THIS WEEK AT THE DEPOT
- mikehallum-rudd
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
We have had a small group of people at the depot this week with Tuesday's and Wednesday's focus being on the stores reorganisation, plus finishing the paintwork on 55015.
Tuesday saw a blank canvas start with the stores and the racking which had been removed down the right hand side was replaced by new sections and bolted down by the end of the day with preparation work done on organising the stock to go in them the next day.
The paintwork on ALYCIDON was completed by Alex with the exception of the orange cant rail line and the No 1 end buffer beam.
Wednesday morning the two Mikes set about sorting and re palletising many items from the 9 pallets of mixed parts/tools/equipment which were at the rear of the depot, a long day and it was all done and placed in the new racking. The remaining 8 pallets stored around the locos were bought down to the rear of the depot ready for Thursday.
Thursday was to be another busy day with 55015 having its 10 year Air Tank recertification and 55009 its 3 year Ultra Sonic Axle test. As these were both being done by outside contractors, David, Gary and Steve set about sorting the 8 pallets into some form of order and by 12:30 all was done and sorted whilst Nigel replaced an oil pipe on one of the radiators in the roof section of TULYAR. By this time the UAT was completed by the engineer from Applied Inspection so Mike, assisted by Steve, set about the rebuild of the axle boxes to the point where a competent person can complete the task with a calibrated Torque Wrench.
Gary painted the No 1 end buffer beam of 55009 and David continued with a bit more stores work until the air tanks were competed by Graham Morris Inspection. Nigel and David then reconnected all of the air tanks, as to be expected there were a few adjustments to be made. After this the pair set about trying to identify an air leak behind the brake distributor in the nose end with the static compressor coupled up to the loco so as to be able to hear the hissing noise, not the easiest of jobs due to the cramped confinements. Eventually a couple of leaks were identified but we had run out of time and a decision was made to leave it until the next working party on Saturday.
