the aircraft over time.
Get the full story at
Here's a shot from 'Save the Trident' website, showing the partially completed paint job.
Going north across the Tyne, at Stephenson Railway Museum, Jo Power is in attendance, when the boiler of Peckett locomotive, Jackie Milburn has its hydraulic test, after repairs to its boiler.Under the watchful eye of the boiler inspector, boilers are often tested hydraulically to one and half times their steam working pressure.In this shot Joe uses an inspection light to see if there are any leaks, .
Joe continues his observations in the cab looking for leaks from the boiler fittings. The hydraulic test was successful and the engine now moves on to the next step, the steam test.
With the museum's permission, Joe has made a special jig in which to mount wood, which will be made into arrow shafts. The work pieces are planed by hand from oblong to round by inching the work piece step by step until a round shape is created. In this shot Joe marks out the jog to create the hollow which will hold the wood from which the arrow shaft is made.
Joe starts cutting the groove in the jig,which will hold the wood fro the arrow shaft.
Here's a shot of a work piece in the jig.
This end on shot shows it will require a lot of finishing to get from oblong to round!
For comparison here's a finished arrow with its head fitted sitting in the jig.
At the North East Maritime Trust in South Shields, Rosie Power and Phil Smith are working on the port side of the 1917 built, Henry Fredrick Swan lifeboat. Work is now focusing on the port side of the hull to solve the problems of plank splitting caused by corrosion of hull fixings combined with the need to repair the port stringer. In this shot Phil checks a piece of the old stringer that has been removed. This will be used a s a template for a new piece of stringer which will be scarf jointed back into the hull.
At the site where the new section of stringer will be fitted, Rosie works on the stringer.
Rosie works on the stringer, shot from the outside of the hull. The repair is complicated, by the fact the the stringer, runs horizontally across this section of damaged hull planking.
Later Phil takes a piece of hardboard to make a template, for a new diagonal plank that will be cut to the size of the template.
Having cut a template for a plank, he checks the fit on the hull.
Today I visited Locomotion, where I took some shots of the progress the team is making on the GWR pannier tank, that is being repainted in the livery it carried in the 1970 film 'The Railway Children' This shot shows the upper part of the locomotive, which after receiving its undercoats, has now had its first top coat of gloss applied.
Elsewhere on the locomotive, the task of rubbing down the undercoats before applying the first top coat continues Four of the museum's volunteer team are at work, with random orbital sanders and sandpaper.
Inside the cab, work has started on cleaning up the copper pipe fittings.
Later in the day, after working on his NVQ paperwork with John Stelling, Steven Hopper was back working on the GWR pannier tank.
Michael McCann was working at Locomotion today. He has welded up new brackets, to support new wheels, that will be fitted to the museum's movable fences on the outside concrete apron. When moved in position the fences segregate the museum's footpaths, from the railway lines, during shunting operations.
In this workshop shot Michael and the museum's Richard Pearson, check the fit of the wheels on the bracket.
Here's a close up shot of the bracket.
Outside the museum, here's a shot of the old castors, the new stronger bracket is replacing.
After supporting the movable fence with the fork lift, old bolts are removed from the fence to fit the new wheels.
After drilling new mounting holes the gate's weight is supported by the fork lift and the new bracket test fitted. A solid job.
Posting for the North East 01.09.2014
Welcome to our first autumn posting. On Saturday the 30th of August I visited the North East Maritime Trust, to see EHSI trainees Rosie Power and Phil Smith.
For months now, they have been working on the stern whaleback, however, work on the whaleback is nearing completion. In this shot we see NEMT treasurer Tim West, working in the stern of the 1917 lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan, with the daylight shining through the gaps between the top of the hull and the bottom of the whaleback. Fitting the whaleback will need great care and attention to detail.
Looking from the outside at the top of this shot can be seen the sharply curved planks on the whaleback, that took such a lot of time to rebuild in the past months. A solid block of wood will be shaped to fill the gap between the top of the rudder post and the whaleback. Since we last saw it, the hull has also had a coat of primer and the process of caulking the planking has started.
In earlier post we saw Phil Smith working on the repair of the centreboard, a retractable keel which pivots in a slot on the hull. The centreboard is used to provide a counter to the lateral force of the sails.This shot shows the metal housing in to which the centreboard retracts when not in use, this has now been permanently installed in the hull .
Phil and Rosie have now moved back to working on the lifeboat's hull. The current job is to repair around a dozen locations on hull where metal bolts and fixings that pass through the hull have become corroded. This corrosion has sometimes split both layers of the hull's diagonal planking and occasionally damaged the framing.
In this shot Phil marks the inside layers of planks that will need to be removed to repair one of the damaged areas.
Here's a close up of the markings, you can also see the many copper nails, that hold the planks in place.
Outside, Rosie marks the exterior planking that needs to be removed.
Due to the overlapping double diagonal construction, a small amount of damage means removing quite a few external internal and external planks. The strong, diagonal construction, means that the frames, one of which is vertical in this shot, can be of relatively light construction.
Posting for the North East 20.08.2014
Both myself and John Stelling visited Zach Taylor at South Tynedale Railway during August, lets see what he's been getting up to in the railway's Alston workshops.
The railway have given permission to Zach, to use the workshop machinery, to machine the castings of a Stuart No.9 horizontal mill engine, he is building. In this shot, he consults the No.9 manual, before setting the cylinder up in the vertical miller.
In this shot he's boring the cylinder, in the vertical milling machine, having set it up on a vertical angle plate with a dial gauge.
Later, he faces off a cylinder cover casting in the lathe.
Later in the month, Zach was investigating a fuel flow issue, on one of the Hunslet mines locomotives. He's had to drain coolant from the engine, remove the radiator, shown in this shot and its associated cooling hoses.
Zach explained to me, the complex system of pipes that make up the locomotives fuel system. Fuel is fed from the fuel tank above the transmission, to the fuel pump, the fuel filter, injectors and return pipework to the tank.There's something in all that pipework, that causing fuel starvation. Fault finding can be a long tedious job! The cylinder heads, which Zach was repairing in a previous posting, have now been refitted.
Zach showed me the work he'd been involved with in rebuilding the clutch on another of the Hunslet diesels the railway owns.
A general shot of the clutch is shown below.
Left to right - The clutch stop which stops the clutch rotating during semi-automatic gear changes, the coupling connecting the output from the clutch to the gearbox, the clutch release bearing and operating rod to the cab, the multiplate clutch and finally the engine flywheel, with the recently installed electric starter motor, far right.
This clutch assembly was built up from components from a number of locomotives, including a donor chassis, from which the railway can take, hard to find parts. Zach machined the clutch release bearing, during the re-assembly of the clutch.
The release bearing, which Zach machined, is right in the centre of this shot.
Zach has also been involved in the steam fleet, having assisted with the re-assembly of 1918 built, Henschel locomotive, Thomas Edmondson. Reassembly followed repairs to its axleboxes. Here's a shot of the locomotives Walschaert's valve gear and driving wheels.
Zach also explained that the injector body, shown in the shot below, was also repaired recently.
I recently visited Tanfield Railway where EHSI trainee Michael McCann was working with, volunteer Brian High, on 1904 built Andrew Barclay 'Horden' In the shot below Brian is explaining to Michael, the recent job he did on the new front tubeplate for Horden's boiler. He explained, that he used a specially made narrow cutting tool, to gradually cut a hole in the tubeplate for the main steam pipe, the pipe will take steam from the regulator, to the steam pipes for the locomotive's two cylinders.
Here's a close-up of the hole for the steam pipe and the blank that was removed, during a very careful machining operation.
On the day of my visit Michael, was using the magnetic drill to rough out the rectangular holes in the new front buffer beam for Horden. The roughing out was being done with a Rotabroach cutter. Here's a close up of the business end.
Rotabroaches come in different sizes. They save quite a bit of time. The alternative would be to chain drill out a blank which would take a lot longer to complete
However, there is still some chain drilling to do and in this shot Michael uses the magnetic drill, with green cutting paste, to remove some more steel, from the hole for the drawbar.
Later, he takes a more basic approach and removes more material with cold chisel.
Here's a close up of the hole for the drawbar. As much material as possible will be removed with the magnetic drill. It's planned that the hole will be finished to its final dimensions, with an air driven, rotary burr.
Another job for later, will be to remake these plates, which bolt to the front of the buffer beam and protect the machined hole in the buffer beam from wear, by absorbing the buffing shocks from the drawbar.
Posting for the North East 06.08.2014
On Monday the 4th of August I visited Ryan Auton EHSI trainee at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool. In earlier posts we had seen Ryan making repairs to the ships bulwarks. At that time it was work in progress, so I thought readers might like to see how the repairs turned out.
Here's a reminder of how the repairs are done. In the shot below we can see a section of decorative moulding where water got behind the moulding and caused it to rot. Ryan cut out the rotted wood back to good material. He then made a new piece of hardwood moulding. Behind the wooden plugs that are yet to be painted, are recessed holes through which coach bolts are screwed into holes drilled into the body of the bulwark.
In this shot you can the painted repair that was featured in an earlier posting. As can be seen its a very neat repair with the head of the plug smoothed off, and under the plug is silicone sealant, to deter the entry of any rainwater.
Repainting the hull has been the big summertime job this year. The HMS T team are using a new water based paint system, that has shown promising results on the port, left hand side, of the ship. In this shot Ryan checks the paint finish under the chain plates. The shot gives a good idea of scale and the sheer size of the task of repainting this 1065 ton, 150 foot long and 39 foot beam, hull.
Here's a close up.
Work has now moved to the starboard, right hand side, of the ship.
The work is carried out from a floating pontoon, In this shot Ryan is applying paint with a roller, to the underside the the chain plates.
Again a further away shot gives an idea of scale. Imagine manually handling that anchor in a rough sea!
The team also recently repainted the ships 'busthead'. In this shot Ryan shows the cramped position available for some of the work. The remainder of the work was done from a floating pontoon, where access is a lot easier.
Here's a close up of the busthead which reflects the ships Indian origins.
Postings for the North East 31.07.2014
Locomotion
Unexpectedly, I was in Locomotion again yesterday, so here's another update showing how the restoration of GWR pannier tank 5775 is going.
Since last week one of the pannier tanks has had its first coat of primer.
In this shot we see Steven Hopper putting the second coat of undercoat on a driving wheel.
Behind him you can see that the sandbox has already had its first top coat applied.
This close up of the smokebox door, shows how much hard work goes into getting down to bare metal, before primer is applied.
To ensure that the appearance of the locomotive is re-created as it appeared in the film, the workshop notice board shows photographs and stills form the film, to ensure the correct final finish is achieved.
NELSAM
Getting back to the MK's clutch change, here's a shot of the clutch and pressure plate s after they were removed from the machine. The clutch plate was down to the rivets in places and the pressure plate shows scoring that is a issue that will have to be resolved.
Postings for the North East 25.07.2014
Michael McCann is working two days a week at Locomotion in Shildon with fellow EHSI trainee Steven Hopper. The project to repaint a former GWR pannier tank, last featured on a posting on the 7th of July. There's been quite a bit of progress since then, with the chassis and wheels now undercoated and the locomotive's structure above the running plate, largely rubbed down.
Here are three shots of the locomotive front, back and one side.
Michael McCann is working two days a week at Locomotion in Shildon with fellow EHSI trainee Steven Hopper. The project to repaint a former GWR pannier tank, last featured on a posting on the 7th of July. There's been quite a bit of progress since then, with the chassis and wheels now undercoated and the locomotive's structure above the running plate, largely rubbed down.
Here are three shots of the locomotive front, back and one side.
Rubbing down the paintwork has revealed some of the GN&SR, Great North and South Railway, lettering that the engine carried on its pannier tanks for the Railway Children film.
The film, released in 1970, was made on the locomotive owner's line, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. The locomotive was withdrawn for service some time ago and has been on display at the KWVR. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the release of the film, Locomotion are repainting the engine in the GN&SR livery, it carried during the film.
As the pictures show there's plenty of rubbing down to do, here's a shot of Michael using air driven, orbital sander, preparing the front of the cab for its undercoat.
Whilst Michael was working on the cab Steven was getting on with rubbing down the undercoat already applied to the locomotives frames.
Here's another shot of the wheel and frame, which have been needle gunned and now undercoated.
Later, it came time to remove the steam coil that feeds the locomotives hydrostatic lubricator.
Here we see Locomotion volunteer Trevor Addison and Steven Hopper, undoing the joints on the pipework prior to removing the coil from the locomotive.
Here's the coil, along with the condensate it contained, in the workshop wheelbarrow.
Here's a shot of the footplate which Trevor has been working on cleaning up.
This close-up shows how much cleaning up will be needed, prior to any paint being applied to the roof area of the cab.
5775 was built in 1926, but fitted to the cab side doors, is this very useful advice issued, by the GWR in January 1909!
Postings for the North East 22.07.2014
EHSI trainee Michael McCann has been working at NELSAM recently helping out on job to change the clutch on an ex-army Bedford MK truck, the 4 wheel dive military version of the civilian Bedford TK. The MK was produced by Bedford and later AWD for 33 years from 1959 to 1992.
Here's a few shots of the vehicle just before the gearbox was removed.
Here's an overall view of the 4 tonne truck, with jacks lined up ready for work.
The lower section of the bell housing has been removed showing the clutch cover and the flywheel.
This is a shot of the four speed main gearbox which has to be removed to change the clutch.
Work got started earlier today to remove the gearbox, the first step was to remove the gear selector from the top of the gearbox.
Next step is to take the weight of the gearbox on a trolley jack and using slings around the gearbox.
After the weight is taken the bolts connecting the gearbox to the bell housing are removed. In this shot, the gearbox has been disconnected and is being lowered by Michael and John, to ground level, on the scissors trolley jack. It would be a lot easier with a pit says John!
The gearbox is manhandled from under the truck.
The gearbox is put to one side whilst the team get started on the removal of the clutch.
Postings for the North East 08.07.2014
At Locomotion they are repainting the GWR Pannier tank which once starred in the 1970 film the Railway Children as being owned by the mythical 'Great Northern and Southern Railway. Obviously someone at Locomotion has converted the locomotive to LNER ownership whilst in the North East!
44 years ago the locomotive carried, an unusual to say the least, brown livery, similar to the test paint on the front of the pannier tanks in this shot.
Research is being carried out to ensure the right shade of brown is used, when the vast amount of preparation is complete and undercoating starts.
In this shot we see on the left, Steven Hopper the EHSI trainee at Locomotion.
John also popped in to the North East Maritime Trust to see Rosie Power and Phil Smith.
Here's a shot of them both, under the whaleback that they have been working on for ages, which has now been offered up to the stern of the Henry Frederick Swan Lifeboat.
John on his travels, has also visited Ryan Auton at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool. These first couple of shots show his navigation skills, as he moves a work pontoon across the dock and loads it with wood for repairs on the ship.
Later Ryan had a simple repair to an access gangway to do. Here he removes the panel that covers the gap between the end of the gangway and the side of the ship.
John Stelling recently visited Joe Power at Stephenson Railway Museum who is building a portable forge, lets see how he's been getting on.
Joe gets on with cutting steel to make the legs of his forge.
Postings for the North East 27.05.2014
Moving south form Haltwhistle I have some shots from earlier in June, of EHSI trainee at the South Tynedale Railway, Zach Taylor. Readers will recall that last year's trainee, Andrew McIntyre repaired Hunslet mines locomotive 'Cumbria's' transmission. The Gardiner engine however, is beginning to show signs of engine wear and the railway has decided to strip it down to investigate. The shots that follow show Zach removing the inlet and exhaust manifolds and the cylinder heads. Eventually the Connecting rods and pistons will also be removed to check the state of the piston rings and cylinder bores.
Here we see Zach at the start of the job, the bonnet and cab have been removed and he's starting to remove the manifolds.
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At Locomotion they are repainting the GWR Pannier tank which once starred in the 1970 film the Railway Children as being owned by the mythical 'Great Northern and Southern Railway. Obviously someone at Locomotion has converted the locomotive to LNER ownership whilst in the North East!
44 years ago the locomotive carried, an unusual to say the least, brown livery, similar to the test paint on the front of the pannier tanks in this shot.
Research is being carried out to ensure the right shade of brown is used, when the vast amount of preparation is complete and undercoating starts.
