26043 Restoration: 2005

More information, and photos from this year can be found on the 26043 fotopic site here.
 

8th Jan
Both battery boxes were heaved out & the defective cells changed for the `new' ones. This is not as simple as it sounds, requiring multiple disconnections & reconnections of the linking strips, and manhandling the cells in & out, which are not exactly lightweight, after which Graham topped them all up & checked them with the hydrometer. The loco was then left on charge all day. The Broadway side mid-body door had its hinge fixings drilled out & the door was removed for Alan Jones to weld a new base where it had rotted. A start was made on cleaning the cantrail-level outer grilles, and much rotten steel was cut out around the Driver's front & side windows at No.2 end. Both tail lights were cleaned back to bare Aluminium and much old filler was removed from No.2 cab front, as rust had got behind it. Lastly, the gutters over the tail lights at No. l end were removed, as they are not an original feature & were less than useful, and yet more filling, sanding & painting was done around No. l cab & it is now starting to look much more respectable. At the end of the day, the loco was filled with water, and we again attempted to motor the power unit, this time with success! ! We repeated it twice to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and the next step is to do the same again with the de-compressor plugs in situ but have the fuel injectors isolated before going for the full start-up.

22nd Jan
No.2 end Secondman's cabside window frame was removed to allow Alan to use the hole as a template to fabricate a new section of steel over the Driver's side window, which had previously had the rotten steel cut away. This revealed extensive corrosion around the Secondman's window and in the corner pillar, which will need extensive rebuilding. Alan also started to fit new steel over the Driver's windscreen. A start was made on grinding corroded steel back to bare metal around No.2 cab front. A build-up of debris was removed from inside No. l cab roof horn recess, and drain holes were drilled in either corner to hopefully prevent or at least reduce any further accumulation of water that had been seeping through the fibreglass into No.l cab. More grinding back of corrosion was done around the Driver's side radiator opening, and it was later painted in red oxide, to show more clearly areas needing filling. The Broadway side mid-body door, which Alan had rebuilt the bottom of, had rust cleaned off the inside, had drain holes drilled and was painted in red oxide ready for refitting. Five of the cantrail level aluminium inner air filter grilles on the Winchcombe side were cleaned and painted in etched primer.

5th Feb
Since our last workday, Alan had cut out rot & rebuilt the steel around both No.2 end Driver's side front & side windows and today fabricated & fitted the mounting bracket for the windscreen wiper then began work on re-plating a section of the lower cabside that had completely rotted through. Adrian had offered to take on the role of re-commissioning the electrical systems and spent most of today poring over the schematics, by mid afternoon had got all four tail & marker lights working at No. l end & had identified some of the wires whose function was uncertain. The BR-fabricated horn recess cover was removed from No.2 cab roof, revealing the truly horrible state of the fibreglass underneath and the various 'quick-fix' botched repairs done by BR depots over the years. It seems likely that some collision or impact at roof level all but removed the original horn cover resulting in the mess now revealed. One of the bodyside window glasses was removed to allow attention to the steel around the opening & so the glass can be cleaned. A start was made on grinding the cantrail weld lines back along the Winchcombe side, three more of the cantrail grilles were cleaned and painted & more grinding & filling was done around No. l cab.

19th Feb
The remaining three bodyside window glasses were removed and the aluminium frames cleaned up, and corrosion on the steel round the openings was ground out. Filler was applied above the Driver's side opening window where the fibreglass repairs had been made some time ago. This and other filler was then rubbed down & another coat of red oxide was applied around the whole cab front & sides. Adrian continued his inspection of the lighting circuits in No.2 cab and was able to illuminate the marker & tail lights on the Driver's side, but the wiring is damaged on the Secondman's side, which will be attended to when we start work on No.2 cab once No. l cab is finished. No more welding can be done until the car park resurfacing is finished, as Alan is unable to get his vehicle to the engine shed.

5th Mar.
Paul & I had asked Paul Jordan to come & join Adrian to explain where he had got to with testing the auxiliary circuits, and one of the first things they found was that for some reason, several battery cells had gone completely dry, so they spent much of the day refilling them with distilled water & testing all the cells with a hydrometer. We will have to have the loco back down the yard to put the batteries on charge, as the small charger in the shed does not like charging batteries from flat. No.2 end Secondman's windscreen was removed and much more rotten steel was cut out around and below it. Bodywork repairs continue along the Winchcombe side of the loco, with the area from the radiator grille to the bodyside door now about half finished, and a start was made on grinding the weld lines back on the cantrail repairs on the Broadway side.

