Saturday, 1st August 2015 - Tender Brake Gear

 

    DMLG's recently acquired lathe positioned and wired

up ready for use in the machining area

 

The turning section after reorganisation of this area

                               The Colchester Triumph 2000 lathe enters service and soon
                                shows a prodigious capacity to remove metal compared to
                                                               our previous machine

                               Not to be outdone, our other Colchester lathe is used to
                                trial a mandrel designed to assist in the machining of the
                                  outside diameter of bushes. Each bush has to be carefully
                                tailored to fit the component and, to ensure the correct interference
                                     fit is achieved, requires repeat adjustment of it's size

Wednesday 29th July 2015 - Arrival of additional machining capacity

Dinmore Manor On Tour - June 2015

 

  Whilst work continues on her new tender, 7820

 has visited the Epping and Ongar Railway for their

 Gala before moving on to holiday in Paignton

 

 

                                                        7820 runs round at Ongar

                                            and enters North Weald on a service train

                                               Photographs courtesy of Paul Arnold

Tender Brake Gear Progress - 30.05.15

 

        Progress continues to be made on the refurbishment of

     the tender brake gear. The bearings on the end of the

  brake beams required replacement and new bushes

 have been machined to an interference fit.

          The propane torch is lit to commence heating the bush for fitting to the beam 

 

                                                   The bush is gently heated

 

Rotated to get an even distribution of heat

 

Finally to a red hot temperature

                                    The bush is quickly slipped onto the journal of the brake beam,
                                     the heat having expanded it to be a slide fit and the retaining
                                                 washer is placed against the bush end

                                             The retaining nut is screwed up to the washer

 

and quickly tightened to apply pressure to the bush

                                       With the retaining nut tightened, the bush will not shrink
                                     away from the thrust face washer holding this firmly in place.
                                       Six bushes have been fitted to the three brake beams and
                                      these are now complete ready for cleaning and painting.
                                       Just three more parts of the numerous parts of the brake
                                                        gear assembly are ready!

 

The brake hangers which support the brake beams

are also being re-bushed and are here seen cleaned and painted with primer

 

 Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away, the main brake beam

is being bushed and machined and new tender pipework is in manufacture 

Progress on the Tender

 

 With the tender frames under cover at Toddington

 work progresses on the intermediate buffer beam

 

   Plate work is renewed in readiness for assembly

 of the new drag box

 

 

 

  A large number of components have

     been cleaned and painted. Seen here are

   the spring hanger rocker plates and the

    new sump cover manufactured for the well tank

 

 Welding repairs have been undertaken on the

 feed cock operating handles which had suffered

from years of corrosion

 

  One of the new bushes cooling after being heat

 shrunk onto the brake beams

                           The trailing brake beam all re-bushed and ready for finish painting

Saturday, 17th January 2015

 

Tender Working Party

 

 

Machining of the set of 12 rubbing pads for the six

 brake hangers continues

 

         Grease nipple holes are drilled and tapped in the

lower bearing of the brake hangers

 

Another component of the brake rigging has been completely rebushed

3rd January 2015 - Tender Progress

                                                         2015 - The Year of the Tender

                              Through the last months of 2014, progress was being made on
                               re-bushing the brake gear for the new Dinmore Manor tender.

 

      The brake hanger brackets and top bushes in the brake hangers have

     all been renewed and the lower bushes that fit to the brake beams

 are also being renewed  

 

Some progress was made on the new plate work for the new drag box

                             The tender steps were removed to facilitate cleaning and painting
                             of the frames and the 'U' shaped angle iron that carries the various
                               engine to tender pipes was trial fitted to the new frame sections

 

    In late December, the frames moved to Toddington for completion of

  the drag box and will remain there for re- erection. After removal of

     the frames, the new 3,500 gallon tank which replaces the original 4,000

 gallon Collett tender tank was placed on the jacks

 

 

    New rubbing blocks for the brake hangers have been cast and

 are being machined in readiness for fitting

 

                                 The brake shaft is currently 'off-site' for machining work to be
                                 completed on it and the links from this shaft to the adjusting
                                                   screws have been re-bushed

7th October 2014 - Tender Progress

 

 

       Whilst 'Dinmore Manor' travels far and wide in this

                    green and pleasant land, in a little corner of Gloucestershire

      that is forever Swindonian, slow but steady progress

 is being made on her 'new' tender

 

 

 

           Life expired piping from the tender is being sorted to act

     as patterns for new pipework. A section connecting to

 the vacuum cylinder, which is also being replaced,

 looks a little worse for wear

 

The section connecting to the reservoir cylinder

will be remanufactured

 

 

 

 

 

Two sections of steam heating pipe to be replaced

 

                                        On the brake shaft, the heavily corroded bearing sleeves
                                                                 have been removed

 

 

On the brake hangers, the dowel pins that hold the

pads that restrict the brake blocks movement

have been removed so that new pads can be fitted

 

One of the old pads can been seen after removal

from the brake hanger. 50 years of rust and corrosion

made them stubborn to remove

 

 

The supporting angle iron that stretches across the

  main frames and supports a host of pipes just behind

and below the drag box has been straightened and

trial fitted

 

Some of the new plate work and stiffeners for the

drag box are being trial fitted

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

Saturday 9th August 2014 - Midland Site

                                                   TENDER WORKING PARTY

                                         Work has continued on machining the large quantity
                                         of bushes required for the brake rigging. Work was                                       
                                         undertaken on the journals of the brake weighbar
                                        shaft to remove the heavily pitted sleeves which can
                                        be seen after removal. New sleeves will now be
                                        machined and heat shrunk onto the journals and the
                                              support bearing will be machined to suit.

Saturday 2nd August 2014 - Midland Site

                                                     TENDER WORKING PARTY


                                          In the great Gloucestershire outback, we continue
                                          to hone our bush craft on the tender brake rigging

The new pin has been drilled for the securing split pin

 and the bracket has been re-bushed and this brake

 hanger bracket is ready for cleaning and painting

 

 

With the six brackets well on their way to completion,

attention turns to the next item, the brake hangers.

One is set up for machining to shell out the old top

bush prior to replacement 

 

 

The boring bar being set to machine the old bush

as concentric as possible to the original bore

in the bracket before chiselling out the remains of the bush

 

The top end of the hanger bracket with the bush removed

 

 

 

 

The hanger bracket is 3" wide but had been bushed

from both sides with half bushes as can be seen from

these old bushes.

Saturday 26th July 2014 - Midlands Site

 

 

TENDER WORKING PARTY

 

 

Our gas cylinder trolley has completed is overhaul

 and is now resplendent in a coat of engine green

 

The three brake beams have been re-bushed where necessary

and friction washers added. These now require the top hat bushes

on the beam ends. Just another 12 bushes of the 70 plus 

                                              required to complete the brake rigging.

 

New pins and bushes for the brake hanger brackets

underway

 

One of the heavy components of the brake rigging

is the weigh bar shaft which fits beneath the front

end of the tender. This shaft is in particularly poor condition

requiring sleeves on both ends and new bushes and pins.

 

                                      The removal of the old bushes where the beam connects
                                      to the pull rods and adjusting screws proved to be a lengthy
                                    task as in a previous life the bushes had been welded in place.
                                    Six hours on and a few choice expletives and the four bushes
                                    finally succumbed. The faces now require the weld removing
                                              and yet more bushes and friction washers made

 

The new pin in place that connects the shaft to the

vacuum piston rod 

 

and a new pin for the hand brake connection. The

corroded condition of the one end journal can also be seen.

That will have to wait for another day!