30th Nov 2007
Progress!
S15 class 847
Its now just over a year since we started our “fast track” overhaul of the Society’s ever popular S15 847. We have two skilled engineers each working two days a week on the project, we have usually around half a dozen people working on a Sunday, other volunteers down midweek and the workshop staff have now taken on the overhaul of the boiler. The Society is committed to putting a substantial 5 figure sum into the overhaul. So by working jointly with the Bluebell Railway workshop staff we hope to “fast track” the overhaul through to completion within another 18 months.
So it is timely to review what has been achieved in the last year.
Key tasks undertaken
Boiler out of the frames, grit blasted and painted. Corroded smokebox removed, all boiler tubes out. Recently the workshop staff have started to remove all the crownstays as they require replacement.
Frames lifted from the wheels. All loco wheels sent away for tyre turning and attention to journals. All wheels have been completely cleaned and are now re-painted in topcoat.
Frames cleaned down and outside now in topcoat black. Cleaning and painting inside of frames well underway. Repair of small area of corrosion in the frames in hand.
All motion dismantled. Work well in hand to clean up and attend to bearings as necessary.
Pistons and valves out of the cylinders and in the workshop for attention. New rings to be ordered shortly.
Driving wheelhorn guide faces assessed for wear. Old whitemetal removed from axleboxes and remettaling to start shortly, to be followed by machining to fit onto axle journals.
New springs for all the loco wheel sets on order. New drawing for springs had to be commissioned
New front for smokebox fabricated and material for the rest of the smokebox on site ready for fabrication.
All cab fittings and boiler have been overhauled and are ready to go back up.
New backhead cladding for the boiler has been fabricated.
Current work over the winter
Boiler
Most of the outstanding work on the boiler will now be undertaken by the workshop staff.
The boiler has been ultrasonically tested and the exterior shell found to be A1 100% sound and not needing any replacement of the steel outer surface. The foundation ring rivets required replacement, our Sunday gang have now got them all out.
As regards the firebox, all stays below the running plate will be replaced and our volunteers have made a start on removing the first 400.
A close inspection inside the firebox has revealed that all 180 of the steel studs that connect through the crown of the firebox, to the crown stays, require replacement. The “shoulder” on the studs, that forms the “seal” against the copper face of the firebox had eroded away badly on many of the studs and they would be unlikely to be able to stop water leaking down for much longer. So the workshop staff are busily removing them now. Which leads to the much trickier job of the crown stays that connect the top of the firebox to the upper area of the outer wrapper of the boiler. These were most likely replaced back in 1955 when the firebox was last changed. Some of them have been found to be showing signs of fracturing so they are all coming out. Working in the confined space above the firebox is a difficult and unpleasant task and we are indebted to the skill and dedication of the workshop staff for tackling this arduos task.
Hopefully the new smokebox can be fabricated over the Winter and then work will start on making a new ashpan.
Frames
The cleaning and repainting of the frames will continue to conclusion.
We hope to be in a position to have the frames and wheelsets ready for rewheeling by early Spring, and then the motion can start to go back up.
Other jobs
The PMV van.The complete rebuild of the PMV van is coming along nicely. All the wooden body work has been renewed and 6 out of the 8 doors have been replaced and the last two new doors are being made now. The van also has a new roof cover and solid steel floor in place.
Our other locos
Schools class Stowe has had its tender completely rebuilt and has had a cosmetic re-paint into Malachite green. We intend to get started on giving the loco a full overhaul, once work on 847 is complete.
Q class 541 and U class1618 are safely undercover in the running shed. The group are doing what they can to keep them clean and presentable. They await there turn in the queue to be overhauled. Now that we have finished “restoring” ex Barry wrecks, and are into what should shorter “overhauls”, the intention is to have two locos in working order at any one time, with a third under overhaul. Once 847 is complete we will enter into that cycle.
6th July 2007
Boiler sounded out!
S15 class 847
The most complex and time consuming job on most loco overhauls is work on the boiler. The good news since the last report is that the boiler has undergone an ultrasonic test and passed with flying colours. We are very pleased to have established that it will not require any replacement of any areas of the outer steel boiler and firebox. This means that the overhaul will be much less protracted than envisaged.
We are managing to progress work on the boiler, even working in the open in the loco yard. Every second rivet has been removed from the foundation ring and around the firehole door. These will be riveted up when the boiler goes into the works. Frank Glue has started the long and gutty job of removing the heads off stays that will need to be replaced.So far he has tackled around 150 stay heads - at least 400 will need to be replaced.