In this shot we see on the left, Steven Hopper the EHSI trainee at Locomotion.
Ear defenders are the order of the day, whilst needle gunning is carried out. I'm sure we'll see much more of this restoration as the job proceeds.
John also popped in to the North East Maritime Trust to see Rosie Power and Phil Smith.
Here's a shot of them both, under the whaleback that they have been working on for ages, which has now been offered up to the stern of the Henry Frederick Swan Lifeboat.
John on his travels, has also visited Ryan Auton at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool. These first couple of shots show his navigation skills, as he moves a work pontoon across the dock and loads it with wood for repairs on the ship.
Later Ryan had a simple repair to an access gangway to do. Here he removes the panel that covers the gap between the end of the gangway and the side of the ship.
After repairs and sanding down Ryan paints the panel.
When the paint dries he fixes the panel in place.
Joe gets on with cutting steel to make the legs of his forge.
After marking out and clamping, Joe drills the holes to mount the legs on the forge.
Later he bends so angle to make the frame of the smoke hood.
Then using the MIG welder he joins he welds the mitred joints of the the frame.
We leave Joe using a piece of cardboard to make a template, to mark out the sheet steel from which he will make the hood.
Moving south form Haltwhistle I have some shots from earlier in June, of EHSI trainee at the South Tynedale Railway, Zach Taylor. Readers will recall that last year's trainee, Andrew McIntyre repaired Hunslet mines locomotive 'Cumbria's' transmission. The Gardiner engine however, is beginning to show signs of engine wear and the railway has decided to strip it down to investigate. The shots that follow show Zach removing the inlet and exhaust manifolds and the cylinder heads. Eventually the Connecting rods and pistons will also be removed to check the state of the piston rings and cylinder bores.
Here we see Zach at the start of the job, the bonnet and cab have been removed and he's starting to remove the manifolds.
With the manifolding removed, its time to remove one of the two cylinder heads, which are in two sets of two, on this Gardiner 4 cylinder diesel engine.
Zach has now removed the cylinder heads and has started to strip down one of them on the bench.
Here's a shot show the manifold side of the head, you can just see the inlet and exhaust valves on the underside of the second cylinder head.
Our first story in this latest update is the restoration of a railway prison coach for the Maud Railway Museum in Aberdeenshire by Stanegate Restoration and Replicas.
The picture below shows the coach suspended from a crane, during recovery operations. Its been 'grounded' and thus the pitch pine structure, has rotten from the bottom upwards, leading to an unusual reconstruction process as the photos which follow will show.
Here's a little about the background to the project borrowed from Stanegate's website.
In 1886 the Admiralty commenced building the Harbour of Refuge at Peterhead, it was decided to quarry granite at Stirling Hill, using the labour of convicts who were housed in the prison built for the purpose.
The only state owned railway - at the time - was built to convey prisoners and stone.
The sole surviving convict van (one of four built in 1915) is to be restored as part of the "Rocks, Rogues, Rails and Refuge" project to explore this aspect of social and transport heritage.
Once completed the van, and associated displays, will become part of the Maud Railway Museum, in Aberdeenshire.
Here's a shot down the side of the coach with Jonathan Crowe, former EHSI trainee and now an employee at Stanegate, in the shot. He's preparing surviving good timber, for the fitting of new sections of timber, using scarfed joints.
Because the coach has rotted from the ground up, its been jacked up to its finished height with temporary internal and external bracing to keep the structure stable, whilst the missing timber is reinstated on the bottom of the 'legs', which make up the vertical element of the coach's structure.
Here's a close-up shot of how the ironwork looked at the start of the project, following de-rusting and painting the ironwork in the shot above, now looks much improved.
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This is a close up of two of the 'legs' where new, scarf jointed Pitch Pine, has been fitted.
This is what scores of years standing on the ground, does to the coach's structure.
Here's a shot of Stanegate's EHSI trainee, Jamie Cowens, working with a belt sander, preparing for the fitting of a new scarf joint. The Pitch Pine structure that was exposed to the weather and didn't get 'its feet wet', has weathered very well.
A common problem on old coaches, is rusting ironwork, which over time expands and damages the wood in which it's mounted. This has happened with the Peterhead Railway coach.
The bars on the windows of the coach rusted so badly, that all the bars have had to be replaced. Here's a pile of new bars ready to be fitted.
Here's some of the new window bars dry fitted, to see how they fit in the window openings.
Looks like it would be difficult to escape!
Elsewhere in the workshop a client's steam engine canopy is in the workshop for repairs.
In this general shot of the workshop we see the end of N.E.R coach No.70 on the left, recently being worked on again and the Peterhead Prison Railway coach on the right, with the engine canopy in the foreground.
Outside is the underframe the Maud Railway Museum has acquired, on which to mount, the prison coach body.
This 1960's built Fife motor sailing boat has been a long term project of Stanegate's Ian Yates.
Internally its been rebuilt with loving care as the shot below shows.
Now is the time for the outside to be caulked to seal the joints between the hull's planks.
Stanegate have assembled an impressive collection of caulking irons and mallets and this job, is next on the list for the boat. Here's a shot of the caulking gear, laid out ready for use.
Here's a shot of the boat ready for caulking.
Postings for the North East 27.05.2014
We last heard of Joe Power at Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields when he was making some wrenches for wash out plugs. He's moved on to making components for gas lamps. in this shot we see him measuring a cast iron lamp standard to ensure the components he is making will fit when the lamps are assembled.
I visited EHSI trainee at South Tynedale Railway last week and caught up with what he's been up to in the North Pennines.
Zach work is focused mainly on engineering but he also spends some of his time with the track gang.
The STR have loaned 'Harrogate', a 1944 Peckett 0-6-0 from the Statfold Railway whilst the STR's locomotives are under repair. In this shot Zach is pointing out the regulator gland which he had just re-packed.
Here's a close up shot of the gland. Zach had to remove the regulator handle and then strip out the gland and repack it. The gland prevents live steam leaking when the regulator shaft turns to operate the regulator in the dome.
Postings for the North East 23.05.2014
At HMS Trincomalee Ryan Auton continues the maintenance work on the ship. The task this posting covers is more replacement of rotted timber. In this shot we see a rotted area of the ship's bulwark where the rotted area has been cut out ready for the fitting of a new piece of timber.
At the North East Maritime Trust in South Shields Rosie Power and Phil Smith have started the second year of a part time placement at the trust. Their most recent task has been to rebuilt the stern whaleback a distinctive curved wooden structure that is fitted on the stern and bow of the Henry Fredrick Swan. Rosie and Phil have taken on the challenging task of rebuilding the whaleback that has had to have many of its sharply curved planks replaced. This task has had many twists and turns and has also led to the rebuilding of the trust's steamer. The shot that follows is a close up of some of the sharply curved planks at the edge of the whaleback.
Postings for the North East 15.05.2014
I visited Joe power the EHSI trainee at the Stephenson Railway Museum the other day.
Joe has a woodworking background and at SRM is making the transition to working in metal.
One of his recent jobs was to hand file a square into a piece of steel which was then later welded to and old tool handle by a SRM volunteer to make a great tool for tightening up the wash out plugs on A No.5 locomotive. In this photo Joe is holding the wrenches he has made.
We last heard of Joe Power at Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields when he was making some wrenches for wash out plugs. He's moved on to making components for gas lamps. in this shot we see him measuring a cast iron lamp standard to ensure the components he is making will fit when the lamps are assembled.
Later Joe cut out with tin snips a new sheet steel base for one of the lamp bodies.
He then used a vice to fold the edges of the sheet he had cut out.
Here's Joe with the finished item just making sure all the corners are correctly folded.
In the background is the Walschaerts valve gear of 0-6-0 Bagnall locomotive No.401 of 1953, who's boiler was sent to the North Norfolk Railway for a new firebox to be fitted.
Joe's next step is to test the fit of the new steel base in the lamp body.
Zach work is focused mainly on engineering but he also spends some of his time with the track gang.
The STR have loaned 'Harrogate', a 1944 Peckett 0-6-0 from the Statfold Railway whilst the STR's locomotives are under repair. In this shot Zach is pointing out the regulator gland which he had just re-packed.
Here's a close up shot of the gland. Zach had to remove the regulator handle and then strip out the gland and repack it. The gland prevents live steam leaking when the regulator shaft turns to operate the regulator in the dome.
This is s shot of the manifold on top of Harrogate's boiler. Zach also repacked the glands on three of the valves on the manifold, as part of the regular maintenance on the locomotive whilst its on loan to the railway.
An earlier job on Harrogate was to change the locomotive's fire bars which had become distorted. In this shot we see the old fire bars which Zach removed after first removing the ash pan from below the firebox.
Here's a shot of the inside of the firebox. In the bottom of the shot, the new fire bars which show no signs of distortion despite the railway's gradients being as steep as 1 in 56 in places.
As mentioned earlier Zach also works with the track gang. The shot below shows the point outside the signalbox at Alston station. The track gang dug out, dis-assembled and re-laid the point with new sleepers and ballast, and a very neat job they have made of it!
My colleague Stuart Hines also visited STR at the bank holiday weekend, you can read his posting at https://www.facebook.com/groups/146740965394085/?fref=ts
At HMS Trincomalee Ryan Auton continues the maintenance work on the ship. The task this posting covers is more replacement of rotted timber. In this shot we see a rotted area of the ship's bulwark where the rotted area has been cut out ready for the fitting of a new piece of timber.
In the workshop Ryan cuts a piece of new timber.
He then test fitted it after carefully cutting it to size.
Then he drills a recessed hole through which will be screwed a coach bolt and the hole then plugged with timber to create a smooth finish.
In this shot we see the replacement timber coach bolted in place.
In this shot the job is nearly done, sealant in place and the wooden plug just needs sawing off flush. Painting, of course, to follow.
Here's a shot of Rosie and Phil working on the upturned whaleback.
In this shot Rosie is preparing and area for a new piece of planking.
Here's a shot of Phil working on the inside of the whaleback.
Postings for the North East 15.05.2014
I visited Joe power the EHSI trainee at the Stephenson Railway Museum the other day.
Joe has a woodworking background and at SRM is making the transition to working in metal.
One of his recent jobs was to hand file a square into a piece of steel which was then later welded to and old tool handle by a SRM volunteer to make a great tool for tightening up the wash out plugs on A No.5 locomotive. In this photo Joe is holding the wrenches he has made.
To prove they work here's Joe showing how the wrench is used on A No.5
Joe's next job is to provide a finial for this ex BR signal post.
Postings for the North East 12.05.2014
I visited Locomotion today a got up to date with Steven Hopper who has been working on the former Southern Railway 'Queen Mary' bogie brake van and been assisting Steven Foxton with the GNR tender mentioned in earlier blogs.
On the GNR tender Steven Hopper assisted with a welded repair of the handbrake shaft guard.
In this shot he pints out the area that he helped to repair..
He also helped to fabricate this step from three separate pieces that were then welded together.
Steven also helped to fit the brake rods and hangers.
Here's another shot of the front of the tender which shows what a fine job has been made of a vehicle that was literally a wreck when it arrived at Shildon.
Steven is continuing to work on the Queen Mary brake van. Richard Pearson tells me that the vehicle is owned by the Bahamas Locomotive Society who have loaned it to the museum where it is used on the museum's demonstration line. The brake van is undergoing a repaint in the Shildon workshop. Here we see Steven rubbing down the paintwork prior to applying undercoat. With a vehicle this big that's a lot of surface preparation!
Repairs have also been made to the steel and wooden framed vehicle.
In this shot new wooden framing has been fitted under the bolted on steel panels that make up the sides of the van body.
Further along the same side, the lower edges of the panels have had new sections welded in place, where corrosion has taken hold.
Richard Pearson expects the van to be finished by the end of the month, so there's lots for Steven to be getting on with before the next project arrives, a GWR pannier tank to re-paint, this is expected on site on the 22nd of May.
Postings for the North East 28.04.2014
Last time we saw Joe Power at Stephenson Railway Museum he was sorting out a big pile of copper piping. He's still working on steam during John Stelling's recent visit he was getting on with a boiler wash out. In this shot we see all the wash out plugs and mud hole clamps laid out on the bench. All of these fittings have to be removed from the boiler to allow it to be washed out to remove the sludge that collects inside the steam spaces inside and at the bottom of the boiler. This sludge has to be removed as it reduces water circulation, a local build up of sludge may lead to localised overheating.
In this shot Joe is using a wire brush on a bench grinder to clean up one of wash out plugs.
Later Joe touches up the paint on one of the splashers from Locomotive A No.5
Last time we saw Joe Power at Stephenson Railway Museum he was sorting out a big pile of copper piping. He's still working on steam during John Stelling's recent visit he was getting on with a boiler wash out. In this shot we see all the wash out plugs and mud hole clamps laid out on the bench. All of these fittings have to be removed from the boiler to allow it to be washed out to remove the sludge that collects inside the steam spaces inside and at the bottom of the boiler. This sludge has to be removed as it reduces water circulation, a local build up of sludge may lead to localised overheating.
In this shot Joe is using a wire brush on a bench grinder to clean up one of wash out plugs.
Later Joe touches up the paint on one of the splashers from Locomotive A No.5
Lets meet some more of our new year 4 EHSI North Eastern trainees. Steven Hopper's placement is a Locomotion in Shildon.
He's been helping another Steven, Steven Foxton, the year 2 EHSI trainee at Locomotion, now working at the museum on a contract, to restore a a correct period, Great Northern Railway tender, which on completion, will be matched with GNR single No.1, which is on display at Shildon.
In the sequence of photos that follow we see Steven repairing a sheet steel guard that covers the vertical handbrake shaft on the tender. This was also Steven's first opportunity to develop some welding skills.
After cutting out an area of corrosion Steven shapes a steel patch on the anvil. which he will weld in place to make a repair to the brake shaft guard.
Steven prepares the area for welding
After welding Steven starts to dress the weld.
Later after cleaning he applies a coat of primer.
Here we see Steven with some of the other components for the tender which he is preparing for painting with undercoat and topcoats.
While were at Locomotion, lets look at progress on the GNR tender the our former EHSI trainee Steven Foxton is restoring. Here's the tender early in its restoration in August 2008.
Here's a recent shot of the tender in the Locomotion workshop. I'm sure readers will agree its a remarkable transformation by Steven and his volunteer helpers. I understand, its due to be reunited with GNR No.1 at Locomotion's Spring Steam Gala, this coming weekend.
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Moving across to the Tyne Valley Stanegate EHSI trainee Jamie Cowens is working on Stanegate's latest project a very unusual prison coach from the Peterhead Prison Railway.
Read more about its history at http://www.friendsofmaud.org.uk/index_files/Page513.htm
go to the Rocks, Rogues, Rails and Refuge section of the page above.
In this shot Jamie works on the coach's framework with a chisel.
Nearby Luke Bell, last year's EHSI trainee, now employed at Stanegate uses a hole saw to cut out areas of the pitch pine framework where rusty bots have expanded and cracked the wooden structure. When all of the damaged areas of wood have been removed the damaged areas will be repaired as part of the restoration process.
Postings for the North East 03.04.2014
Our year 4 trainees have all settled in to their traineeships so lets catch up with what they've been doing.
First up is Michael McCann who is this year's EHSI trainee at Tanfield Railway.
There's quite a lot going on at Tanfield the continuing rebuild of 'Horden' including the re-tyring of driving wheels + the rebuild of the cab, the removal of 'Twizell's boiler and the locomotives re-assembly. Add in the repair of an excavator bucket, the drilling of a tubeplate and a buffer beam and you can see Michael has had quite a bit of variety in the first two months of his traineeship.
Tanfield Railway often tackle some of the more difficult tasks in locomotive repair and restoration, an example is the re-tyring of the Horden's driving wheels.
Having sourced and machined new tyres for the locomotive it was time to fit the tyres.
It was some years since the job was last done, so the work started by working with Brian High and John Lennox on making a new circular gas burner. The burner would be used to heat the tyre so that it could be shrunk on to the wheel centre.
Here we see Michael and Brian working on the fabricating the burner.
Here's a shot of the bucket which still needs some more work to complete the task.
Here's A5 running for the first time in nine years!
Latest news postings for EHSI North East
First up is Michael McCann who is this year's EHSI trainee at Tanfield Railway.
