The Old Six-Wheeler.....

Lots of activity in the last week. The loco has been put back on all six wheels and the tender has been lifted off of its wheels in preparation for retiring at Ian Riley's works in NW England. We also managed to lift the dome cover to find out why the regulator wasn't holding tight when we tried to pressurise the boiler with cold water. And Alan French has continued with preparing the eccentric straps for white-metalling. It was great getting the loco back on its wheels and nice to observe the good fit between LH Driving axlebox and the new Hornblock....

We have accepted an offer from the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland to get the eccentrics skimmed and the straps machined at their base at Whitehead near Belfast. The components will be transferred by van and will come back ready to fit. Some readers may recall that the RPSI did an excellent job of renewing crankpins on No.17's wheels a few years ago.

Throughout the week we had great support from Volunteers and Emplyees in the Engineering and C&W Departments. Grateful thanks to everyone who contributed.

The last of the many......driving home the last of the fitted bolts in the new LH Driving Hornblock. 

The new LH Driving Hornblock ready for action....

Eccentric straps ready for white-metalling. The countersunk brass screws will provide a strong bond for the white metal.

LH Big End Bearing fully blued / scraped and fitted is clamp around the crankpin using the temporary clamp made many years ago by John Crabtree.

Rolling out the crankaxle...it's heavy...!

CR828 admires her soon-to-be-refitted crankaxle and RH Driving Axlebox bearing

Draining the boiler before moving the loco to the Carriage Maintenance Shed for lifting and rewheeling

The loco is lifted once more by the C&W Dept jacking system; Nathan Lightowler grinds a chamfer on the new hornblock to help it slide into position as the loco is lowered..

Wheels in position and ready to lower away..

The new hornblock slides over the axlebox as the loco is lowered..

Shunting our six-wheeled loco back to the Engine Shed before turning the tender..

Tender on the turntable - we needed to turn it to make it easier to lift it and lower it onto the slave bogies.

Geoff and Keith roll out the trailing wheelset; the tender is lifted clear thanks to these marvellous electric jacks.

All 36 bolts hammered off of the dome and it's ready to be lifted to allow access to the regulator valve..

Inside the dome....the regulator valve is of the Ramsbottom double-beat type and gives a very easy and progressive control of steam flow to the cylinders. In this picture the valve is partially open. We need to remove the pin from the joint underneath the valve so that we can inspect the seating surfaces. The five open ended pipes are the steam supplies to the injectors, blower, brake and carriage warming valve.

The regulator valve in close up....