13th Mar (AGM day)
Whilst I carried on doing bodywork, Adrian disconnected the electrical & air supplies to No. l cab control pedestal, as both the direction lever & power controller were seized, then I helped him remove it from the loco. Matt happened to come into the shed at this time, and offered Adrian various advice on how to strip & clean the various electrical & mechanical parts. As I was coming up to the AGM, Adrian was loading the pedestal into his car to take it home. After the AGM, I carried on filling, sanding and painting & before I knew where I was, it was almost 7pm!

2nd Apr
With Richard on Secondman duties twice during the day, he wasn't able to do all that much apart from removing the Secondman's windscreen at No. l end (so we could replace the old rubbers with new ones that Paul had purchased), rubbing down, priming & undercoating round the aperture. While Steve started sanding down filler previously applied along the Winchcombe side of the body, I arranged with Richard Drewitt for the 26 to be positioned on the unloading road on the Saturday of the upcoming diesel gala, weather permitting. If rain is likely, we won't do it as No.2 end has no windscreens and there are no bodyside windows on the Winchcombe side. Steve & I did as much filling and sanding as we could, leaving us time to paint red oxide from the radiators to the mid-body door. This will serve two purposes; it will make the loco look better for the gala & show up more clearly those areas that still require filling.

16th Apr
We didn't put the 26 outside for the gala in the end, as rain was forecast for the Saturday. In the event, of course, it didn't rain, but that's just typical; if we'd put it outside you could guarantee it would have! Today, we put the Secondman's windscreen back in at No. l end, but unfortunately, either the new rubber is of a slightly thicker profile, or the aperture is slightly undersize, because the top of the windscreen barely fits in the rubber & is almost at 90 to the correct angle it should be, so we'll have to remove it again & trim some more off the aperture. Chris Leigh did some more grinding of weld lines.

Between April and June, I could not add anything else to this report, because my PC stopped working, and was only fixed in late June. During this time, the majority of the work was still concentrating on doing as much bodywork as possible while we are still in the engine shed. About 1/3 of the Winchcombe side is now repaired, filled, sanded & painted in red oxide. While we were doing this, Adrian and new recruit Chris were gradually working on removing both drivers control pedestals, stripping them down and freeing the stuck power handle mechanisms. In June, they also ran up both exhausters, both compressors, the traction motor blower and the rad fan, which surprised me, as I had expected at least some of them would refuse to work without remedial attention, as they had not been powered since 1995. The exhausters will have their carbon brushes renewed, as we know one is missing at least one brush, and the rad fan motor bearings will need lubricating, as they are a little noisy. Ade also identified several small control relays in the electrical cubicle that had broken or cracked insulators and auxiliary contacts, and he started removing them to attempt repairs.
During mid-June, several attempts were made to motor the power unit under full compression, to prove the batteries were capable of doing the job. These were sufficiently successful that it was decided to go for a start-up. The combination of the 12 new battery cells plus the Batt-aid tablets seems to have done the trick & the batteries now seem to be holding the charge quite well. On Saturday 18th June, Paul & Adrian had a `dress rehearsal' of a start-up by partially starting to see if it looked like it wanted to go, then closing the fuel rack to stop a full fire-up & avoid filling the shed with blue smoke in the process.

2nd Jul
Adrian got there early and put the batteries on charge to give them a final blast, and spent the morning making sure the starting circuits were okay. The engine oil was topped up as we had previously only filled it to the minimum level. Chris C. fitted the engine room lighting change-over switch to the rear bulkhead of No. l cab, put together the bulkhead connector for the fire detection system & connected its wires. The electrical cubicle panels in the boiler room were removed to reveal the back of the cubicle and five sets of broken auxiliary contacts were removed to see if they can be mended. Just before lunch, Ian Cheshire's 14 dragged the loco outside, and after setting up my video camera outside & with Steve Gorman filming inside, we went for it, and this time ...it was successful! Hooray!!

After running for about 20 mins, Paul thought one injector was not firing, as the fuel was coming out of the bypass tube. We shut down and tightened the crank case door on one side, as it was seeping oil, then started up again about 15 mins later. We let it run for about half an hour, and no other faults showed themselves. This is a significant milestone in the restoration of 26043, and for those of you who didn't know, this is the first time the power unit has been run since 1995! A third start-up in the afternoon was also successful, proving the batteries have been successfully revived. The loco was finally shunted back inside the shed later in the afternoon, the batteries put on charge again, and while Ade removed two more damaged relays, Chris fitted the missing aux. contact onto the Field Divert Relay and removed an unused aux. contact from the Earth Fault Contactor to replace a missing one on the Power Control Relay, which has to be complete before the loco can move under its own power. All in all, I think a pretty good day.