Melvyn Frohnsdorff has made a good start on fabricating a whole new smokebox. He has cut out a new front face from new steel and has riveted on a length of angle to enable it to be joined to the sides, in due course. Ray Bellingham has overhauled the door and hinges and fitted a new sacrificial plate on the rear. The door has now been fitted to the front. Clive Bean has helped by grinding various components to shape.
Frames
Ray Bellingham has been busy with various skilled jobs. He has completed dismantling the motion and starting the overhaul of its bushes etc. He has dismantled the weighbeam shaft for overhaul, split the crossheads and taken the valves out and the pistons will be out soon. Frank helped Ray to dismantle and drop the brake cylinder from within the frames.
Two of the volunteer gang have got stuck in on the long and tedious job of cleaning up the loco frames of much sticky oily gunge, to ensure there is a decent clean “base”. Most of the outside of the frames have been cleaned up and are now being painted into undercoat. Simon Allen, Barry Smith and Jo Faircloth had a fun day dismantling the cab floor which was found to be rotten and the whole area has been cleaned and painted in primer. The drag box on S15s are one large solid casting. 847’s is in good condition and does not require any work.
The wheelsets have returned from the South Devon Railway having had their tyres turned and journals polished. They are now being needle gunned and painted in primer. Meanwhile Tony Funnel has looked over the axleboxes and found that they were in need of re-metaling to be fit for a full ten year service. He has run out the old metal and re-metalled them and has started to machine them to fit the newly polished journals. One of the axle boxes was found to be cracked and needed to be carefully welded together.
Fred Bailey has been of great assistance and produced a fine set of drawings for new loco springs and an order has been placed for a full new set of springs.
What next?
We hope to have the chassis re-wheeled in the Autumn. When the C class emerges from the workshop the boiler is due to go inside for the boiler work to be pushed forward.
Then, hopefully, 73082 Camelot can be dismantled and take up the space 847 has occupied outside the works, and it to undergo a “fast-track” overhaul.
PMV van 2186
Rodney Packham has completed the fourth new door and the whole west side elevation is complete with chalk boards and vents etc.
The last major job outstanding is to complete the production of four new doors for the east side and tidy up the appearance of the frames and wheels.
U Class 1638
1638 running well, clocking up the highest mileage in service in 2006 (over 8,000), and likely to be up at the front again re mileage this year as well.
Schools class Stowe
David Jones has finished painting the tender in top coat, a source for new lettering is being investigated.
29th April 2007
De-grease is the word!
S15 class 847
After a
good cleanout of some surprisingly large objects - achieved by the use of
pressurised air, water, fire and torches on sticks - the most significant event
of the last few weeks has been the ultra-sonic tests on the boiler. Thankfully,
it has passed - saving us many, many hours work. Significant progress has been
made with the tedious, but rewarding, task of removing grease and grime from
the framesets, which have now started to be painted, both inside and out. The
wheels and bogie were also cleared of grime and gunge, and were sent to the
South Devon Railway on 8 March for re-profiling. The 5 wheel sets are due back
in late April.
Ray has been
busying himself overhauling the motion - the drop links and union links are now
complete. He has also removed the valves and split the cross-head - these will
be further dismantled, but the slide-bars will most likely remain in-situ. The
cab floor has been dismantled and removed. Unfortunately, much of the wood was
rotten, and new wood will be sourced. The fall plate will be cleaned up and
re-used. We have called on the services of 2 colleagues outside of the usual
MLS working group - Tony Funnell, to re-metal the axle boxes; and Fred Bailey,
who has created the technical drawings for 847's new driving axle and bogie
springs. The springs will be ordered shortly. Ian Collins has spent a good
number of hours creating the back plate for the boiler. This may sound simple,
but on close inspection, its wonderful curved edges and shape make it a true
masterpiece, that will look very fine as part of 847 (you may recall the
fantastic work he did on cladding pieces for 1638 such as thedome cover and
saftey valve
skirting). Melvyn has also been making a new smoke box, based on the
template of the old one.
PMV
Our PMV continues to progress well, and is fast becoming
fully weatherproof on all sides with a few new doors, and all windows now
fitted. There are many other small, but crucial jobs that are also in progress
or completed - including the tidying-up/painting of the cab roof, grinding of
the smoke-box tube holes, removal/cleaning of bogie splashers,…
Coming up…
Simon and David will hopefully continue work on painting Stowe. David has now finished painting the tender, and it awaits lettering.
Finally…
Our favourite U class is back running regular service trains, and is becoming a regular on the Pullman dining trains. Now the summer months are fast approaching, weather is definitely warming up, and there is nothing better than a day in the company of a fine locomotive and some fresh air.
