Project Report - 8 October 2016

Its been a while but here is the latest news from the S class group.


Crinoline's
Well we finally got there, all the crinoline hoops, bars and angles are now complete. The amount of work that was put into the manufacture of these by the team was enormous, we cut, joined and formed the flat bars and then drilled and tapped or countersunk approximately 400 holes and that's not including the welding up and redrilling plenty more because the locomotive was not exactly built to the drawings, we'll call this fine tuning.


I'd like to thank Greg, Brayden, John & Alex in seeing this almost never ending job to the end.

Greg doing a bit of fine tuning

Brayden and Greg drilling one of the 400 holes

The last two bars complete, smiles tell the relief of a job well done.

Brayden and Greg making sure they both fit like they are supposed to.

Firebox Ashpan

Kirk has been working like a Trojan on the repairs to the ashpan, every possible escape path for a hot ember has been sealed. The doors still require a bit of work and also the mounts for the grate support bars prior to the installation of the grate. I'll include some photo's in the next report of Kirks fine work.

Regulator

John W. has taken on the task of restoring the steam regulator. The steam regulator is operated by the driver and its the valve that allows steam to be released from the boiler to the cylinders making the engine go forward or backwards. An extremely important valve of the engine.

Unfortunately when the parts were being located to put the regulator back together it was discovered that a vital component; the crank ark (fork) was missing. Luckily the drawing of the component was located at the State Records Office and a new replacement was manufactured by Pressform in Bassendean.

John is currently matching the operating spindle to the square in the crank arm by filing the square on the shaft to make a good fit. The valve seats also need to be lapped in the make a good seal.

The new Crank Arm (Fork)

The regulator components, left to right, the valve operationg spindle,
the crank arm and the valve spindle.

As assembled, when the driver pulls the lever in the cab, the rodding pulls the lever on the left,
the operating spindle then rotates which then rotates the crank arm lifting the valve spindle
opening the valve releasing steam to the cylinders.

Next Steps

Probably the most important task to do next is the installation of the regulator. Once this is complete the clothing can be reinstalled on the barrel and the fittings reassembled onto the locomotive. Whilst the regulator is being worked on there is still plenty to do, all the clothing for the firebox needs to be made and fitted which will also allow all the fittings to be reassembled onto the locomotive.

Well that's it for now, keep checking for updates.