10th Jul
While Chris continued grinding & filling along the bodyside, Richard & Steve removed the Secondman's cab door from No. l cab, removed the remains of the rubber weather seal & ground out rust from the door pillars. With Paul, they removed the Secondman's windscreen from No.1 cab & ground a small amount of metal to hopefully allow the window to seat properly. The glass was test-fitted and it seemed much better, so it was removed again & the cut area of the window frame painted with red oxide.

30th Jul
Whilst Paul & Richard refitted the Secondman's windscreen, Bob continued the dismantling of one of the power controller pedestals, I applied some fibreglass reinforcing to four sets of the damaged auxiliary contacts Adrian had removed from various relays in the electrical cubicle which he had repaired with araldite.

27th Aug
Our team has been boosted by Ian who, having sold his Class 14 D9539, has joined us to work on the 26. Ian did more work on one of the Class 33 cab doors in preparation for fitting it to No.1 cab. Chris dismantled one of the exhauster speed-up relays that had a broken coil energizing connection, cleaned it up & re-assembled it ready for repair of the coil connection & re-installation in the electrical cubicle, then he & Paul, with help from Matt Thomas, removed the two cam shafts from No. l cab driver's control pedestal. Paul took the camshafts away with him to see if he can obtain new bearings, as the old ones are unusable due to water penetration rusting them. That pedestal is now completely dismantled ready for cleaning of it & its components, fitting of new springs & reassembly.
I re-fibreglassed two of the auxiliary relay contacts Ade had repaired with araldite, as the first attempt at fibreglassing resulted in two of the four not going off. I then cleaned the five air-pipe connections on the Air / Vacuum Isolating Valve that Steve Beniston had acquired for us & its air pipes on the brake frame, then fitted the valve. Paul borrowed a specially cut-down spanner to tighten the pipe nuts, as they are too close together to allow normal spanners or adjustables to be used.

10th Sept
While Ade spent the day refitting the repaired auxiliary contacts to various relays in the electrical cubicle & removing the four traction motor contact tips for cleaning, Ian continued work on one of the ex-Class 33 cab doors to make it fit No. 1 cab. Paul worked on the stripped power control pedestal. Steve & I tidied up the filling along the Winchcombe body side & applied another coat of red oxide to areas that had not been done, or where more filling had been applied over the paint.

23rd Sept
Adrian had acquired from another 26-owning group two spare relay contacts to replace two of our broken ones, and he fitted one set of the contacts. Steve & Chris began checking the mountings for the AWS equipment to go on the rear bulkhead in No. 1 cab. Paul Jordan paid a visit & gave Ade a drawing he had made of the AWS circuits. Ade also removed the rusted cable trunking underneath No.2 cab floor & started replacing it with PVC trunking as we had done in No. l cab, got the last tail & marker lights working & fitted some of the cab switches.

1st Oct. Lots of rust was cleared from No.2 cab floor, rotted cable trunking from the underfloor junction box to the Secondman's side was cut away & was replaced with PVC trunking, the first of the new springs were fitted to the field divert pilot motor & load regulator & their contacts were cleaned. The traction motor contactor tips & three of the five arc chutes were refitted and one broken arc chute clamp was taken away for repair or to have a new one made. The top surface of the No.1 cab power control pedestal was cleaned of rust.

8th Oct.
The Oil Pressure Relay, which had been sticking, was freed off & its contacts cleaned. The last two auxiliary relay contacts were reinforced with fibreglass & refitted into the electrical cubicle. Ade got an air supply into the cubicle to see if the traction motor contactors would close, and to see if the reverser would operate, as they are all electro-pneumatic. The Power Control Relay was energized from the batteries, and the contactors closed, but because the power unit was not running, there was insufficient current available & both the power control relay and the motor contactors jumped in & out. When the power control relay was manually held closed (by a piece of wood!), the motor contactors closed & remained so until the relay was released. This proves yet another part of the loco works & there is no reason why it cannot move under its own power now, coupled to another loco to pro¬vide an air supply and brake force & we intend to do this in the near future. Areas of the loco body that were still bare metal were beginning to show a slight layer of surface rust, and with the winter approaching, they were cleaned back to bright metal and two coats of red oxide were applied to these areas.

19th Nov.
After lunch, the second, larger half of the inner cab roof was fitted into No. l cab, and the first two of the air tank brackets were fitted, although the identifying marks I put on them after cleaning them some time ago now appear to be incorrect, as there was some mis-alignment, so we will probably have to offer one of the tanks up to see which way round the brackets should be. With all four ex-33 cab doors now fitted and the inner cab roof, No. l cab is starting to look a lot better.

27/12/05
Final elec contact fitted (sent from Strathspey). Rotten guttering inside engineroom removed.

31/12/05
Smooting Winchcombe side and cleaning cantrail vents (mucky work).