album:July 2017

Steam brake crank after cleaning up, but before modification.

Andrew welding on the front end of the tender frame, which is all new construction replacing the rotten original.

Enlarging holes in the brake gear. These were worn to strange shapes, so Paul used an oversize slot drill to make them round again. Iglidur plastic bushes will be fitted to return them to the original size. The combination of stainless steep pins and Iglidur bushes has been used very successfully on FR carriage brake gear and we are adopting the same approach for the C2.

Tender top flange clamped in place ready for welding.

Andrew doing some more welding on the tender frame.

Dave 2 uses the plasma cutter to shape a new piece of plate for the tender frame.

Selection of modified brake gear components including weighshaft, crank, stretchers and lateral control links. There is still some work to do on all of these, but we're getting there!

New brake weighshaft bearing, compared to the good original one. The other was badly cracked.

The tender frames outside, while on their way from the erecting shop back to our own shed. These are really looking good now and we're on target to have the tender rolling chassis done by the end of the year.

Front dragbox plates welded in position. A pin drops through those big holes.

Front end of the tender from the outside

And a view from of the inside showing the new central spine

Loco bufferbeams and front coupling being painted. The backs of the bufferbeams are uppermost, and the blue paint is a witness coat used between layers of black. The front bufferbeam will of course be red!

Modified steam brake crank, almost complete.

Chopper coupling for the front of the loco, ready for painting. The loco-tender drawbar is on the left and this end will fit in the tender front dragbox (see picture below).