There's quite a lot going on at Tanfield the continuing rebuild of 'Horden' including the re-tyring of driving wheels + the rebuild of the cab, the removal of 'Twizell's boiler and the locomotives re-assembly. Add in the repair of an excavator bucket, the drilling of a tubeplate and a buffer beam and you can see Michael has had quite a bit of variety in the first two months of his traineeship.
Tanfield Railway often tackle some of the more difficult tasks in locomotive repair and restoration, an example is the re-tyring of the Horden's driving wheels.
Having sourced and machined new tyres for the locomotive it was time to fit the tyres.
It was some years since the job was last done, so the work started by working with Brian High and John Lennox on making a new circular gas burner. The burner would be used to heat the tyre so that it could be shrunk on to the wheel centre.
Here we see Michael and Brian working on the fabricating the burner.
In this shot John Lennox holds the burner whilst Michael finished of the final bit of welding.
Notice the burner is now fitted with its control valves.
Having made the burner it was time to fit the tyres, Some of the shots that follow have been 'borrowed' from Derek Smith's excellent Tanfield Railway Blog. First job was to put the newly machined tyre level on a steel plate ready for heating. The gas burner rests against No. 49's buffer beam.
Then some careful cleaning of the wheel and the tyre.
Then it was time to 'cook on gas', heating the tyre to expand it sufficiently, to allow the wheel to fit inside the tyre and shrink to a tight fit after cooling.
The Tanfield team made a gauge with which they checked the tyre to make sure it had sufficiently expanded, when the tyre was the right size the axle was lowered into the tyre with the Railway's Telehandler. Michael and Brian check alignment during this tricky manoeuvre.
Both tyres were fitted to the axle and after cooling we see the finished job in the workshop.
Work has continued on the repairs to Horden's cab. In this shot we see Michael at work on the cab platework.
The rear of the cab has been replaced, but notice the gouges near the roof on the side of the cab. It has been decided to retain some of Horden's damaged cab platework, to show some the 'battle scars' it suffered, during its colourful life at Horden and Shotton collieries.
The Tanfield team later assembled the cab and Michael was involved in it's trial fitting to ensure a good and square fit. The cab will have to be removed again when the time comes to re-fit the boiler.
During its time at Shotton Horden was involved in a collision, in which it suffered damage to its front buffer beam. Michael has worked on drilling the mounting holes in a new buffer beam, using a magnetic drill.
Another piece of precision drilling was the new boiler front tubeplate, Michael helped with the careful marking out and drilling of the tubeplate. Here's the tubeplate almost finished.
One of the railway's excavator buckets had worn very thin.
Michael gets to work repairing the bucket's platework.
Michael has also helped out on Twizell's rebuilding, here he was working again with Brian, on adjusting the locomotive's rearmost axle's volute springs. The Locomotive's repaired boiler waits in the background to be fitted to the chassis.
Although it harks back to last year here's a couple of shots of Stephenson Railway Museum's Locomotive No. A5 the only operational Long boilered locomotive in the country. It last operated under steam in 2005. Last year's EHSI trainee Tom Naisbitt returned specially to the museum to assist with its steam test.
Here's Tom preparing for the steam test.
On the footplate during the test
We now move on to HMS Trincomalee and EHSI trainee Ryan Auton in Hartlepool.
The ships bulwarks, the wall of wood that surrounds the top deck, is fitted with a decorative half round moulding. Ryan has been working on removing some of these mouldings that have suffered from internal rotting.
HMS Trincomalee was built in Bombay from Indian teak due to the shortage of oak which even by 1817 was in short supply. When the ship was restored, teak was no longer commercially available, so a West African hardwood called Bilinga, known as Opepe in the UK, was used to restore the ship. This wood, unlike teak which is oily, is a 'dry wood' which means it can absorb moisture and lead to fungal rot.
Here's a close up of the moulding before work began, outwardly everything looks fine.
However on the underside are some worrying signs of rot.
Ryan gets to work cutting out the rot and soon the true extent of the rot is revealed.
We'll keep you posted on Ryan's progress with the repairs to the mouldings on the bulwarks, in due course.
Latest news postings for EHSI North East
Postings for the North East Thursday 13.03.2014
North Staffordshire Railway 3rd class coach is now mounted on its chassis and has been dispatched to the owners, the North Staffordshire Railway Rolling Stock Trust at the Foxfield Railway.
Here's a shot showing it in use as a garden shed.
The grounded body arrived at the railway in 1976, here it is on arrival.
The railway carried out a partial restoration.
The coach was then sent to Stanegate for a full restoration, now just completed.
Here's the finished coach on its underframe, outside Stanegate's workshop in Haltwhistle.
Later on the low loader ready to go to Staffordshire.
The coach shown on the Haltwhistle by-pass starting its Journey to Staffordshire.
Finally back home at the Foxfield Railway, 137 years after its construction in the NSR workshops beside the Trent and Mersey Canal in Stoke on Trent.
Postings for the North East Monday 03.03.2014
A visit to Stanegate Restoration during the induction week enabled us to see the progress that is North Staffordshire Railway coach No.6. This coach is nearing completion now and since these shots we taken has had its roof sticks, roof boards fitted and canvas roof covering fitted.
In this earlier shot we see the a painted compartment, again since then seats have been fitted and the cream boarding has been given a scumbled finish to simulate wood grain.
Here we see one of the ends of the coach now with one of the top coats applied.
Moving on to Tanfield Railway, last week I caught up with Richard Snowdon before he left the project to take up a new job and new Tanfield trainee, Michael McCann. Richard has taken up a new job in a car body repair shop. Both were working on the new back to the cab, of 1904 built, Andrew Barclay, 0-6-0 saddle tank, 'Horden'.
In this shot we see the upper portion of the cab on the workshop floor. Richard and Michael were cutting new steel plate to replace the missing rear portion of the cab, that is being replaced due to advanced corrosion.
Here's Richard cutting the new plate for the back of the cab.
Later it was MIchael's turn with the plasma cutter.
Another task Michael is working on is the drilling of the new front boiler tube plate for 'Horden's'
boiler. In this shot the old tube plate has been temporarily welded to the new tube plate. It is being used as a template to drill the pilot holes for the fire tubes, which will eventually be inserted between the smokebox and firebox tube plates.
As the cutting out of the plate for the back of the cab was nearing completion Michael and Richard worked together on the job.
In this next shot we can see he's already been quite busy cleaning the various lengths of pipework and boiler fittings from the steam roller.
Tom's replacement at SRM is Joe Power here we see Joe cleaning up some steam pipework form a steam roller which SRM has in storage. Joe was explaining to me what he was doing.
Here's a final Shot of Tom Naisbitt days before leaving the project at the end of February. Here he's painting the boiler cladding which sustained some scratches to the paintwork when it was being refitted to the locomotive. He's moved on to pastures new in Leeds, we wish him well for the future.
Postings for the North East Saturday 16.02.2014
Later in the day we visited William Lane foundry, where through unusually good timing, we arrived just when molten metal was about to be poured. Here we see EHSI trainees watching the casting process.
In this shot MD Edward Bilcliffe explains the moulding process.
As posted on our Facebook page the shot below is of 7 of our 2014/15 intake of trainees at the North East Maritime Trust boatyard in South Shields
Left to right the trainees and their placements are:-
Steven Hooper - LocomotionJamie Godwin - Adam Dalgleish Engineering, boilermakers Stockton
Ryan Auton - HMS Trincomalee
Michael McCann - Tanfield Railway
Joe Power - Stephenson Railway Museum
Zach Taylor - South Tyndale Railway
Joel Vernon and Ryann Hodgson have now been recruited for William Lane foundry Middlesbrough.
Postings for the North East Saturday 25.01.2014
I recently visited Tom Naisbitt again at Stephenson Railway Museum to see how they are getting on with the re-assembly of 1883, Kitson Long-boiler locomotive, Consett Iron Company 'A No.5'. Following a successful hydraulic test, the boiler lagging and cladding has been replaced, and just before my visit the two pannier tanks had been re-fitted to the the locomotive.
In this shot Tom points out the fixing bolts that hold the tank in place.
The two shots that follow show the excellent progress that SRM are making with the locomotive's re-assembly.
Looking down the other side we see the dome cover yet to be fitted and in the red casting in the foreground is one of the locomotive's steam injectors.
Here's a close up of the mounting for the Ramsbottom steam safety valve and the dome, whose bolted cover had just been re-fitted by Tom.
Inside the cab some of the boiler fittings are in place, with the remainder yet to be fitted.
On the bench was one of the valve bodies of the Ramsbottom safety valve.
Also yet to be fitted, is the safety valve spring and its associated linkage.
The cab windows were also on the bench awaiting fitting to the cab.
On the 16th of January I caught up with Richard Snowdon at Tanfield Railway.
In this shot he's checking a piece of angle that will become part of the cab plate work he is making for 1904 'Horden's' cab.
The rear bunker has been lifted on to the mainframes of Horden for storage. We can see from the shot that good progress is being made with this fabrication.
Postings for the North East Thursday 07.01.2014
Here's the first posting of 2014. On Saturday the 4th of January I visited the Stephenson Railway Museum to catch up with Tom Naisbitt. The run up to Christmas has been eventful at the museum with their Peckett locomotive Jackie Milburn inconveniently developing a boiler problem, this resulted in the museum having to find a replacement locomotive in a hurry and as an additional back up start stripping down another locomotive for a boiler inspection.
Here's a shot of the locomotive the museum used to help with the Santa specials.
Its a 1953 Peckett which was hired in from The Darlington Railway Preservation Society.
the locomotive is used to working away from its home base, having worked at the Telford Steam railway and the Chosley and Wallingford Railway.
Permission was obtained to return the museum's historic 1883 built Kitson Long Boiler 0-6-0 locomotive to steam.
Here's a shot of how it looked before Tom and the SRM team got to work.
Here's how it looks now, with tanks and boiler cladding removed to allow for hydraulic testing and a boiler inspection. Obviously there's plenty for Tom to be getting on with in the two months before his traineeship is complete at the end of February
Postings for the North East Thursday 19.12.2013
Work has been going on at the North East Maritime Trust on two lifeboats, 'Tyne' for South Shields Council and the Henry Fredrick Swan the trust's long term restoration project.
Lets start with EHSI trainee Phil Smith. Phil has been working on the internal planking of the Henry Fredrick Swan. Here's a shot of the very small space he has to work in when he is caulking the planking.
Phil mixes up the putty which helps to seal the caulking.
Using a caulking iron Phil starts work on a task that certainly helps to develop patience.
Rosie Power has been working on the lifeboat 'Tyne' whose refurbishment is nearly complete.
Rosie used a stencil system to paint the name on the bow of the boat.
Firstly Rosie tried the system out on a piece of scrap wood to practice the technique.
Rosie then holds the trial piece up to the hull to see how it looks.
Rosie attaches a stencil to the hull.
Rosie then paints on the name
Rosie then pulls off the small strands of tape that create the shading on the letters
After the shading has been created Rosie removes the backing tape.
Here's a close up of very neat lettering.
The finished job.
John Stelling took this maritime sunset shot at the end of visit.
At the South Tynedale Railway, Andrew McIntyre has been getting on with his personal project to restore some of the wagon fleet at the railway.
In this series of photographs we see Andrew making cardboard templates to cut new steel to replace corroded plating.
In this shot we see Andrew's starting point the stripped chassis ready for its replacement steel.
All marked out now its time to get on with it!
In this series of photographs we see Andrew making cardboard templates to cut new steel to replace corroded plating.
In this shot we see Andrew's starting point the stripped chassis ready for its replacement steel.
Andrew then prepares to use cardboard to cut the templates.
He carefully measures to make sure the templates are accurate.
Andrew then moves down to the workshop where he places the first of the templates on steel plate in preparation for cutting the first piece of steel sheet.
Later Andrew uses the templates he has made to mark out the steel for the remainder of the steel plates he needs to refurbish the wagon frame
With Yorkshire and North East recruitment in full swing its been while since we had a North East update, john Stelling has just given me a photo update, so lets start with Matt Bedard at Beamish Museum, who with his mentor Tony Vollans, is working on the rebuild of Sheffield tram No 264. This 1907 built tram was due to be withdrawn from service in Sheffield at the start of World War 2 but was eventually earmarked for preservation in 1956. After a period in storage at Consett it became Beamish No.1 and entered service in December 1973. In the intervening 40 years its been rebuilt once already and now once again, after 11 years in out of service, has reached the head of the queue for rebuilding.
The photographs that follow show the work Matt has been doing to dismantle the lower saloon for re-building.
Here's the general arrangement drawing that has been posted on the wall of Regional Heritage Engineering Centre for reference during the re-build.
The photographs that follow show the work Matt has been doing to dismantle the lower saloon for re-building.
Here's the general arrangement drawing that has been posted on the wall of Regional Heritage Engineering Centre for reference during the re-build.
In this shot Matt cleans up some of the saloons structural ironwork.
The lower saloon is in the background supported on stands.
Here are some of the adjustable truss rods that take the structural stresses of the lower saloon.
Here's a shot looking into the saloon, with the body having been removed from its four wheeled truck and with some of the floor boards gone, you can see through the body to the workshop floor.
In 1907 The United Electric Car Company of Preston built their tramcars to last, here's s shot of the lower saloon cladding, that is normally hidden by the bench seating.
Behind some of the paneling are what is thought to be the dates on which the tramcar had been previously rebuilt. If this supposition is correct it looks like rebuilding took place in 1936, 1939, 1942 and 1948. Having been built in 1907, perhaps towards the end of its service in Sheffield it would seem to have required an increasing amount of attention!
Matt gets on with the job of stripping down the trams saloon.
Then its off with the saloon's door.
Matt then labels the door to ensure it goes back in the right place when the time comes for re-assembly.
Postings for the North East Thursday 07.11.2013
Yesterday I also visited the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields.
Here's some photographs of the work that EHSI trainee Tom Naisbitt has been doing at his placement.
One of the outstanding jobs on Tom's restoration of an ex BR brake van is the replacement of a section of rotted which is shown here. It was used as a pattern for the replacement section.
In the woodworking shop SRM volunteer Angus Ferrier works on the replacement section of foot boarding.
Later on it tested for fit on the van
After inspection it was found that the fault lay with a leak in the pipe connecting the valve to the vacuum cylinder, a easy fault to fix by replacing the flexible pipe.
As well as braking systems Tom had also been working on the passenger coaches steam heating system. This is fed from the railway's Peckett locomotive through a reducing valve and through small bore pipework to radiators in the coaches.
Here's a shot of a work bench with a vacuum filter and some the small bore pipework which Tom has been working on at the bench, having removed the components for repair from the coaches.
Here's the Peckett being warmed through for the boiler inspectors steam test due Thursday the 7th of November.
Postings for the North East Wednesday 06.11.2012
At the Maritime Trust the main task has been the refurbishment of lifeboat 'Tyne'. EHSI trainees Phil and Rosie have been working on the boat with NEMT volunteers who are aiming to complete the refurbishment, for South Tyneside Council, in December.
In this shot we see Rosie Power painting the hull with its gloss top coat.
Here's a close up.
Meanwhile Phil is working on painting the keel, in a very restricted space as these two shots show.
Here's a shot of the lifeboat, which has just had its buoyancy boxes installed.
Here's a close up of the boat which shows the excellent finish that the NEMT team are achieving.
Rosie checks the stern port gunwale which was fitted earlier.
Postings for the North East Tuesday 05.11.2013
Once the body paneling was removed to allow full assessment of its condition,Stanegate have been pleasantly surprised at the condition of the coach structure, its in much better shape than its predecessor, No. 127.
One of the first tasks was to remove the roof boarding and roof sticks which were in poor condition, they will need to be replaced. New roof sticks were laminated, in five layers of redwood, in a jig made by Stanegate director Ian Yates. Luke is pointing out the jig to me in the next photograph.
Here's a shot of a laminated roof stick glued and screwed in place. You can easily see the five layers that make up the lamination.
The roof stick that spans the centre bulkhead is a little wider than the others and Luke is showing me how a slot had to be hand routered into it, to accommodate the protruding bulkhead.
The ends of the roof sticks sit in, so called, 'birds mouth' cut outs in the cant rail and are glued and screwed in place. To the left can be seen the tenon of a door post, the roof sticks are spaced so that the door post tenons and roof stick mountings don't coincide to weaken the cant rail and thus the structural strength of the coach body.
