C2 Project News

October 2023 to January 2024

A long awaited update - We've not gone away!

Autumn 2023 and into 2024

Firstly we must apologise for not posting a new update over the past few months. Although working parties have still been happening, due to issues with work commitments, the website has taken a back seat. From now on we hope to continue with our monthly updates as usual.
Some exciting news from the September working party which wasn’t reported was the arrival of the brand new Gresham and Craven design graduated steam brake proportional valve from Railway Forgings & Castings. This is a very expensive casting and has been carefully set up and calibrated to work at the correct steam pressure for the C2.
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New Gresham and Craven design graduated steam brake valve.

October 2023 - Working Party

In October, Andrew, Paul and Alastair were also joined by Ed, Max, Bardia and Taichi who are studying engineering at the University of Manchester.
Alastair was helped by Max and Bardia in turning some new bosses for the expansion link side plates.
Turning the expansion link drive bushes.
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These bosses support the drive pivot from the return crank rod. Following machining, Andrew welded the buses onto the side plates.
Paul reamed out the expansion link fixing holes so that the sideplates and expansion links all lined up.
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Excision link assemblies.
Andrew machined and ground some new keys for the reverser weighshaft from some key steel.
Andrew machining new keys for the reverser weigh shaft cranks.
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Newly made key in the reverser weigh shaft.
Ed and Taichi had a fabrication job. The mechanical lubricators are driven from brackets mounted on the top of the expansion links. Whilst both of the existing brackets are in a poor condition, only one of them is considered repairable. The other is bent and twisted beyond repair. Therefore Ed and Taichi set about making a new bracket. The existing brackets were carefully measured. The shape of a new bracket was carefully marked out on a piece of 10mm thick steel and cut out. Mounting holes were then drilled out in the correct place.
The new lubricator drive bracket, cut out of 10mm plate having the holes drilled prior to bending.
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Following some practice on some pieces of scrap, Andrew helped Ed and Taichi to heat up the bracket to a glowing orange colour with the oxy-acetylene gas set where two bends were made into the correct shape.
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The lubricator drive bracket clamped up ready to be heated and bent.
New lubricator drive bracket bent to shape.
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Left: the old lubricator drive bracket bent and twisted. Right: the new lubricator drive bracket.

November 2023 Working Party

Due to transport issues (Barmouth bridge still being closed) Dave 1 was sadly unable to join us again. But Andrew, Paul and Erle were present over the weekend to make progress.
After some careful investigation, the expansion link side plates were found to be a little bent. This meant that the bosses (which were made by Alastair, Max and Bardia at the October working party) did not line up sufficiently for the internal holes to be reamed out. Therefore Paul, using a bit of gas, heated the affected area and carefully bent the side plates to the correct shape.
Paul heating up the expansion link assemblies to line up the bosses to take the pin from the return crank rod.
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Erle has started work on the screw reverser. This will be a difficult machining job of a 4 start trapezoidal thread. Erle has roughed out the rough shape on the lathe ready for machining the thread at a future date.
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Erle starting the screw reverser. This will have a 4 start trapezoidal thread.
Andrew started machining stainless steel sleeves for the expansion link pivots. Paul ground off the old worn sleeves.
New and old expansion link pivot sleeves
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4 new expansion link pivot sleeves.
Expansion link assembly.
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We had a visit from Geoff who had bought himself what he thought was small 6” bench vice for his garage only to be surprised that the quoted 6” dimension referred to the jaw width! With this Record No. 25 far too big for his garage, he decided to donate it to the C2 project. Thank you Geoff. It is much appreciated.
Record No. 25 vice donated to the C2 Shed. Many thanks Geoff!
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A big thanks also goes to Tom Bowen who has kindly sent us Chinese wheel tappers hammer. Thanks Tom!
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Chinese wheel tappers hammer donated to the project. Thanks Tom!

