Well well, i'm getting terrible at this whole blogging thing...
I'll be honest, i have been a little lax when its come to writing this little blog of workshop antics! But since Gilling, theres actually only been one run, and workshop has mostly consisted of pannier bits and pieces!
My other excuses are two fold, Just started my A levels, so thats rather eaten into my spare time for writing, and other time has been spent admin-ing and using the GL5 facebook group! So, anyone interested in getting involved, an easier way to reach us is via that group, its aclosed group but non members can join, so if your on facebook, just drop me a message on here and i'll let you know more.
But otherwise, running round-up...
Greystones once again...
Yes, its back to what is fast becoming my second home it seems, end of september, weekend after my birthday, we pottered down to the west country to run on this excellent if a little testing track. Didnt manage to grab many pictures, mainly because i spent most my saturday driving!
The day started well, we arrived, about 11, with a trailer full of coaches, the first time a full set of 5 had been to the track
A friend had bought up a Britannia which was an unusual sight doing the circuit! Far bigger than the usual mtive power! removing the side control springs meant it just about squealed its way round! Then some bright spark thought, well lets do a bit of shunting with it! Now anyone who knows a britannia will know it has a screw reverser, not ideal for shunting!
So, out came the coaches, and that same bright spark decided he would try and pull them, with a further two teak coaches (commercial items which are really quite heavy)
But anyway, see the results...
Personally I wasn't mad enough to try it myself, but when the offer came it seemed i spent the rest of my day driving that superb little loco. It may have massive wheels and relatively little tractive weight but it really punches well above its weight!
Personally my favourite shot of it, and our coaches, we lent the owner our driving truck for the day just to complete the teak set, but this pic is currently my computer wall paper...
Last pic of that weekend, most of us seemed to be busy and very few of us have any pictures! Bt anyway, the day ended with the usual social evening meal. When we got back, we had one last little play. Utilising the newly installed lighting in the coaches, and the dark night, we gave the coaches a couple of laps of the track behind the electric, with full lights on, on radio control. No pics i'm afraid, just that bit too dark for effective photos!
To keep this post short but sweet, just a quick round up for the workshop, i'll do some more next week, after the groups annual christmas run, the Freeze your nuts off rally at Brent house!
Pannier
Lots has been going on n the pannier, a huge amount has been done to it, andi have nowhere near enough space to documentit all here! But i promise more pannier progress for those who want next week, if you can bear anymore that is!
So in short, what has gone on is
-running plates are all painted and nearly finished, only waitin to be lined
-The engine is fully permenatly on its wheels
-The valve chest has been sealed after a long delay
-I rebuilt the drain cock mechanism because the last one was frankly rubbish
I have reprofiled the chimney
A new boiler topfeed arrangement has been made
Work has begun on the tanks to change the filers to correct round pattern
Allthe brake gear hasbeen reassembled
the sandboxes have been cleaned and painted
the guard irons have been refitted
The lubricator has been overhauled and the feed arrangement has been changed
The running plates have been dilled and fitted
Tonite two of the bufefrs wen on and a drawhook went in.
Everythig that needs to be chemically blacked, has been
most of a new blower has been done, with fine directed nozzle in it to replace the old arrangement
the front buffer beam has been cleaned up again, and is ready to receive some red
buffer heads have been reprofiled, as have hooks
The sokebox has had a goodly amount of detail put into it, whilstits not perfect, it'll do for now
and finaly bits have started to be made to make the non working sanding gear linkages.
Below hopefully is a selection of whats gone on, hopefully a suitable amount!
I havnt always managed to keep up with progress with accompanying photos so please excuse their lack!
But the plan is tohave her steaming by sometime in the new year in a mostly complete state. If shes back in a whole enough entity by this weekedn i may take her to the brent house run, and trundel her through some points, tow itround the track, just to wear in the bearings!
Well i hope the wait has been worth it. I'll soon post about whats been happening in the world of the other inhabitan of the workshop, some pretty stunning progress he's made i must say in the time of my absense from RMweb!
So, pics to come hopefullly of brent house, and more wagons, and bit of lcuk i'll be playing with another engine this weekend
Please let me know what you think, its a little rushed this post, but i hope it doesnt show too mush hehe
Cheers all
Mark
- 9
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