Here's a shot looking down the coach roof, with all the new roof sticks in place.
As noted earlier the framing of No.61 is in a pretty good state, considering it was a grounded body. In this shot the end nearest the workshop door is having some minor repairs before having new exterior paneling is fitted.
The other end has already had its paneling fitted.
The next step is to fit the beading, in this shot Luke checks the beading before it is fitted.
Luke has been involved in replacing rotted sections of framing with new wood. Various techniques have been used; gluing, screwing, scarfing and fixing with dowels. In this shot we can see a number of repairs that Luke has carried out, which show the diversity of repair techniques he has used.
Luke has let new wood into the door posts which incorporate tenons that will be used, as end supports, for the transverse seating. The seats will also be supported by legs to the floor, which will be fitted later in the re-build.
Stanegate has also had to deal with the effects of some fire damage. Stanegate director Dave Charlton has fitted this scarf joint to replace some of the coach framing which was damaged by fire at some time in its life.
The centre section here has all been replaced with new hardwood due to fire damage. Luke holds up a piece of the damaged framing against the newly fitted replacement.
Here's a close up of a fire damaged piece of timber that has had to be replaced.
This is a close up of the cant rail from the inside and shows a repair that has been necessary, in many places, on both side of the coach's cant rail. The coach's wooden guttering was screwed through the cant rail from the inside with large coach screws.
It was necessary to remove the rotted gutter, along with the rusted coach screws to prevent further degradation to the cant rail.
A careful repair process removed the coach screws one by one, enlarged the holes to remove any rust or rot, plugged the clean holes with dowels and then filled the surrounding area to produce an invisible repair once the body is painted.
Outside the workshop the underframe awaits the repaired body.
Postings for the North East Monday 04.11.2013
I visited Richard Snowdon again this morning and had a chance to get some more shots of the work he's being doing with Brian High and Peter Weightman on Horden's bunker. Looking back at the blog, apart from one photo on the 28th of October, we last saw any detail of Richard's work on this project on the 7th of October.
Since then the front plate of the bunker, shown in this shot, has had all its fixing holes marked, drilled and milled bar has been bolted to the cut out we saw Richard cutting previously. This will guide the sliding gate, which will control the flow of coal to the footplate.
Here's a close up of the plate which was butt welded from two pieces of steel, you can see the joint running up the centre of the shot. The guides for the gate that controls the flow of coal from the bunker to the footplate are now in place.
Here's a close up of the guides made from milled pieces of steel bar and now temporarily bolted in place, prior to fitting the gate.
Richard is just starting on the job of making the sliding gate that will control the feed of coal to the footplate. Here are the components ready for welding along with the sketch drawing he's working to.
Here's a shot of the bunker, now with the mounting holes drilled using the front plate as a template, to make sure everything fits, when the bolts come to be fitted. A stiffener has now been welded on to the back wall of the bunker.
Here's a close up of the stiffener.
Lets remind ourselves of how the original bunker looked like before the locomotive was dismantled for rebuilding, here's a shot we posted on the EHSI website pages in the autumn of 2011. Its easy to understand why a full re-build of the bunker was needed!
Richard has welded a half round wear strip to the edge of the bunker and finished off the curved profile to the bunker. The joint between the half round strip and the bunker edge still requires some finishing.
Richard has now fully welded the joints in the bunker that were previously only stitch welded, as the two following shots show
Richard has also roughly cut out the steel plate from which the new footplate will be made, here we see it stacked, out of the way on top of Horden's main frames.
Postings for the North East Tuesday 28.10.2013
Once he's clamped in place a wooden cutting guide Richard gets to work with the plasma cutter.
Speaking of a bunker, here's the latest shot of it in the workshop at Marley Hill. Since we saw it last, holes have been drilled in the mounting flange to which the front plate of the bunker will be bolted. You can see that a stiffening web has also been butt welded to the back wall of the bunker.
Postings for the North East Tuesday 16.10.2013
I visited Tom Naisbitt at the Stephenson Railway Museum today, lets see what he's been up to.
Tom's major task recently has been the repainting of an Ex BR brake van. Here's a three quarter shot which shows the repainting is nearing completion.
Tom's major task recently has been the repainting of an Ex BR brake van. Here's a three quarter shot which shows the repainting is nearing completion.
The exterior of the van has had coats of stain and varnish to achieve an authentic finish, as this shot shows.
In this shot Tom shows one of the cleaned up roof ventilators.
He then points out to me where they fit in the roof of the van.
This is a shot of the other side of the interior.
Later, outside in the yard, the railway was using a JCB to coal Ex NCB Ashington Peckett, 'Jackie Milburn'
After Coaling Tom man's the handbrake on the Peckett as its pushed into the shed by the railway's 03 diesel.
Toms' next job is likely to be the re-varnishing some of the wood work on the railway's Ex BR Mk 1 open saloon coaches. Here's a couple of shots of the areas he will be tackling.
Tom points to the saloon seat frames which will also come in for his attention.
Postings for the North East Tuesday 15.10.2013
John Stelling recently provided me with an photographic update here's some shots from John's files.
Lets's start with Matt Bedard at Beamish Museum where he is working with his mentor Tony Vollans on the construction of two replica chauldron waggons.
In this first shot we see the newly built chassis of the chauldron with ironwork recovered from some of the museums stock of chauldrons which have rotted woodwork but whose ironwork has proved to be re-usable.
On the day of John's visit Matt and Tony were getting started on installing the bottom planks of the waggons side planking.
In this shot Matt is checking the fit of the small infill pieces of timber that fit between the ironwork and the bottom side planks.
The advantage of having chauldrons as part of the museum's collection is that you can always use one of them to check your dimensions. Here Tony and Matt measure up before preparing the next row of planking.
On the 25th of September Both North East and Yorkshire trainees visited HMS Trincomalee and William Lane Foundry in Middlesbrough.
EHSI would like to thank David McKnight at HMS Trincomalee, Edward Bilcliffe at William Lane and their respective staffs for hosting these visits. The visits provided EHSI trainees with an insight into traditional ship maintenance and foundry practice.
Lets start with a group photo we managed to catch 12 of our 16 trainees outside the entrance to HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool.
Left to Right Richard Robinson - N Bay Rly, Ray Batchelor - Locomotion, Matt Bedard - Beamish, Tom Naisbitt - Stephenson Rly Museum, Jordan Leeds - Kirklees Light Rly, Sara Lygo - Heritage Painting, Richard Snowdon - Tanfield Rly, Teriann O'Connor - Heritage Painting employee, Alex Pickering - NYMR, Huw Cairns - NRM, Chris Rogers - Simon Robinson's Darlington, Ian Carney - NYMR, Robert Foster - Rusty Bug Workshop Skelton.
Starting in Hartlepool here's helmsman Matt Bedard at the ships wheel, no power steering here, in bad weather you simply added more sailors to keep the ship on course.
Starting in Hartlepool here's helmsman Matt Bedard at the ships wheel, no power steering here, in bad weather you simply added more sailors to keep the ship on course.
Below decks Rosie Power sits in the mess deck with some pretty unappetising replica food on the wooden plates in front of her!
Rosie's colleague at the North East Maritime Trust, Phil Smith shows, that below decks you have to watch your head, if, like Phil, you are tall.
If you are claustrophobic the powder magazine isn't the place for you! This early 19th century warship's magazine compartment is lined with copper sheet to prevent sparks.
Next door is the excellent Hartlepool museum where there's an exhibit that reminds visitors of the 1st World War bombing of Harltepool by German Zeppelin airships in 1916 and 1918.
Moving to William Lane foundry Middlesbrough, one of the North East trainees Ray Batchelor made a pattern for a nameplate for the model railway he takes to exhibitions throughout the north east.
Here we see him ramming the pattern in the moulding box.
After the pattern had been used to make an impression in the moulding boxes its time to pour the molten metal. In this shot Ray adds weights to the moulding boxes.
Here's a shot of the pouring of Ray's nameplate.
Lets see some moulding on a larger scale witnessed by the Yorkshire team in these shots taken by Stuart Hines.
Here a specially made moulding box, for casting an order for 'snake' S shaped supports for traditional railway seats, is closed prior to pouring molten cast iron.
Without a pattern there's no casting, here the Yorkshire EHSI trainees visit the foundry's pattern shop.
All of the machinery used to be driven by line shafting, which is still in place.
Jordan Leeds brought along a pattern for a 71/4" gauge locomotive's wheel blank, for casting, in this shot he's preparing the moulding box for casting.
The Yorkshire team also visited the patterns store. William Lane tell me that during a recent tidy up they have discovered some small furnaces in the floor,which they think date back to the early days of the foundry. More news to follow once excavations have reached a conclusion!
Let see the work Ray Batchelor has been doing at Locomotion.
We first had a look at the progress that has been made on the BR brake van project.
Here's a couple of shots of the sides of the van. In this first shot we see the RH side which is nearing completion with the doors and look out ducket yet to be finished with an additional coat of gloss to go on yet.
The LH side awaits the attention of asbestos contractors who, later this month will be visiting Shildon to remove the asbestos insulation that protects the van structure from the hazards of the coal fired stove.
As the van is part museum's passenger fleet, then safety is of course, paramount, here's a shot of some newly made brake components that will be fitted to the chassis, to make the van's vacuum brake system function safely once more.
In this shot Ray checks out the wooden cappings that he helped to fit to the van's balcony.
Moving inside the van Ray has also been working on the interior.
In these two shots he's pointing out the work he's been doing on the horizontal boarding, sanding filling and undercoating to get a smooth finish. The second shot shows the LH side of the van, where internal work has stopped short of the stove area, pending the removal of the asbestos as mentioned earlier.
Ray has also cut some new seat boards for the RH side of the van.
Ray has also been preparing for Christmas, by refreshing the paintwork on the museum's GWR Siphon G bogie van, which at Christmas, does duty as Locomotion's Santa's Grotto.
Here's a shot of the van which had been rubbed down, filled, primed and undercoated by the time I took this photograph.
Here Ray is describing the work that he had to do preparing the van's surface for its new paint.
The door hinges of the van are brass, each individually stamped with a GWR mark as this close up shows.
The roof will also come in for repainting before Santa takes up residence.
Postings for the North East Monday 07.10.2013
At Tanfield Railway Richard Snowdon and Tanfield volunteers Brian High have been working on fabricating a new bunker cab and footplate for 109 year old Andrew Barclay 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive which is being rebuilt by the railway.
Here we see Richard using a plasma cutter to cut out the hole in the front plate of the steel sheet which will become the access hole for the fireman to get the coal from the bunker.
When it comes to the curved corners of the cut out Brian holds a a gasket of suitable radius to act as a guide for plasma torch.
Here's a close up, which shows what a neat cut this useful tool delivers.
Brian holds the straight edge in place for the final cut.
Apart from my camera shake, this shot gives an idea of how little dressing the plasma cut out needs.
Later this plate will be fitted to the front of the bunker which was made earlier.
After lunch its more cutting for Richard as he trims to size the plate that will become the new one piece footplate whilst Brian in the background works on the front plate for the bunker..
North East postings for the North East Wednesday 18.09.2013
John Stelling visited the North East Maritime Trust recently and here are some shots, of Rosie Power, working on the stern gunwale of the 1917 built former Tynemouth lifeboat 'Henry Fredrick Swan'.
The gunwale is being made from a number of pieces of scarf jointed oak.
Here's the first piece cut from a solid plank on a band saw which is about to be offered up to test the
fit with the boat's ribs and stern post.
Here Rosie and a colleague offer up the timber to check for fit.
Then its out with the spokeshave to make adjustments
Later there's more measuring by Rosie.
It's then on to the next piece of the gunwale to test for fit again.
In parallel with work on the 'Henry Fredrick Swan' work continues on South Shields lifeboat 'Tyne' which continues to have its many layers of paint removed.
At Locomotion Ray Batchelor has been working with volunteer John Shiel on the chassis of the BR brake van he's been restoring. Here's a shot of the underframe which has now been de-rusted and painted.
The underframe now looks very tidy in its black gloss.
Earlier we posted shots of the Locomotion team refurbishing the vacuum brake cylinder. It was found that one of the brackets supporting the brake weighbar shaft needed to be replaced and the actual shaft built up by welding in places. Here's a shot of the shaft and the new bracket which since this photograph was taken, has been fitted to the brake van chassis.
North East postings for the North East Tuesday 17.09.2013
At the South Tynedale Railway Andrew McIntyre continues with the project to convert a Hunslet mines locomotive to electric start. This is prototype No. 2 an improved version of his first design.
Here we see Andrew marking out the new mounting bracket.
First its out with the cutting disc.
Then the gas torch.
A bit of tidying up with a grinder.
Moving to the radial drill.
Andrew checks the dimensions.
Close up of the finished bracket.
On the 4th of September, through the kindness of Steve McLean the General Manager of the Scottish Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield Nr. Edinburgh, EHSI North East trainees, were given a 'backstage' tour of the museum and its key exhibits, amongst them Concorde.
The museum has 4 large hangers which house a large collection of military and civil aircraft which a short posting can't hope to do justice to if you'd like to know more click on to their website at:-
On the autumnal day of this posting its clear from the photograph that it was a fine day at east Fortune, here's a shot of EHSI trainees who made the trip. Left to Right Lee Campbell from yr 2, Andrew McIntyre, Ray Batchelor, Richard Snowdon, Matt Bedard, Rosie Power and Phil Smith, our remaining year 3 trainee, Tom Naisbitt was on holiday at the time of the visit.
A close up of the jet exhausts of one of Concorde's Rolls Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines, a development of the the Bristol engine first used in the Avro Vulcan bomber.
At the museum for a bit of fun you can dress up in BA Concorde uniforms, here's stewardess Rosie and captain Matt
They could be easily boarding the aircraft for their next flight!
One of the rare aircraft in the collection is a Messerschmitt 163 tailless rocket fighter. In July 1944 one of these rocket powered fighters reached a speed of 700 mph a speed not matched until 1947.
A contrast in the Concorde hanger, is a replica Sopwith Strutter aircraft being built by volunteers form the Avaition Preservation Society of Scotland. This replica is being built to exacting standards, as it is intended that it should fly when complete. See more at: http://www.apss.org.uk/projects/APSS_projects/Strutter/index.htm
Here's a close up of one of the wings showing the main spar and ribs, it is worth a visit to East Fortune to see the excellent quality of the work on this replica aircraft, which originally flew in 1915.
North East postings for the North East Sunday 15.09.2013
Moving now to the west lets move to Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle to see what EHSI trainee Luke Bell has been getting up to.
Having Recently dispatched North Staffordshire Railway 127, pictured below, Luke and the Stanegate team have just started work on a second project from the Foxfield Railway.
Meet North Staffordshire Railway coach No.61, Stanegate's next project at Haltwhistle. The coach was most likely built in 1876 in Stoke on Trent, its 20 feet long by 8 feet wide and with compartments that are only 5 feet wide its definitely a case of interlocking knees for passengers!
In this shot we see Luke stripping out some of the seating prior to refurbishment.
Luke talks to John Stelling about the coach's framing, which is in much better shape than its predecessor 127
Later Luke gets to work with the orbital sander on the bulkhead paneling.
A recent visit by John Stelling to Beamish Museum to see EHSI trainee Matt Bedard co-incited with preparations for the museum's Agricultural Power from the Past event. Matt was involved in the preparation of diminutive locomotives Alfred and Judy based at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway and built for the port of Par's tight curves and constrictive tunnel. The two locomotive became the'Bill and Ben in the Rev W Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine books.
In these two shots we see Matt in the pit, between the frames, dealing with the locomotive's lubrication needs.
Later its time for some water.
With his driver, a serious looking Matt firing on the footplate.
John Stelling also got a footplate trip.
North East postings for the North East - Saturday 14.09.2013
Here's a round up of latest activities in the North East
At Tanfield Railway Richard Snowdon is working on a new ash pan for Andrew Barclay locomotive 'Horden' in this shot he's welding curved sections made form suitably sized mild steel pipe to the base of the ash pan.
Next he welds the one of the flat side of the ash pan to the curved section he welded in place earlier. In this shot he checks the squareness of fit before the final welding.
After welding he grinds the joint flat.