January working party 2024 (Held in first weekend of February)

Due to the availability of C2 Project members, the four day January C2 working party actually took place over the first weekend of February.
This is why the January working party was delayed by a week. Andrew went skiing in France!
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Erle has been working on both the C2 Project and the NG15 restoration. Since both projects had working parties this time, Erle couldn't attend both. So he spent Friday with the C2 Project and the weekend working on the NG15.
The reverser, which Erle is restoring for us, is mounted on a thick steel baseplate which is forged to shape. The original is very battered, worn, and much modified, which has led us to conclude that a new baseplate is required. It would be difficult for us to forge such a thick plate, so Erle is machining the new one out of solid.
This block will be turned into the screw reverser base plate by Erle.
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Andrew and Dave 1 spent much of the working party planning out what tasks we want to carry out next. This may not sound very productive, but is essential to the productivity of the project. Creating a list of tasks, making sure that the necessary drawings, materials and tools are available all mean that we will be able to get on with those tasks efficiently at future working parties.
The main areas of focus are the slidebar packers, crossheads, reverser and expansion links, and the draincock linkages. There are a very large number of joints in these mechanisms, most of which will need new bushes and pins. Each bush or pin is a simple thing to make, provided that we have drawings (most of which we have already created), material (again, which we mostly already have) and any necessary tools. By creating a list and considering each item in turn, it all suddenly seems a far less daunting prospect.
The expansion links are a little worn, so advice was taken from the works' staff and from Jon Whalley (FfWhR Chief Mechanical Engineer) as to what might be done about it, since regrinding the curved slot in the link would be very difficult. Jon suggested that it should be quite easy to get a new expansion link and die block cut to the required tolerances, using wire erosion cutting. We will investigate this option.
Paul had previously expressed concern that the expansion link trunnions may not be perfectly aligned. Andrew and Dave therefore set out to measure them. Putting the expansion link in a lathe seemed to be a good approach, but only three lathes at Boston Lodge have sufficient swing - two 21" DSG lathes and the Swift wheel lathe. Both 21" DSGs are fitted with 4-jaw chucks, which would make measuring the alignment of the trunnions impossible because they would have to be set up using the surfaces that we are trying to measure!
Fortunately the Swift was fitted with two centres which fitted into the centre holes on the trunnion ends, so that seemed to offer a way forward. With the expansion link mounted between the centres, a quick check was carried out to ensure that the trunnion centres are actually in the centre of each trunnion. They aren't! Back to the drawing board.
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Measuring the expansion link pivots. These were found to be very out of alignment.
The 17" DSG lathes at Boston Lodge are fitted with a bed extension under the chuck which can be removed. After consulting the works' staff, we removed the bed extension from one of the lathes fitted with a 3-jaw chuck. This allowed us to hold one of the expansion link trunnions in the chuck (which will be on the lathe axis) and measure the other one.
It soon became apparent that the trunnions are not at all well aligned (several millimetres of misalignment). Oh dear! Much head scratching then ensued, trying to come up with ways of resolving this. Bobby pointed out that the most important datum is the slot in the expansion link, and suggested that we should align the trunnions with that. If we were to mount the expansion link on the Kearne horizontal borer, clock the expansion link slot face, then carry out an external cut on the trunnions, that would align them. We have to sleeve the trunnions, so by making the sleeves oversize before turning them on the borer, we should be able to get the trunnions into alignment, centred on and perpendicular to the expansion link slot. It does mean that the precision sleeves which Andrew made at the end of last year will probably have to be re-made, but if that is what is necessary, that's what we'll do.
Dave and Jon also had a good chat about progress with the boiler. Jon tells us that he is very close to completing the design submission. Dave expressed some concerns about the modification Jon had proposed to the front tubeplate gusset stay, and this was discussed at some length. We are now happy that we have potential ways forward with this aspect of the design.
Chris and Dave 2 also put in appearances on Sunday. Chris assisted with some of the task planning for the couple of hours he was available, while it was nice to have a brief catch-up with Dave.
We're all looking forward to the end of February working party when we will bring you more news.
February 2024 
September 2023