45149 Restoration: 2007
 

Rest assured progress is steady on several fronts. The picture on the right shows our engine governor in kit form just after dismantling and cleaning parts in our parts washer which is a godsend with oily jobs like this. The chap responsible for taking on the task of overhauling this complex piece of equipment is an ex Cardiff Canton Depot engineer who certainly knows his stuff. Indeed Dave said to me before stripping the governor that if anything would be wrong with the governor it would be that the "fly weight dumbells" would be worn and the roller bearings around them. Sure enough he was spot on with flats found on the diameters of the roller bearings and weights. With a Vitol seal that would have gone hard so what to do? We needed roller bearings and obtained them via C.R. Holland. After a search around governor companies we drew a blank so we machined our own. The weights can be seen in the bottom right hand side of picture.

More body work repairs are under way with number two cab now being the main focus for our fabricator. The grey painted area in the picture (left) shows new replacement plate work in grey primer. Around the step and all the way up to rain strip. There we find more problems with holes in the roof to be repaired. As I write these notes the cab currently has both cab sides off for replacement.

On the power unit front our technical officers advised us to pressure test our 'heads' so true to form it was 'tool up' time with us making clamps sourcing bungs (home made beer shop) garden hose and an adaptor plate for the diesel departments water gauge (radiator test rig). Over two weekends we tested 13 'heads' all but one passed and no leaks were found on flame faces or around the two valves. Another paint job will be required before they go back on the power unit but it was a very satisfying result after our leader spent a whole year of Sunday's overhauling the heads in the goods shed.

New area of attack is the bogie exteriors. This involves needle gunning the area and then angle grinding (equipped with a wire cup brush) over the surface to make a smooth surface. Red oxide was then applied and eventually it will receive a coat of black gloss top coat.

On the cab interior front we have now lifted all floor panels and inspected the air pipes and conduits. After 37 hours of needle gunning around this area and to the back head wall the pipes were painted in their respective colours (white with the exception of the electrical conduit runs which are orange). We have much more to do on the second mans side but less conduit and less air pipes (only for horn) to deal with. Other areas receiving attention are the cubical battery isolating switch and fuse boxes.