This month I have plenty to tell you on the progress carried out to the frames and other important developments. Where to start?

The major news is that the frames for the Loco have now been realigned and straightened using a combination of techniques. As can be seen from the "before" photo, the top section had become curved (bent?) from true and you may remember we also had to rebuild wasted metal work. From here it was necessary to brace and pull the two sides by application of heat and by the use of various spreaders and connecting rods. The frames then needed to be de-stressed in order to hold the new corrected form. I understand that this was carried out by the use of pneumatic hammers in such a way that as the steel work cooled it "persuaded" the steel to hold this new shape without cooling back to the original distorted one. A skilled hand I think was required to achieve this feat. See "after" photo.

Plenty of preparation work has been carried out on dismantled parts, to include full removal of paint and rust then applying primer and undercoats ready for assembly later on. Not a glamorous job but one that is needed to ensure that the Loco has a complete overhaul to make certain that it survives for many years to come.  One such part included the steam brake assembly where it was necessary to re-bush the bearings and clean the valve rings. The cab has had various rusted and generally poor metal work replaced and is now starting to look like a cab again.

A fiddly job was carried out on the oil strainers to the Silverton mechanical lubricator, as these were worn and required new filters to be made up and soldered together. (See photo.) The lubricator itself has also been overhauled which consists of a cast-iron box which holds the oil reservoir. Inside this there are a number of independent oil pumps which provide a pressure fed supply to various parts of the loco, such as the axle boxes. 

Following a yard shunt in preparation for other work onsite, the Tender has now been reunited to the same "road" in the shed as the loco. Great to see but another job still to be carried out! See photo of the tender not yet ready for the Toddington line.

It is great to see that more volunteers are coming forward to help out on this restoration and in addition to the Wednesday gang we now have an active weekend group. They will be contributing to this project  and one of our members will be project managing and co-ordinating this to ensure best use can be made of all our time and effort.