Well that was a fun 10 years, but in order to put in any more time in steam, 3850 needs to have a major overhaul. This will necessitate removing the boiler from the frames and refurbishing it to a standard that will allow it to obtain a further 10 year ticket. Needless to say there will be plenty of other jobs that will need to be attended to at the same time.
This post will cover the significant progress made in dismantling 3850 at Toddington on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway since she came out of traffic at the end of September.
After a scrub up with a pressure washer, the first job was to remove the injectors, which were sent away for refurbishment.
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| Kenneth grappling with the driver's side injector |
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| The pressure washer had cleaned the other side ok, but not this side |
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| Nigel removed the fireman's side injector |
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| After that it was a case of cleaning everything up for dispatch to be refurbished |
The next target was to prepare the boiler for lifting, in broad brushstrokes, that included removing the backhead fittings, clack valves and feed pipes, the boiler cladding, lifting the cab roof, disconnecting the steam pipes, and removing the boiler mounting bolts at the smoke box end and the expansion plates at the firebox end.
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| Some cladding removed |
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| Eleanor, removing the water gauge |
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| Liam, working on removing the backhead cladding |
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| Bottom half of the backhead cleared |
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| Liam having just removed the sight feed lubricator |
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| Meanwhile, Tom (l) and Ash got on with disconnecting the brake linkages |
Simply removing bits is only half the battle, getting them cleaned, labelled, inspected and refurbished ready for refitting is vitally important.
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| Fireman's side on the left, driver's side on the right |
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| Mike (l) and David, engrossed in cleaning and labelling part of the brake rigging |
Not strictly speaking a requirement for lifting the boiler, the superheater elements and header have been removed. The tubes will also be removed before the boiler lift.
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| Paul, loosening a superheater element. |
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| The whistles needed removing before the cab roof could be lifted |
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| Ian applies a little heat to encourage an injector feed pipe to separate from a clack valve |
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| Mark (l) and Mike remove a cab window |
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| Steve takes the window to be cleaned & labelled |
Ten years out in the seaside air has taken its toll, and a few fixings needed some gentle encouragement to undo:
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| Mike gets persuasive with an angle grinder... |
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| ... and Rob needed to do the same too. |
Extracting the superheater elements required some superhuman manpower, a rope and something akin to a tug of war ensued.
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| DMLL tug of war team in action |
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| Jonathan (l) and Cliff at work on the smokebox saddle mounting bolts |
It wasn't all hard work, Phil spotted a souvenir that he thought would look good on his living room wall. Never fear, he didn't get far with it.
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| It wouldn't quite fit in his pocket |
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