35006 Progress Report, June 2004
by John McMillan, 15th June 2004

As usual, progress has been made on several fronts, some it involving re-visiting “old haunts”, like the cab and the drain-cock valves.

Having given the impression in the last report that the cab was almost finished, the fitting of the window frames has proved that it isn’t finished yet! As expected, we’ve had to make alterations to the cab frame so that the window frames will locate nicely in position. It is evident that our window frame castings must be for a slightly different shape of cab (no two cabs appear to be identical!), and small spacers will be needed to get the top rail of the frames to bolt up securely to the cab structure. The next task will be to try the sliding panels in place to ensure that they operate properly, and more ‘tweaking’ is anticipated. Finishing touches are being made to the sliding panels, then the whole lot will come out again for the glass to be fitted. When you see the driver sitting at the controls, nonchalantly leaning out of the cab window, just spare a thought for the phenomenal amount of work that has gone into assembling such an insignificant part of the locomotive.

A start has been made on putting back some of the pipe-work and brackets which were removed from the boiler back-head when the cab was taken away, and we are taking the opportunity to check and re-make some of the pipe flange joints where flanges mate up with a metal-to-metal joint. We cannot use gaskets owing to the risk of failure which would release steam at full boiler pressure into the cab. Once we have replaced the pipe-work to where we left off, the remaining pipe runs for the boiler back-head will be made up to complete this part of the restoration.

The injector cones have been hand-fettled and await fitting in the injector bodies; except for one small flap valve, a drawing of which remains elusive, the injectors will be complete.

Whilst checking the alignment of the boiler crinolines in relation to the cab and pipe-work on the driver’s side, careful measurement showed that the boiler wasn’t located quite centrally on the loco chassis. Almost single handedly, Maurice Hastie, one of our indefatigable workers, managed to move the boiler with jacks the required 3/16” (or 5mm if you prefer), to the left. The boiler weighs a mere 22 TONS; have we discovered our own Mister Universe?

After some time we have resumed work on the fire grate, and have machined the rocking support bars to allow the ends to rotate freely in the support housings, enabling the fireman to dispose of the remnants of the fire more easily at the end of the day.

Other parts of the locomotive receiving attention are the cylinder drain cock valves which have now been finished, and good progress has been made on the covers surrounding the main steam pipes which run from the smoke-box to the valve chests. These are the first sections of the final outer cover of the loco to be made, and as this is specialist work, we have been fortunate in securing the services of an experienced engineer in this field, who produced much of the boiler cladding for newly-restored 34028 “Eddystone”, now running on the Swanage Railway.

Finally, just to show that the tender hasn’t been forgotten, we have completed the shutoff valve that allows the water filters to be cleaned without draining the tender tank. Machining of the large tender water sump has now begun. On completion, fitting of the brake rigging will be the one major task remaining on the tender.