Then with a plasma cutter he cuts the steel sheet for the back of the ash pan.
At John Stelling's visit in early September Richard is cutting the steel to weld in place the flanges that will allow the ash pan to be suspended from the foundation ring of the boiler.
Richard then starts welding the flanges in place.
Here's a close up of the welding attaching the flanges to the ash pan.
At Tanfield Railway Richard Snowdon is working on a new ash pan for Andrew Barclay locomotive 'Horden' in this shot he's welding curved sections made form suitably sized mild steel pipe to the base of the ash pan.
Next he welds the one of the flat side of the ash pan to the curved section he welded in place earlier. In this shot he checks the squareness of fit before the final welding.
After welding he grinds the joint flat.
Then with a plasma cutter he cuts the steel sheet for the back of the ash pan.
He then welds the back of the ash pan in place.
Richard then starts welding the flanges in place.
Here's a close up of the welding attaching the flanges to the ash pan.
North East postings for the North East Tuesday 27.08.2013
Andrew McIntyre kindly sent me some photographs and the latest news update from the South Tynedale Railway in Alston.
This photo gives a great impression of what its like to work in the pit under the STR's 'Thomas Edmondson' The locomotive was built by Henschel in Germany for use in the building of the standard gauge Baghdad Railway.
In this shot Andrew is in the process of cleaning out the locomotives well tank. As the locomotive has outside valve gear there's room for a water tank between the frames.
Towards the end of the task we see Andrew getting the last of the debris out of the well tank.
Andrew tells me Hudswell Clarke diesel 'Old Rusty'has started hauling service trains on the STR following a period of running in and adjustment. Andrew has also completed the rebuilding of the Hudson 4 wheel wagon he was working on and has now moved on to his next wagon rebuild Hudson bogie No.22 built in 1955 for the RAF Fauld an ammunition depot in Staffordshire. In this photo we see Andrew starting to strip down the wagon's chassis using a cutting torch to cut through the rivets that hold the floor of the wagon in place.
Later the cutting torch needed cleaning, In this shot Andrew has mounted a cutting tip in the lathe and used fine wet and dry paper to clean away carbon deposits on the sealing surfaces of the cutting torch and cutting tips.
While he was at it he rounded up all the cutting tips and torches and gave them all a good clean, in this shot we see the cleaned torches and tips along with the nozzle tip cleaning tool.
North East postings for the North East Wednesday 21.08.2013
John Stelling has visited the North East EHSI trainees in recent weeks, here's a round up of current work, EHSI trainees are doing, at their heritage engineering placements in the North East.
Lets go first to Beamish museum where EHSI trainee Matt Bedard has been preparing for the manufacture of some replica chauldron wagons. As we saw in a previous posting he will be using ironwork recovered from wagons in storage at Beamish, where the wooden framing has rotted and is beyond restoration.
Here's a shot of Matt taking photographs for the construction of the replicas before the ironwork was recovered from the rotted chauldron wooden wagon underframes.
Here's close up showing the rotted framing.
In an earlier posting we saw the recovered ironwork in the workshop awaiting cleaning painting.
Here's a couple of shots of Matt stripping down a chauldron's brake gear in the workshop.
Here's a couple of shots of Matt stripping down a chauldron's brake gear in the workshop.
There's a lot of ironwork on a chauldron!
As well as working on the chauldron Matt has been learning a little about electrical installations helping the electricians to wire to prepare conduit and a switch box form one of the workshop machines.
Here he is using a pipe threading die to cut a thread on a piece of conduit.
After cutting the thread the conduit is screwed into the switch box.
Lets move up the road a little to see Richard Snowdon the EHSI trainee at Tanfield Railway who continues work on Horden's smoke box.
Here's a couple of shots of Richard working on building up the smoke box by welding to replace areas that have become corroded.
Down to Locomotion Shildon to see the progress that EHSI trainee Ray Batchelor has been making on the ex BR brake van he is refurbishing. In these two shots we see Ray putting the top coat on one side of the brake van which has had its rotted wood replaced, paintwork prepared, undercoat applied and rubbed down.
Later in the day the side of the van has received its top coat of paint.
Moving to South Shields, Philip Smith continues the good work at the North East Maritime Trust, working on the renovation of the 19th century lifeboat 'Tyne', which the Trust is renovating for South Tyneside Council.
In this shot we see Philip discussing progress on the vessel with John Stelling, with the stern of the former Tynemouth Lifeboat 'Henry Fredrick Swan' in the background with NEMT volunteers working on the stern gunwale.
The Tyne has been repainted many times in its lifetime and Philip has many layers of paint to remove, here he is in action, with a heat gun.
Up in the North Pennines at the South Tynedale Railway Andrew McIntyre continues to work on the railway's diesel fleet. Andrew recently passed out as a diesel driver on the railway which means he can test the diesel locomotives he repairs to ensure faults have been corrected. Speaking of faults, Andrew checks the electrical switch panel, after identifying a charging fault on Hudswell Clarke locomotive Old Rusty', which has recently been returned to service.
Later after a bit of work with the test meter, the alternator was identified as the culprit.
Later in the day Andrew offered up a starter motor he'd been working on to a Gardener Diesel engine on his project locomotive 'Cumbria' to see if the modifications might eventually, be made to fit!
Finally in this round of updates we go to Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle where today they dispatched their North Staffordshire Railway coach to their client the Foxfield Railway. I'll post some shots of the dispatch of the coach when I get them, meanwhile here's a few shots of EHSI trainee Luke Bell putting the final touches to the coach before its journey to Staffordshire.
North East postings for the North East Friday 09.08.2013
On Thursday I visited Stanegate Restoration In Haltwhistle where EHSI trainee Luke Bell was working on putting the finishing touches to the North Staffordshire railway Coach that they are restoring for the Foxfield Railway.
Click on this link to see Luke earlier in July rubbing down the roof before the canvas roof was fitted. http://youtu.be/7yl8zeLmgEc
Here's a few, I'm sorry, low resolution shots, of the coach which is getting very near to completion.
later in the day I went up to Alston to the South Tynedale Railway and met up with Andrew McIntyre who was in the process of passing out as a diesel driver. At the time of my arrival he was driving the diesel locomotive on the daily service train.
Click on this video link to see Andrew departing from Alston.
and on this link to see the completion of his departure.
Before his driving test Andrew has been working on the STR wagon fleet, here's a shot of the wagon Andrew is currently working on. having extended the wheelbase he's fitted some new checker plate to make a new floor with the far end yet to trim.
Whilst I was at Alston some of the stock had been pulled out of the engine shed. Here's a shot of Henschel Thomas Edmondson with sister Henschel Helen Kathryn in the rear.
North East postings for the North East Wednesday 05.08.2013
In the afternoon today I visited our EHSI trainee at Locomotion in Shildon Raymond Batchelor. Raymond like Tom at SRN is rebuilding an ex BR brake van.
In this shot we can see the exterior of the van where rotted woodwork has been replaced and the wood primed in cherry red.
Here's a shot of Ray applying the primer on one of the brake van's balconies.
Later in the day its back to a bit of rubbing down.
Ray was also preparing some fixings for an art exhibition at the museum.
Ray has also been working with former EHSI trainee Steven Foxton on the GNR tender.
Here's four pictures in one shot showing the progress on the four sides of the tender. This has involved the fitting of the characteristic flared edge to the tender tank and the welding in of new metal sheeting to replace corroded sections. I should say that due to the noise that Steven's activities make he works in a de-luxe tent, outside the Locomotion workshop!
Not content with restoring one lifeboat, The Henry Fredrick Sawn, the North East Maritime Trust has taken on the job of repainting the 1833 built rescue boat the 'Tyne'. The boat has been exhibited on the seafront at South Shields since 1874. the boat is modelled on the original 'Tyne' rescue rowing boat built in 1789 by Henry Greathead in South Shields. The original 1789 rescue boat was built in response to the wrecking of the brig 'Adventure' which was lost in a gale in January 1789 when eight of the crew were lost. With a bit of re-arrangement both lifeboats now fir into the NEMT boathouse at South Shields.
Here's a shot of the original 19th century crew and rescue boat.
Here's a couple of shots how it looked today in South Shields.
the NEMT's EHSI trainees were soon getting stuck into the re-painting job, here's a couple of shots of Phil and Rosie starting to remove what looks like quite few layers of white paint!
Work on the Henry Fredrick Swan continues, here's shot of Rosie and Phil offering up a previously steamed timber to the hull to determine its suitability as piece of a new gunwale.
There's been lots of fitting of copper nails, known as 'roving' to the lifeboats hull. The fitting of each one of these nails involves two people in a lot of measuring, cutting, steaming and roving!
North East postings for the North East Sunday 05.08.2013
This afternoon I visited the Stephenson Railway Museum and got up to date with what EHSI trainee Tom Naisbitt has been getting up to.
With the help of volunteer fitter Carl Ions Tom has been learning to use the shaper in the workshop. He used this machine tool to make this key which it is intended to fit to the draw bar of the museum's Peckett locomotive.
Tom has been developing his hand filing skills by hand making a square section key to open the ash pan of the museum's Peckett locomotive. In this shot Tom is holding the finished tool you can just see the square section end at the bottom. Later volunteers at the museum welded the key to one end of a piece of tube and on the other a hexagonal nut that will fit on to air wrench.
Here's a close up of the finished tool.
Tom has also been working on his own personal project, the restoration of an ex BR Brake van. In this photograph we can see the handrails that have all been rubbed down, undercoated and finished in white gloss.
Tom has also been painting the footboards.
He even got round to painting the Peckett's chimney!
Tom's also been involved in the running checks on the museum's ex BR class 08 diesel.
Here he's checking the oil level on the locomotive's 350hp 6 cylinder diesel engine, dip sticks on a big diesel are on a slightly larger scale than an ordinary car!
In this shot he Tom is lubricating the compressors drive motor main bearing.
I visited Richard Snowdon at Tanfield Railway this morning, here's a few photographs showing the work he's been doing recently.
The frames of 1904 built Andre Barclay 0-6-0 are up on stands in the workshop to start the rebuilding of the locomotive's frames, wheels and motion. Both buffer beams have been removed, Richard was involved with removing the front one using the workshop overhead lifting gantry. Whilst Horden was in service with the NCB at Shotton Colliery she was in collision with a Q6 class 0-8-0 which despite its greater size came off worse in the collision.
This shot shows very clearly,the bend in the front buffer beam as a result of the incident at the Colliery.
John Stelling and Richard Snowdon discuss the task of removing the buffer beam.
Richard shows how he used the reference point of the locomotives mainframes to measure the alignment of the locomotive's crosshead guides.
Richard was also involved in taking the valve chest covers of the locomotive, to allow the valve and valve chests to be inspected. In this rather dark shot we can see one of the slide valves.
Richard has also been working on the compressed air system of the railway's 1933 Armstrong Whitworth diesel electric locomotive. The engine has a new compressor installed and this shot shows Richard tightening up one of the oil pipes on the engine where pipework has been altered following the compressor's installation.
The compressor was fitted with new drive belts, here Richard is checking the belt tension.
North East postings for the North East Monday 05.08.2013
This morning I visited a very wet Beamish Museum to meet Matt Bedard and catch up with the work he's been doing at the museum.
First on the list was the fitting out of the new coaling stage at the railway station.
Matt worked with his mentor Tony Vollans to make the doors and door frames for the two storage areas. Shed on the left is for oil and the one on the right for lighting up wood.
The next tow shots show a scout cart that Matt varnished and made new retaining pins for the cart's wheels. The cart will be displayed in the open at the museum so is being exhibited without a floor.
Matt is also involved in the construction of two chaldron wagons here are some shots of the ironwork that has been recovered from the museums collection of chaldron ironwork
Here's some of the brake gear laid out in the workshop
Here's a trolley full of assorted iron work due for restoration.
Here's a shot of Matt painting some of the components he's already cleaned up.
Lets see some of the earlier jobs Matt was involved with and how they have turned out.
The replica bus is now complete and due to go into service soon.
The caravan has been painted and is due also to go into service with the museums Out reach programme.
North East postings for the North East Friday 02.08.2013
At Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle the team are pushing on to complete the North Staffordshire Railway Coach. EHSI trainee Luke Bell took the shots that follow during the month of July. They illustrate to closing stages of the coach's restoration.
The fitting of the canvas roof to the coach was very much a collaborative affair.
First the sealing mastic was applied then using rollers the air was gradually removed and the corners secured.
In this shot the team is spreading out the sealing mastic on the roof boards.
The next task is to remove the air to get a crease free surface. Here's Luke gradually working his way along the roof to get the creases out.
Later Stanegate director Ian Yates inspects the roof, notice now the brand new doors have been fitted to the body.
The diagonal floor boards are now fitted and painted. The coach is very near completion
Yesterday John visited Andrew McIntyre the EHSI trainee at South Tynedale Railway in Alston.
Andrew was working on a couple of jobs on the day machining a mounting for a starter motor and fitting a refurbished hydraulic drive unit.
In this shot we see Andrew preparing to lift the unit into the engine.
Andrew checks out the space where the transmission fits in the locomotive.
Later in the day the unit is in place.
After the transmission installation Andrew moved back to machining the bracket upon which the starter motor on the Hunslet's Gardiner diesel engine will be mounted.
Here we see Andrew machining the bracket on the railway's milling machine.
John crossed the Tyne and visited Thomas Naisbitt at the Stephenson Railway Museum at North Shields. On the day of his visit Thomas was making a key for dropping the ashpan of the museums Peckett 'Jackie Milburn'
In this shot we can see Thomas filing the square hole in the key.
After filing Thomas tests the fit of the key on the ashpan shaft.
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Later in the day Thomas moved on to painting the brake van he is restoring. In the next two shots we see him gloss painting handrails which and been undercoated and the door lock.
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John also visited EHSI trainees Rosie Power and Philip Smith at the North East Maritime Trust. On the day of his visit preparations were being made to move 1833 built lifeboat 'Tyne' which has been on display under a protective canopy on the seafront at South Shields since 1874. The lifeboat is coming to NEMT for some refurbishment work.
Rosie and Philip were making wooden spreader beam in preparation for lifting the lifeboat so that it can be transported to the Trust's workshop for restoration.
Here we see Philip sawing a slot in the end of the spreader beam whilst Rosie holds on the beam.
After sawing Rosie cuts out the slot with a chisel.
Here's the finished end of the spreader beam.
Out on the river a team from a local school were making a video about the coble 'Royal Diadem 2' which was having it's sail raised for the filming.
John Stelling has been visiting a number of EHSI trainees in the North East, lets start a recent visit he paid to Richard Snowden who is the EHSI trainee at Tanfield Railway.
Richard's latest project is to make a new ashpan for Andrew Barclay locomotive 'Horden' which is currently being rebuilt at the railway.
In this rather grainy shot, Richard is measuring up the boiler to determine the correct dimensions for the ashpan.
Later, after measuring up, Richard starts to mark out the steel plate prior to cutting it with a plasma cutter.
With the plate marked out Richard gets to work with the plasma cutter.
North East postings for the North East Friday 25th of July 2013
On Monday the 22nd I visited Andrew McIntyre at the South Tynedale Railway. First here's a few utube video links showing operations in progress for the first full weeks operations of the railway's full summer time table.
In this clip the train runs alongside the river South Tyne on its way to entering Alston station.
In the next clip Andrew under the watchful eye of signalman Kieran Fitzsimons hands the single line staff to the driver of the 12:15 train to Lintley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDojwCpoW08Back in the signal box, after the train has cleared the station, Andrew raises the crossing barriers.
Back to the engineering, Andrew has been making modifications to some of the railways wagon stock. In this shot we see how he's fitted new packing between the axle box and the wagons perimeter frame to help realign the axles boxes following modifications to the wheelbase and braking system.
Andrew gets ready to tack weld new brake hanger brackets in position since the axles have been moved to increase the wagon's wheelbase and thus its stability.
Here's a general shot of the wagon from the brake gear end.
Later in the workshop Andrew shows me No.11 'Cumbria' Hunslet diesel who's 4LW Gardner diesel engine he is converting from air to electric starting.
This shot shows three of the components he's going to have to turn into a working electric start. Clockwise from the top left there is the mounting bracket, the pinion carrier and then the starter motor.
In addition there's the pinion. Andrew hopes with the assistance of his colleagues, into a working electric starting system, which will hopefully provide a more reliable method of starting the engine on a cold winters day!
North East postings for the North East Sunday 21st of July 2013
I visited Beamish last Monday and caught up with EHSI trainee Matt Bedard and his latest heritage engineering work.
In this shot Matt points to the hot riveting he was involved with in making the bunkers of the new narrow gauge locomotive 'Samson'.
The new workshop which Matt and his mentor Tony Vollans fitted out is now fully up and running with space now available for work on their projects.
More work has gone on to make a new machine/welding shop adjacent to the tram shed. A partition was erected by Matt and Tony to separate the small, friends of Beamish, workshop at the end of building from the welding and machining activity next door.
Matt has been working on a 1950s caravan which is being refurbished for use during visits to local schools. These three shots show the van with a couple of close ups of a hinge and door retaining catch which Matt repaired.
North East postings for the North East Monday 11th of July 2013
Earlier today I visited Tom Naisbitt at the Stephenson Railway Museum here are a series of photographs which show a number of jobs he's been involved with recently.
Tom has carried out a number of tasks on the museum's Peckett steam locomotive.
This shot shows him tightening up the mounting bolt of the total loss lubricator that supplies lubricant to the locomotive's steam brake. Recently Tom had to dismantle, clean re-assemble and regrind the valve seat of this valve to bring the steam brake lubrication up to scratch.
One of the Peckett's boiler water level gauge glasses recently had to strip and rebuild the gauge as the rubber seals in the gauge needed replacement. Here he's carefully tightening the fitting.
Another job Tom has been working on producing a new locking nut for the rear drawbar on the locomotive. Here's a shot of the drawbar locking nut that will be replaced soon by a new one hand made by Tom with the help of experienced SRM volunteers.
Here's a close up of the new nut which has now had its internal thread cut and awaits castellation so that the nut has a more effective locking method for its locking split pin.
Tom has also been working on the museum's class 03 ex BR diesel shunter. This has had to have its compressor drive belts replaced. In this shot Tom points out the new belts that he has fitted to drive the locomotive's air compressor.
Tom's personal project the cosmetic restoration of a 1953 ex BR brake van is progressing, here's s shot of the van's number plate.
After surface preparation Tom put the finishing touches to the van's handrails.
Tom has already finished the lamp irons which are ready to be re-fitted to the van's body.
Here's a few shots taken last week at the South Tynedale Railway showing preparations for re-wheeling former NCB Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 diesel locomotive which came from Vane Tempest Colliery in Durham.
In this shot we see a couple of axles that are in the process of having their axle boxes fitted.
In the next shot after a bit of work with pinch bars the axles have been lined up ready for re-wheeling the locomotive.
Having put a lot of work on the horn guides and axle boxes, Andrew and his colleagues are in the process of fitting a centralised lubrication system to lubricate the axle boxes and hopefully keep them in good condition in the future following their refurbishment.
Here we see Andrew working on installing the pipework.
North East postings for the North East Monday 5th of July 2013
This morning I visited Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle where EHSI trainee Luke Bell was sanding down the roof of 3rd class North Staffordshire Railway Coach NSR 127.
In this utube clip we see Luke sanding down the roof.
http://youtu.be/z1nbTQ51rk8
I was just in time to see the last roof board fitted to NSR 127.
In the foreground, Jonathan Crowe a former year 2 trainee with EHSI, who is now employed by Stanegate, test fits the board whilst Luke holds the far end.
I was just in time to see the last roof board fitted to NSR 127.
In the foreground, Jonathan Crowe a former year 2 trainee with EHSI, who is now employed by Stanegate, test fits the board whilst Luke holds the far end.
On Thursday this week I visited Richard Snowdon at Tanfield Railway who, under the watchful eye of their electrician John Lennox has been wiring in the lights to a new storage container that will be used to store the restored components of 1904 built Andrew Barclay Locomotive Horden
In the next shot we see Richard putting the finishing touches to the lighting.
With the lights on Richard works on slotting the racking together.
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Later in the workshop Richard points out the remaining sections of Horden's smoke box that have yet to be fully built up by welding.
Lets go across to Locomotion at Shildon - Ray Batchelor our EHSI trainee was servicing and ex BR 03 shunter when John Stelling visited recently and yesterday was working on the Stirling single tender and an ex BR brake van.
The shots that follow show Ray and Jason, Locomotion's apprentice working on the 03's air sanding system which was suffering blocked pipes.
In the shot that follows we see Ray and Jason in the pit, working on the offending pipe.
After making the adjustments Ray operates the sanders from the cab for Jason to check the adjustments are effective.
Then its the all important paperwork!
Followed by a wash and brush up for the 08!
When I visited on the 6th of July Ray was in the process of assembling a vacuum brake cylinder with Steven and Jason with the help of the museum's fork lift.
The brake cylinder was for the ex BR brake van that Ray is restoring. In this shot you can also see the new match boarding that has been fitted to replace rotted material in the 1950s Darlington built vehicle.
Later on the Stirling tender, Ray was adjusting one of the clamps, that's holding the newly fitted flare on the top of the tender in place.
North East postings for the North East Monday 1st of July 2013
At the Heritage Skills Fair which The North Of England Civic Trust organised between the 28-30 of June at Tynemouth Station EHSI had a display stand. Richard Snowdon brought his 650cc Matchless motor cycle alone. He'd just fitted it with a new magneto to power the ignition system and was delighted to be able to get it started for the first time in nine years!
In the background of the shot is John Stelling's Austin Champ and Daimler 'Ferret' Scout car.
North East postings for the North East Thursday 27.06.2013
Time to go to 1000 feet above sea level to the South Tynedale Railway to see what EHSI trainee Andrew McIntyre has been doing. At the time of John Stelling's visit Andrew was working on adapting a starter motor to fit the Gardner diesel engine on one of the railway's locomotives.
In this shot he's using the radial drill to release a circlip that was holding the starter motors drive cog and ratchet assembly together.
After a lot of work here are all the components removed from the assembly.
Now its back to the drawing board as to how these components can be used to make a new starter motor drive!
North East postings for the North East Thursday 13.06.2013
On Tuesday 11th I visited Luke Bell at Stanegate Restoration and was able to get up to date on their progress with the North Staffordshire Railway coach they are restoring for the Foxfield Railway. Since I last saw the coach in mid May there has been much progress.
The coach body has been de-mounted from its underframe and moved inside the workshop.
The coach body has been de-mounted from its underframe and moved inside the workshop.
The fully panelled side frames are permanently fitted and only one compartment remains to have its seating fixed in place. All the roof sticks are dry fitted, more about these later.
Once the seating is complete and the roof sticks fixed permanently in place, there will only be the roof and bulkheads to finish to make the coach structurally complete.
In this first shot we see a side view of the coach body showing the newly fixed seating and the undercoat, staining and varnishing that has been applied to the body structure since we last saw it in grey primer.
One of the jobs that Luke has done is to insert a variety of glued and screwed scarf joints into the roof sticks. This have mainly been at the ends where moisture has caused rotting. In some the centre step jointed scarfs have been inserted where moisture has entered through the original housing for the coach's oil lamps. Here's shot of Luke test fitting a roof stick.
Lets look at the detail of some of these repairs, here Luke is holding the end of a roof stick.
He has made a new end for the roof stick and screwed and glued it into place to enable the original roof stick to be reused in the roof structure.
As mentioned above sometimes the rotting has occurred in the middle of the roof stick meaning a new stepped joint has to be inserted. This shot shows one of these joints looking on the top surface of the roof stick. Hard to see the join isn't it!
As ever on a coach restoration job, there's much rubbing down to be done, here we see Luke rubbing down the upper exterior of the one of the coach frames prior to further undercoating.
I mentioned above that there was one compartment that had yet to have its seating completed.
Here we see Luke checking the spacing of the seat back planks prior to dry fitting.
On Monday the 10th of June I visited Beamish Museum where Matt Bedard has been working on one of their replica buses. Matt has installed an additional windscreen wiper on the near side windscreen to improve the driver's vision in wet weather. Matt also made a small wooden box to cover up the wipers drive motor here we see him tightening up the screws that hold the box together.
North East postings for the North East Monday 10.06.2013
Going back a little in time lets visit Locomotion at Shildon on a grey day in late May when they were taking delivery of the NRMs replica Rocket Locomotive. Rocket along with Locomotion Planet and original locomotive Furness Railway No 20 were due to be on display at the museum on the 8th and 9th of June
Here we see Rocket its tender and coach on the low loader prior to unloading.
After quite a bit of work building the unloading ramp, its ready to unload.
Ray helps to bolt the chimney back together.
I visited Tom Naisbitt at Stephenson Railway Museum on the 7th of June.
He's been involved in maintenance tasks on the museum's diesel and steam locomotives.
Here are a few shots of what he's been up to lately.
The railway's 0-6-0 Peckett 'Jackie Milburn' needed some work on the pins that secure the ashpan in place. Here's a shot of a new pin that Tom made.
In this shot he's showing me where the pin goes to secure the ashpan in place.
Through this cut out in the locomotive's main frames you can see the outer wrapper
of the boilers firebox.
Tom has also been working on the air system of the railway's ex BR 03 diesel.
The locomotive has an air operated gearbox which depends for its operation on a valve which regulates the air pressure supplied to the gearbox. The air pipework under the locomotives control desk is complex because the locomotive has both air and vacuum brakes.
In this shot Tom is pointing to the 'forest' of pipework
Getting closer in Tom points out the location of the valve, which is mounted on the bulkhead between the engine compartment and the cab.
Even closer in, here's the offending valve. It turned out the a simple leather washer was standing between the folks at the museum and a working diesel. Despite the use of various materials to make a replacement, the valve operated first time when leather of the correct grade was used to make a replacement washer.
Recently Tom got the opportunity to work with two fitters from RMS Locotec who came to carry out a 'B' exam on the railway's 08 0-6-0 diesel shunter.
As part of the exam, the locomotives motor drive compressor had to be removed
In this shot Tom is pointing out the mounting bolts he had to remove to get the compressor out of the locomotive.
North East postings for the North East Tuesday 21.05.2013
Locomotion - Shildon
Last Friday the team at Locomotion rolled Dominion of Canada out of the museum workshop to show it in all its glory in bright sunshine.
Here's a shot of The locomotive with the restoration team lined up for the camera.
Haven't they done a fantastic job!
Here's a shot of our current trainee at Locomotion Raymond Batchelor, in a close up shot in front of the newly restored Gresley A4 pacific, with LMS steamilned pacific Duchess of Hamilton behind.
Here's a few more shots of the A4 and Duchess in the display area outside Locomotion. The job on the A4 has been much more than a repaint.
The locomotive has been returned to its pre-war condition, featuring, a single chimney, full steamlined valances with chrome decorative strips, the Canadian bell and the original centrally mounted drains to the middle cylinder.
Dominion of canada is on display at Shildon now, why not go and see what a brillaint job the Locomotion team have done!
North East postings for the North East 17.05.2013
North East Maritime Trust - South Shields
This week at the North Easy Maritime Trust work was still proceeding on the long term project on lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan. Here we see a piece of timber being cut on the circular saw that will eventually become part of the engine bulkhead, which is currently being rebuilt by the team an NEMT.
This week at the North Easy Maritime Trust work was still proceeding on the long term project on lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan. Here we see a piece of timber being cut on the circular saw that will eventually become part of the engine bulkhead, which is currently being rebuilt by the team an NEMT.
At the other end of the scale the gunwales of salmon boat ‘Spring Tide’ seen on the left of this shot, were being steamed prior to being fitted to the boat.
Locomotion - Shildon
At Shildon Raymond Batchelor continues to work on A4 pacific Dominion of Canada.
The locomotive is due on display next week so many final jobs are being finished off to meet the deadline. Here we see the final coats of varnish being applied to the locomotive.
Here’s a shot of the shovelling plate from the tender that Ray has refurbished.
Ray points out the areas he’s been painting on the corridor connection.
Here are all the floorboards from the cab ready for installation.
On a much smaller scale the little ‘snecks’ that lock in place the sliding access doors in the streamlined valances also need painting and careful fitting especially now that final top coats of varnish have now been applied.
The ‘snecks’ lock these sliding access doors.
Ray has also been helping last year’s trainee Steven Foxton, now on a one year contract at Shildon restoring the Stirling tender. Here we see Steven and Ray positioning the flared edge of the top of the tender on the radial drill for the drilling of bolt holes.
Stephenson Railway Museum North Shields
Tom has participated in the heritage sector since he was a child, having been a volunteer at North Shields since he was 13; he has also fired locomotives on the main line and has worked with traction engines in the public highway.
At the SRM Tom has started work on his first project the refurbishment of a former 1953 Darlington built brake van. The van is in need of an internal and external repaint, the roof needs replacing and one of the footboards is rotten and needs replacement. Here are a few shots of Tom doing some work on the interior of the van and some more of Tom showing me around the brake van and discussing the work he will need to do earlier this week.
In addition Tom has begun a smaller job to make a replacement forward/reverse control lever for the railway’s Bo-Bo electric locomotive which is worn. Tom will be making a fabricated replacement in steel, I’ve got some shots of the early steps in this job.
In this shot Tom is wire brushing the brake van’s stove prior to painting with heat resistant paint.
Tom puts on the first coat of heat resistant paint
The roof is in the process of being stripped ready for painting
Tom inspects the buffer paint work.
Tom looks closely at the van’s solebar for signs of corrosion.
One of the van’s footboards will need to be replaced
The roof will need to be replaced
The van’s number plate
Tom has assembled the materials to make a new control level to match the original shown here.
Tanfield Railway
Richard Snowdon at Tanfield Railway has been involved in a number of tasks recently.
When I was on site this week he was helping volunteers Brian and Ronnie to remove a starter motor gear ring from a flywheel of a Gardiner diesel engine. The sequence of photos shows the various steps in the process.
Here we see the gear ring being heated prior to removal.
The ring is being tapped and is beginning to expand enough to get it moving.
Sorry for the delay, but here are some shots of the year 2 2012-13 EHSI award ceremony which was held on the 20th March 2013 at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.In the audience were attendees from placements providers and members of the heritage community in the North East as well as trainee’s family members.
All our EHSI trainees gave presentations on the excellent work they had done at their placements and although presenting in front of an audience can be a daunting experience the presentations all went very well. Our trainee at the North East Maritime Trust, Michael Arnott, gave his presentation during his lunch break from Newcastle College where he had an important course commitment. This meant he had to miss the formal presentation of project completion certificates by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy.
Our New 2013-14 trainees join the EHSI Project
Our 2013-14 trainees are pictured here at the North East Maritime Trust's boatyard in South Shields during their induction week.
Details of their placements are listed above.
Our trainees are settling in to their placements, we will be posting photographs of their exploits in the coming weeks.
SOUTH TYNEDALE RAILWAY
13.05.2013
It’s back again to the South Tynedale Railway and the tasks that Andrew McIntyre has been doing recently.
Earlier we saw Andrew working on the Hydraulic Gearbox of a Hunslet diesel locomotive.
Since then the gearbox has been reassembled and has a had a new coat of yellow paint
Andrew has made a modification to the gearbox’s oil level filling plug to make the daily checks of the oil level easier.
He’s drilled the upper level filling plug to take a gas pipe fitting into which he will fit a ball valve.
When the gearbox is installed in the locomotive’s chassis it will be possible to check the oil level in the gearbox by opening the valve to check the presence of oil, rather than having to remove the level plug.
Making the job easier means the checking the oil level takes seconds rather than the fiddly job of removing the level plug on your hands and d knees at side of the track.
In this shot we see Andrew winding Teflon sealing tape around the one of the pipe joints.
Now Andrew fits the ball valve which will be positioned into a draining position when the gearbox goes back into the chassis.
Replacement surfaces to the horn guides have been fitted; in this next shot Andrew is using a micrometer to measure the gap between the horn guides so that the axleboxes are a snug fit when the locomotive’s wheel sets are refitted.
When not working on diesels Andrew has been cleaning and painting the chassis of steam locomotive ‘Naklo’ ready for when funds become available to start its 10 year overhaul.
Here we see him cleaning one of the wheelsets
Let’s first go to the South Tynedale Railway in Alston, a new placement provider for the 2013-14 training year and our EHSI trainee Andrew McIntyre.
Andrew had his first contact with the STR as a child of 5 and has been a volunteer there for quite some time. The next three shots show Andrew working on the hydraulic gearbox of STR Locomotive NO.11 “Cumbria”. The 2’ gauge engine was manufactured in 1967 by the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds and formerly worked at the Broughton Moor NATO Depot in Maryport, Cumbria. In this shot Andrew is dismantling the gearbox to get to the bottom of a transmission problem.
After removing one of the gearboxes access plates Andrew scrapes the joint surfaces prior to fitting a new gasket.
This shot shows Andrew working on the gearbox with the dis-assembled locomotive in the background.
BEAMISH MUSEUM
The EHSI trainee at Beamish is Matt Bedard who has a woodworking background but hopes to develop a wider range of engineering skills during his placement at Beamish.
He has been working with his mentor Tony Vollans on the replica AEC bus which is having its lower saloon roof repaired to correct water leaks coming through what is of course also the top deck floor. The top deck side panels have been removed to get access to the lower saloon roof. This shot shows the bus minus its top deck fittings.
Here we see Matt removing the floor treads that provide grip for passengers on the wooden roof of the lower saloon. Once the treads are removed the roof will be cleaned down, coated with sealing compound and on top of this will be fitted a new canvas roof. The canvas will then be painted and the floor treads refitted along with the top deck
After removal of the treads and after a clean-up Tony Vollans and Matt Bedard coat the surface of the roof in Waterproof compound.
Then the canvas was placed on the roof
After removing the creases the canvas is nailed in place prior to painting.
NORTH EAST MARITIME TRUST
Our 2012-13 trainee Michael Arnott will be with the project until June here we see him preparing a piece of timber for the lower part of one of the watertight bulkheads of 1917 built lifeboat Henry Fredrick Swan
Later inside the hull Michael removes small amounts of wood to ensure a tight fit.
Elsewhere in the workshop, 2013-14 trainees Rosie Power and Phil Smith are working on the stern bulkhead, which as we can see has had new wood inserted to replace rotted material. The bulkhead has been the subject of much discussion as it was altered later in the boats life and trust members have had to make educated judgements as to its original design when restoring it.
This shot shows the bulkhead as its heading towards completion, the new wood held in place by copper nails, shows up against the bulkhead's original timber.
Rosie and Phil now give the bulkhead a coat of primer.
Now that the bulkhead has a coat of primer it’s time for more a bit more riveting.
Copper nails are ‘roved’ in place that is the soft copper washer is fitted over the end of a cropped nail and is riveted in place.
It’s a two person job, one person ‘holding up’ the head of the nail with the other peening over the cropped end of the nail on top of the rove.
If correctly done this provides a watertight permanent fixing.
In this shot we see Phil knocking nail into the bulkhead whilst Rosie prepares to peen the end of the cropped nail over and rivet it into place.
The stern bulkhead is largely complete it’s been test fitted in place and now awaits further work on the stern whaleback before it can be refitted to the hull.
LOCOMOTION – SHILDON
Our EHSI trainee Raymond Batchelor will be no stranger to our Facebook page readers, as he’s been doing a great job of keeping everyone up to date with the work he’s been doing on A4 Pacific Dominion of Canada. Some readers may have seen a piece that went out on ITV Tyne Tees News on Wednesday the 8th of May which featured the locomotive with its final top coats of paint now applied.
Here’s a link to the ITV website http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2013-05-08/restoration-almost-complete-on-historic-locamotive/.
Earlier in April before the final top coats of paint were applied Raymond was drilling the mounting holes for the valance trim strips, in the background in the cut out in the valance we see the lifting link and radius rod of the Walschaert’s valve gear.
Later Ray was tightening up the mounting bolts of the valance trim strip.
TANFIELD RAILWAY
At the Tanfield Railway EHSI Trainee Richard Snowdon has been working on a couple of jobs at the moment producing pins for the spring mountings for Andrew Barclay Locomotive ‘Horden’ and helping out with the fabrication of components for the new bridge girders for the railway’s bridge over the Houghwell Burn.
Here we see Richard turning some of the spring pins.
Here’s a close-up of a pin along with its drawing.
Spring mounting pins - mass production by Richard
Richard has also been cutting strengthening gussets for the new bridge beams with a plasma cutter and then arc welding them into place on the beams. Here we see Richard preparing to cut the gussets from a piece of rolled steel joist.
Here Richard is using the plasma cutter to cut the strengthening gussets
Here Richard is using the plasma cutter to cut the strengthening gussets.
Recently Richard took some time out to ‘moonlight’ at the Beamish Great North Steam Fair driving a traction engine!
Volunteers have started to work on the chassis of Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn No.40 at Wolsingham. Here we see the drving wheels which are in the process of being repainted.
Tanfield Railway
Hawthorn Leslie No. 2 in which EHSI trainee Ryan Cramb has been involved since its boiler returned from the Severn Valley Railway boiler shop earlier in the year is finally ready for service. Its painting and varnishing is now complete. Here we see it in the shed at Tanfield reflecting the weak winter sunshine that briefly enters the shed.
No.2 heads the line as so it should.
Close up of the number plate
Close up of the works plate. No. 2 was built for Keighley gas works in West Yorkshire and after a wandering existance at three location in Scotland she finally arrived at Tanfield in 1976.
Locomotion
On Friday whilst we were completing the induction week for the 2013-14 trainees I visited the Locomotion workshop to see how work was going on A4 pacific Dominion of Canada.
Here we see the locomotives bell and its mounting bracket which had been temporarily fitted with an air supply to test its actuating cylinder. I can confirm it sounded load and clear across the museum!
Contractors M Machine have fabricated in steel sheet the new single chimney cowl. This will be fitted as part of the work to restore the locomotive externally to its original single chimney design.
EHSI trainee Steven Foxton test fits the chime whistle on a new mounting
he is fabricating on top of the smoke box.
The drivers controls in the cab have been getting a detailed clean up. this shot is dominated by the reverser stand which on an A4 is operated by a handle that looks more like a handbrake.
The bottom of the regulator handle is just in shot with the vacuum brake in the top left of the shot alongside the the boiler. The brackets that support the driver's bucket seat are mounted on the cab side on the left.
2013-14 EHSI Trainees start their induction week
Our new eight 2013-14 have started their traineeships and are currently going through the induction process part of which is to visit all the 2013-14 placements.
Here we see the new intake at the North East Maritime Trust in South Shields with the stern of the lifeboat 'Henry Frederick Swan' in the background.
Here we see the new intake at the North East Maritime Trust in South Shields with the stern of the lifeboat 'Henry Frederick Swan' in the background.
Left to Right They are:-
Richard Snowdon - Tanfield Railway
Andrew McIntyre - South Tynedale Railway
Thomas Naisbitt - Stephenson Railway Museum
Matt Bedard - Beamish Museum
Rosie Power - North East Maritime Trust
Philip Smith - North East Maritime Trust
Raymond Batchelor - Locomotion Shildon
Luke Bell - Stanegate Restoration and Replicas Haltwhistle
There will be more to follow in due course about our new trainees as during March we celebrate the achievements of our outgoing Year 2 trainees and welcome our Year 3 to the EHSI project.
On Thursday our trainees visited South Tynedale Railway
This shot of most of the trainees with John Stelling and myself was taken outside the workshop at the South Tynedale Railway in Alston.
North East Maritime Trust - South Shields
Michael Arnott our current EHSI trainee at the North East Maritime Trust has been working with NEMT Director Tim West, on the engine compartment for the Fredrick Henry Swan. This might sound straight forward but on the lifeboat the wooden engine compartment is flanked on both sides by water tight wooden compartments which are open to the sea through holes in the keel, in which the water finds its own level. These compartments originallly housed heat exchangers for the engine and provided a drain for the deck scuppers.
When a modern replacement engine is fitted it will use a conventional pumped cooling system.
This shot shows some of the wooden components of the engine compartment that will be reused which have been primed ready for when the time for re-assembly comes.
This shot is looking towards the bow on the right you can be seen new oak that will form the base of the engine compartment. Also on the right is one of the holes in the hull that provided cooling for the engines in the original engine installation. On the left the many of the planks on this side of the engine compartment will need to be replaced.
One piece of the engine compartment is on the bench where the reusable components are being combined with new wood to replace parts of the existing structure have rotted.
The new wood has been cut from the Trust’s stocks of oak planks which before machining looks ilke this.
After sawing and planing to size look like this!
The massive task of replacing the lifeboat’s diagonal planking is nearly at an end, Michael points out the small remaining area that needs yet to be repaired.
A notable achievement which Michael helped with, was the construction of a new rudder post. This is the original rudder post propped up in the workshop, still showing its depth markings.
NEMT director Dave Parker checks a measurement on the new rudder post that he has made from a number of pieces of new oak
This is a shot of a glossy photograph that Trust took before the lifeboat's rudder was removed and the rudder post repaired.
With the new rudder post in place the next task will be to make a new rudder using the old rudder as a pattern.
New pintles, ironwork and straps will also have to be made
Another task for Michael has been the restoration of salmon boat 'Spring Tide'.
In this shot Michael is showing me the next tasks which will be to fit the longditudinal stringers, the thwarts and kness that support them.
Michael and another NEMT volunteers get on with clamping a stringer in place to test fit it prior to final fixing.
Stanegate Restoration
Lee campbell has been using Stanegate's ML7 lathe to machine new components for the locks of a lighting tripod that the ever versatile folks at Stanegate are restoring.
Here are the finished components.
Lee tries the fit of one of the components in the tripod.
Lee has also been learning some woodworking skills here's a joint on one of the Staffordshire Railway coach side frames that he has repaired.
This shot of the unrepaired joint on the other side of the frame gives an idea of the kind of work involved in restoring these frames.
With all of the frames removed from the coach body theres plenty to do, Becky cleans up one of the scarf joints where new oak has been let into the bottom the the frame which rotted during the years the coach body was 'grounded' during its time as a garden shed.
All the tenons that fit into the bottom of the coaches lower framing are in need of repair or replacement.
Outside the workshop this shot from inside the coach frame shows that the frame on the left has been repaired and temporarily test fitted in place whilst temporary suppoprt and acrow props support the roof. Notice how the bottom of the far bulkhead is also rotted and will need repairing.
This shot shows the first fully repaired frame that carries its primer coat.
Here we see the tenons temporarily fixed for test fitting. The chassis that the carriage is sitting on is fully restored.
Tanfield Railway
At Tanfield Railway Ryan Cramb has been involved in fabricating new brake components for 1904 built, Andrew Barclay locomotive, 'Horden'. This photograph shows a new brake crank that has been fabricated by Ryan. Ryan flame cut and ground the crank arm to size whilst a Tanfield machinist made the oversize boss the bore of which will later be machined to size and have a key way cut in the bore.
Here's a close up shot of the weld
Later in the day Ryan helps out the PW folks buy drilling some signal rodding. Here he is centering a dot punch which he will strike with a hammer before he drills the hole.
Later he drills the hole.
One of the great strengths of Tanfield is that EHSI trainees are surrounded by volunteers who have a lifetimes engineering experience wihich they are happy to pass on to a younger generation.
Here we see volunteer David Bickle showing Ryan how he is machining a tapered hole in the 'Hordens' crosshead. David has already made a new tapered crooshead pin and will machine both components so they are a perfect fit.
This is an example of the ideal outcome that the Hertitage Lottery Fund were aiming to achieve with their £17M 'SKills for the Future' programme which funds the EHSI project.
Locomotion
Trainee Steven Foxton and the team at Locomotion have been working hard on the restoration of A4 Pacific Dominion of Canada which is not only having a full bare metal repaint but also having is pre-war style valances refitted and is having its 'Kylchap' double chimney exhaust removed and replace by the original single chimney layout. I visited Shildon earlier in the week here's a series of shots showing the excellent progress that is being made.
This first shot shows the scaffolding that was being taken down after providing access to the chimney area to remove and seal off any asbestos to make the area safe for the modifications that will be made to return the chimney to its original single layout.
Steven and his colleagues have been working hard also on the cab, where very prominent injector steam valves and their pipework dominate the scene.
This shot shows the driving position with the crank handle on the right in this shot, its clear that a the team at locomotion have gone to great pains to get down to bare metal.
Sorry about the scaffold tower invading this photo but this shot shows that the tender has also been getting its paint removed.
Steven worked on the coal bunker which was as you'd expect was a very dirty and dusty job he certainly got a great finish as the conveniently placed spotlight helps to show.
As mentioned the 'Kylchap' exhaust nozzles which have been removed from the smokebox.
Steven has also worked on the boiler barrell where again a vast area of bare metal has been created by lengthy rubbing down.
But its all worth it if you look at the finish that has been achieved with only the primer coat applied after initial filling and rubbing down. Also the valances are now fitted with specially domed bolts and will also be fitted with stainless trim along the bottom edge of the valances.
The tender has had its initial blue undercoat applied plus stainless lettering
The cab has been fitted with its stainless numbers as well as the coat of arms that it once carried
This is the double chimney cowl that will be replaced by a single chimney version as part of the locomotive's restoration.
February 2013 - Beamish Museum
Daniel Christie has started work on the foot boards of the steam gallopers. Some of the ride's steps have gone beyond minor repairs and now need refurbishment. This shot shows Daniel surrounded by woodwork from the ride some of which needs new wood to correct the wear and tear of daily usage.
On the day I took the photographs Daniel was taking the ride's steps apart to assess the repairs needed.
Daniel knocks a socket in to place to remove a rusted bolt.
The next two shots show areas on some of the steps that need repairs.
North East Land Sea and Air Museum
In Washington EHSI trainees Jordon English and Lee Campbell are working on the WW2 fire pump trailer where research has revealed that changes have to be made to some of the trailer's brackets to bring it back to its original condition, non-standard modifications having been made at some time in its life.
Here we see Jordon using a grinder to make some of the modifications to the up-turned trailer chassis.
Afterwards its out with the hammer for a little persuasion.
Tanfield Railway
At Tanfield EHSI trainee has been working on removing the rivets from the front tube plate of Horden's boiler. The technique involves cutting slots in the rivet heads and then cutting the remnants of the head off followed by using a heavyweight drift and a sledge hammer to knock the remains of the rivet into the boiler shell.
Our first shot in this sequence shows the slots that Ryan has cut in the rivet heads.
Here we see Ryan cutting the remnants of a rivet head off with a grinder.
You need to give the rivets a serious whack to knock them through!
Daylight shows through the holes where the rivets have been removed whilst the integrity of the boiler is maintained using temporary bolts to hold the tube plate in place whilst the rivets are removed.
More recently Ryan has been helping to refurbish some point cranks from the railway's permanent way.
First a little bit of heat on the job!
Ryan removed the split pin that holds the point crank on to its pivot.
Inside the sandblasting booth Ryan gets another of the point components ready for painting.
Ryan gets some primer on the point crank
Locomotion
Here's some earlier shots from late December of work on Dominion of Canada by EHSI trainee Steven Foxton,here we see him applying primer to the drivers and fireman's seats which had been stripped of their paint and rubbed down for priming.
On the same day Steven later moved on to apply blue undercoat to the inside of the cab.
Work was continuing on fitting the valances
Moving forward a month here's a couple of shots taken earlier this week. The drivers side of the locomotive has had its stainless trim fitted and the stainless numbers that were originally fitted to this locomotive, are in place on the cab side.
Looking out of the tender doorway, on the fireman's side all the valance panels have been test fitted, however at the time this shot was taken, they had been removed to allow final painting of the newly fitted mounting brackets.
The tender is also getting a lot of attention.
Here we see the corrosive effects of coal on the inside of the bunker.
There is a corrosion trap where the curved sides of the tender body are joined to the tender tank. In this shot you can see the freshly welded fixings where corrosion has taken its toll.
Like the cab sides stainless lettering has also been fitted to the tender body.
We see Steven in this shot preparing the coal space for paint after having spend many an hour with a wire brush on an angle grinder and then a severe scrub in the bath when he got home!
January 2013 - Beamish Museum
A visit to Beamish shows trainee Jordon English scraping paint from the roof joints of the museum's accessible bus's roof prior to repainting it to correct some roof leaks.
Later in the day the first of a number of coats of special roof paint is applied to seal the roof.
North East Maritime Trust
Whilst Michael was working on the bows his colleague Dave Parker was working on making a new stern post, you can see the plywood template lying near the actual stern post of the lifeboat. Dave cut the stern post well oversize from solid oak, initially with a chainsaw it will then be carefully shaped to ensure its a very close fit to the hull, as its a key structural element of the hull which will carry the rudder.
Here's a shot from the inside of the hull showing Michael using a roving punch to fix one of the copper nails in place.
At South Shields Michael Arnott has been working with a colleague on the planking near the keel right in the bows of the boat. This shot was taken from below the hull through one of the gaps where the planks have yet to be fitted. Its tight for space there but Michael manages to squeeze in.
Going back a little in time I missed out a significant event at NEMT, on the 8th of January, the launch of Dave Parker's newly re-fitted coble Irene Patricia.
In this first shot we see coble and crane ready for the launch.
The Irene Patricia hangs from the strops, going down slowly towards the rivers surface.
In the water and afloat.
Dave puts Irene Patricia through its paces
Tanfield Railway
I recently visited Ryan Cramb at Marley Hill, he was working on rebuilding the sand boxes on Andrew Barclay locomotive 'Horden'. In the shots two below we see one of the rusted original sandboxes that Ryan used as a template for constructing the new sandboxes.
Not all of the sandbox is going to be new, Ryan has managed to recover this top plate and its operating lever from one of the sandboxes. Using sandblasting and after a welded repair it will be used on the body of one of the new sandboxes
Not all of the sandbox is going to be new, Ryan has managed to recover this top plate and its operating lever from one of the sandboxes. Using sandblasting and after a welded repair it will be used on the body of one of the new sandboxes
You'll notice that the original sandbox has rounded sides with a welded edge showing. This has meant Ryan having to bend the steel to produce the curved ends and then to create the welded edges without any lips you can see in this shot that Ryan has left two edges of the box standing proud so he can make a welded joint. To produce a clean right angled weld he is now grinding off the proud edge need to give the sandbox a neat edge.
The curved corner
Ryan grinding the sandbox to its finished profile.
Earlier Ryan had welded up a new chimney liner which had been rolled off site for the earlier rebuilding of Hawthorn Leslie No.2. This shot shows the liner in place in the chimney which has been now been fitted to the locomotive.
The curved corner
The welded joints inside the sandbox.
Earlier Ryan had welded up a new chimney liner which had been rolled off site for the earlier rebuilding of Hawthorn Leslie No.2. This shot shows the liner in place in the chimney which has been now been fitted to the locomotive.
Stanegate Restoration
Later in the day in Haltwhistle I took some shots of EHSI trainees Becky Johnson and Lee Campbell.
Becky has been working on the S+D 'Forcett Coach' which is nearing completion. Here we see Becky touching up some of the paintwork on one of the coach body's iron brackets.
In this longer shot we can see that the interior of the coach has been painted with installation of the compartment bulkheads the next step.
In the engine workshop Lee continues to work on the Volvo Penta engine here we see him fitting the timing gear case cover.
Nice to see this neat brass identification plate that Volvo fitted to these engines in the 1950s and 60s.
Weardale Railway
I visited the Wolsingham workshops of the Weardale Railway here's some photographs of the work that Ben Riley and Luke Blackett were doing today.First up it Luke who was working on removing one of RSH No.40's crossheads.
Here we see Luke deciding his next move to get this rather large object removed from between the slidebars
Whilst Luke ponders on his next move with the crosshead Ben is working on changing the drive belts on the traction motor cooling blowers on an 08 class diesel locomotive.
The compartment on the locomotive that houses the drive motors, cooling fans and ducting is quite crowded as this next shot shows.
In amongst all of this Ben fits himself into the compartment and gets on with changing the drive belts.
The compartment on the locomotive that houses the drive motors, cooling fans and ducting is quite crowded as this next shot shows.
In amongst all of this Ben fits himself into the compartment and gets on with changing the drive belts.
Locomotion - Shildon
I was in Shildon today catching up with Steven Foxton at Locomotion.
The work on Dominion of Canada continues. The locomotive is being fitted with the valances covering the majority of the valve motion which were a feature of the A4's pre-war streamlined appearance.
In this photograph we see the LH side of the engine which has had all the valance mounting brackets fitted and now only needs two more sheets to complete the fitting of the valances to this side.
Moving round to the front of the locomotive here's a shot of an A4 that you don't see very often. The outer 'cods mouth' smoke box door is open with the inner smoke box door also open, showing the Kylchap exhaust with the superheater elements in the rear.
Moving to the RH side of the engine we see Steven grinding the welding on one of new valance mounting brackets he is fitting, the front of the tender is in the foreground of this shot.
Later Steven turns his attention to cutting the next valance sheet to be fitted, whilst his colleague Jason Brown gets the mounting bolts ready for a trial fitting when Steven is finished cutting out the sheet.
Here's a close up of Steven getting to the end of cutting out the next sheet.
later Jason and Steven temporarily mount the plate in position so that Steven can mark the final cutting line on the plate as it has been left intentionally over size to allow for final trimming to the exact size with an angle grinder.
North East Land Sea and Air Museum
Lee Campbell has been working on the military vehicle collection at NELSAM.
These shots show recent progress on the wartime Bedford MW 15cwt truck.
Lee and his mentor John Stelling have now got the re-built engine running but in order to carry out a road test they needed to replace the corroded silencer.
Here's two shots of Lee fitting a replacement silencer to the MW, sourced from a Mercedes van.
North East Maritime Trust
Moving from the Wear to the Tyne Michael Arnott and his colleagues at the trust have completed a significant milestone in the rebuilding of 1917 former Tynemouth lifeboat Henry Frederick Swan. The starboard stringer a key structural component in the boats hull, has been completed. This shot shows the completed stringer bolted and sealed to the hull.
The Stringer is sealed and bolted in place with custom made bolts manufactured by the trust on a lathe in their South Shields workshop.
This photograph shows a few of the many bolts that they have made to bolt the starboard stringer in place.
Here's a shot of Michael holding the head of a stringer bolt whist a colleague inside the hull tightens the nut.
Here's the head of a bolt which is recessed into the hull planking so later it can be sealed to achieve a smooth finish on the hull.
The next major task is to fit the stern whaleback. The whaleback has yet to be rebuilt however modifications have been made to the stern gunwhale to make sure the whaleback fits the stern gunwhale. In this shot the whaleback is being test fitted to the hull to ensure the fit is good.
Michael has also been working on salmon fishing boat 'Spring Tide'
where he has been working with NEMT volunteer Arthur Hamilton. He has learned to put the boat’s ribs in place. This involved very different bending and steaming techniques to those used on Henry Fredrick Swan.
On the ‘Spring tide’ the ribs are fixed in place by a team of three, hot from the steamer, held in place by two people whilst another drills and bolts the rib in place. This overhead shot shots the boat with the yet to trimmed and finished ribs in place.
Weardale Railway
With Weardale Railway's very successful North Pole Express operation now drawing to a close lets go back to see the preparations that went into the event.
Class 31 diesel locomotive 31454 was one of the two diesels that 'topped and tailed' the North Pole expresses. Before the 31 went into operation one of its bogies had to be removed and the coil and leaf springs which provide the primary and secondary suspension changed to restore an even ride height to the bogie.
Here we see 31454 up on jacks with the bogie rolled out from under the locomotive.
This is Ben Riley in the depths of the bogie undoing a very unwilling bolt!
Later he helps a colleague shift one of the hefty leaf springs.
Luke Blackett was also involved in the work on the bogie
Part of the preparations for the Polar Express was the construction at the line side of Santa's North Pole Village a large scale 'set' where Santa and his helpers joined the eleven coach train. This shot was taken from the edge of a nearby field.
In between preparations for the Polar Express the Weardale trainees were involved Jacking up the chassis of steam locomotive No.40 to remove its wheels, valve gear, connecting rods and coupling rods.
Here is general shot of the workshop with No.40's chassis on blocks with hired Austerity 'Wilbur' in the rear, followed by a Sentinel diesel and an O8 in the corner with a rail bus on the right.
Here are the the three wheelsets lined up, with the centre axle carrying the eccentrics that drive the Stephenson valve gear.
Later Ben and Luke helped to repair the railway's Whickham trolley which had been in the workshop for an engine problem.
Here's Luke putting back the sheet metal cover back on the vehicles main control panel.
Meanwhile under the trolley Ben fixes the floor panels back in place.
Locomotion - Shildon
Locomotion's EHSI trainee Steven Foxton was certainly doing his bit with a needle gun inside the cab getting down to bare metal a very noisy and dirty job!
Here we see Dominion of Canada catching the low winter sun with the Locomotion team at work, some undercoating has been done, however an A4 is quite a challenge to prepare for painting so its needs the willing team of staff and volunteers that are currently tackling the job at the museum.
Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle
Also working recently at Stanegate has been Lee Campbell who is rebuilding a Volvo 'Penta'
marine petrol engine.
This shot shows him fitting the water cooled oil filter one of the necessary adaptations to make the engine work in a boat.
Later Lee was removing the crankshaft pulley with a gear puller.
Here's a general shot of the vehicle which is in the process of getting its 'scumbled' paint finish.
At Stanegate they are starting to evaluate the state of the side panelling on the North Staffordshire Railway Coach. Just to give readers an idea of what they were starting with here's a shot of the coach body before it had been mounted on a refurbished underframe, so as you can see there's quite a bit of work to do!
Here's shot of one of the side frames that have been removed form the body for evaluation.
Earlier Becky had been involved in measuring and recording the interior of the coach which is currently sitting on a refurbished steel underframe outside the Stanegate waiting in the restoration queue.
Later Becky has been letting in new oak into the doors to replace rotten wood using a resin bonding technique.
Although the condition of the coach's frames looks poor as illustrated in this next shot Becky's mentor Ian Yates says that this kind of damage can be repaired. Although the North Staffordshire Railway coach spent many a year grounded in a field it is actually very well made from excellent quality hardwood. When the frames were measured the frames were almost identical implying they were produced on jigs to ensure accuracy when they were being built.
November activity by EHSI trainees
Trainees Jordon English and Lee Campbell have been working with John Stelling at the North East Land Sea and Air Museum in Washington
Here we see Lee in the process of investigating an ignition problem with a Bedford MW wartime 15cwt military truck in which he's just helped to install a refurbished engine.
This is how the job looks from Lee's perspective
Jordon is helping to refurbish a wartime fire pump trailer, in these two shots we see him adjusting the brakes.
Yes that's a rescue helicopter in the background.
Here's what's been going on in November
I was also at Weardale Railway this week but unfortunately I only had my phone camera on me so here's a couple of very grainy shots of Ben Riley working under an 08 class 0-6-0 ex British Railways diesel shunter which was having one of its traction motors installed.
Here's Ben watching what he needs to do with his fellow trainee Luke Blackett in the orange overalls in the rear just out of shot
Here's a couple of shots of EHSI Locomotion trainee Steven Foxton, getting on with the dirtier side of steam traction,cleaning out the firebox and smokebox of Furness No.20. which is a visiting locomotive at Shildon
Firebox first
Followed by the smokebox
Earlier in the blogspot we posted some shots of A4 pacific Dominion Of Canada.
The locomotive has been moved into the Locomotion workshop and work has started on a cosmetic restoration.
Its a noisy process needle gunning but at least Steven has a comfortable seat!
Here we see that some of the motion has been removed to give access to the driving wheels and frames for undercoating.
Moving to Tanfield Railway we see Ryan Cramb in the process of fabricating new sandboxes for 1904 built Andrew Barclay 0-6-0 locomotive which spent most of its life at Shotton Colliery.
Next for Ryan it was marking out the steel sheets for fabricating another one!
Meanwhile HL No.2. the project that Ryan had been working on sits in the shed awaiting final painting.
At Stanegate Restoration in Haltwhistle the 'Forcett Coach' gets a coat of varnish
Lee Campbell has been spending some time at Stanegate Restoration starting the rebuild of a Volvo Penta petrol engine which is a marine version of a engine fitted to many Volvo cars
Here he's using a nut splitter to remove a nut from one of the manifolds.
Once the manifold has been removed however there were some serious issues revealed with broken pipes in the casting - looks like the hunt for spare parts is on!
Next in line for attention is the block which waits its turn on the bench.
Lets go and see what's been going on during October.
Tanfield Railway
As a change from railway related work EHSI trainee Ryan Cramb has made this new sliding chuck guard for one of the lathes in the machine shop at Marley Hill.
Stanegate Restoration - Haltwhistle
Becky Johnson EHSI trainee at Stanegate is shown here screwing into place the steel edging to a new Sentinel Steam Waggon cab which Stanegate are currently finishing off for one of their clients.
Meanwhile getting closer to completion is the Stockton and Darlington 'Forcett Coach'. The end plankng is being fitted with the compartment partitions stacked ready for installation.
Weardale Railway
At the Wolsingham depot of the Weardale Railway here are some shots of trainee Luke Blackett, making a baffle plate for the fire door of hired steam locomotive 'Wilbert'. Firstly the rough shape was cut form some curved scrap material.
After welding on two 'ears' to hold it in place in the mouth of the fire hole its into the vice for a bit of judicious bending.
Job nearly done, just some final bits of welding and grinding left to finish the job.
While Luke is making the baffle is Ben gives 'Wilbert' a boiler wash out.
Here we see him bolting the washout plugs back in place.
Locomotion - Shildon
Locomotion's EHSI Trainee Steven Foxton has had a varied October which started with repainting this 25 ton 1936 'Queen Mary' Southern Railway bogie brake van for use on the museum's demonstration line. Here we see Steven putting the finishing touches to the vehicle.
Here's the finished job ready for carrying passengers.
The work on the 'Queen Mary' was followed by preparations for receiving two very special visitors to Locomotion, two of the remaining six A4 Pacifics 'Dwight D Eisenhower' and 'Dominion of Canada' which The National Railway Museum have imported into the UK on temporary loan for the 'Mallard 75' event in 2013 which will celebrate the 75th anniversary of A4 Mallard's setting the team locomotive world speed record in 1938. This event will bring together all six remaining A4s, four from the UK Bittern, Mallard, Union of South Africa and Sir Nigel Gresley plus the two visitors from North America There has already been an event at Shildon when the in-steam Union of South Africa visited the museum and was posed for the press with the two North American locomotives.
There was lots of shunting to do to when the visitors arrived here we see Steven involved in the shunting of Dwight D Eisenhower in the yard at locomotion.
This shot shows both locomotives posed in the yard at Shildon.
Later Dwight D Eisenhower was moved by Union of South Africa to the workshop at the National Railway Museum in York and Dominion of Canada was moved into the museum for display and later split from its tender and after a very large shunt is now residing in the workshop at Locomotion.
Here's a close up shot of Dominion of Canada which shows that quite a bit of work will be required to the locomotive back to its original garter blue livery.
In addition Darlington firm 'M Machine' will be making new valances for the two locomotives to bring them back to their pre-war appearance, these will be fitted to Dominion of Canada at Locomotion.
Vintage Vehicles Shildon
During October work continued on the re-assembly of the Bedford TK chassis.
Here we see EHSI trainee Lee Campbell making a new bracket to fit the cooling system expansion tank on to the rear of the cab bulkhead.
With the bracket now completed Lee gets on with fitting the expansion bottle to the bulkhead.
North East Maritime Trust
EHSI trainee Michael Arnott has been working on putting in place the horizontal stringers in the hull of the Henry Frederick Swan lifeboat. This is very careful work where Michael and his colleagues have to ensure the stringer fits perfectly to ensure the hull's integrity.
Here we see Michael inside the hull tightening the bolts on one of the new stringers.
Here's a shot of Michael on the outside of the hull drilling the holes for the bolts that will hold the stringers in place.
Beamish Museum
EHSI trainee Jordon English has been involved in some repair work on the trolley pole support of the visiting Blackpool 'Coronation' this shot shows him on the roof of the tram with former EHSI trainee Tom Dorney and just out of shot Brian Williams who are discussing the scope of repairs that will be necessary.
Meanwhile Daniel Christie continues to assist his mentor Tony Vollans with the insulation and boarding out of the roof and walls the former barns that are being converted into the museum's new restoration workshops. Here we see them fitting the ceiling joists.
I called in at Beamish in November, here's a shot of the very tidy finished job with the floor in the process of being painted.