The 6th February 2007 Edition
And they are off….!!
S15 class 847
As mentioned in the latest
Bluebell News and Maunsell Locomotive Society magazine the boiler is out of the
frames. The frames were lifted from the wheels before Christmas and the boiler
grit blasted and painted by a professional firm, which has saved us lots of
time. The Sunday gang have been on site every weekend through the Autumn, over
Christmas and New Year and into January and have been busy with the following:-
Removing the smokebox, (it had wasted thin in places) and stripping off the
superheater header to allow access to the main steam pipe for inspection. The
regulator and regulator rod have been removed from the dome and access gained
to inside the boiler to allow lots of scale to be removed from inside the
boiler and some scale raked out from around the foundation ring. Melvyn
Frohnsdorff and Frank Glue have been busy removing rivets from the foundation
ring, which all require replacement. Another group of volunteers have got stuck
into the tedious, but essential task of scraping large dollops of gunge, filth
etc. of all the wheels, and only when that had been done has it been possible
to have a really good go with the new steam cleaner, which has worked wonders
to get them up to a condition that is fit for re-painting. The bogie is ready
to be dismantled to enable the wheelsets to come out. We do however await the
red fork lift truck to be repaired so the job can be tackled.
Once this is done all wheelsets are ready to go away for tyre turning. Meanwhile Ray Bellingham has been examining the axleboxes and journals and it looks like very little work is required. We need to order a full new set of springs. Ray has also been sorting out machining various pins and parts that are worn re the axle boxes and springs so it could all be re-assembled quickly once the re-profiled wheels are back.
What next? The firebox area needs
a good wash out and then an ultrasonic testing of the thickness of the external
boiler platework carried out to determine how much might require replacing.
Can you help us speed up the overhaul of 847? . We now need to raise £1,200 to pay for the transport of the wheelsets to go away for tyre turning. So if you want to help get a good solid loco going quickly - please send the Society a donation, no matter how modest, now. Please make cheques payable to the Maunsell Locomotive Society and send to the Treasurer, 312 Riverside Mansions, Milk Yard, Wapping, London E1W 3TA.
PMV van 2186
Simon Allen has completed all the new woodwork for the van body and has had help from Rodney Packham to start making new doors. Simon has made up two new window surrounds and Malcolm Watts has offered to help finish off some of the others. It is really beginning to look the part now.
...and not forgetting..
U class 1638 Ran well in 2006, and most likely not in use again until the Spring. Go see the new Beatrix Potter film and there is a nice shot of it pulling away from Horsted. A good film for other reasons as well. Schools class Stowe Simon Allen and David Jones will be back to finish off the re-paint once work on the PMV is complete, and the weather more suitable in the Spring.
We
pleased to announce that 847's boiler was successfully lifted from its frames
on Thursday 19th October and a firm of contractors is due to grit blast the
boiler in early November. 
The tender is in good
condition having had major platework replacement when first restored. Initial
impressions of the condition of the motion is favourable. The loco was fitted
with new cylinder liners when restored. A keen and experienced gang of
volunteers is being led by the Society's Chairman, Ray Bellingham, who has
overseen the restoration of 4 ex Barry locos. The overhaul of the loco will be
a joint project with the Bluebell Railway, with the Maunsell Locomotive Society
shouldering the bulk of the stripping down work and the Bluebell Railway
helping with the re-assembly stages. The Society's Chairman has already
overhauled all the loco's cab and boiler fittings. Subject to the condition of
the boiler the Society hope the overhaul can be completed in two years. 847 is
the very last 4-6-0 built by the SR and entered traffic in December 1936 and
was withdrawn from Feltham in January 1964. The MLS purchased the loco from
Barry Scrapyard in 1978 and completed the restoration of it in 1992. It clocked
up over 30,000 in 5 years on the Bluebell Railway but was stopped due to expiry
of its boiler ticket and need for tyre turning. Changes in the basis of
agreeing the 10 year boiler ticket, part way through the first restoration of
the loco led to it only having five year's of operation. It was a reliable and
popular loco and will be a welcome addition back in Bluebell's fleet of locos.
Finally,
the PMV van is not forgotten and the picture here shows some paintwork looking
fresher following close attention
For a
number of years, the Eastbourne Historic Vehicle Club has been running an
annual award scheme for applicants who have completed a transport related
restoration project in February of the year in question. Normally the project
has to be based in the county of Sussex. There are five categories, namely
industrial buildings, road vehicles, rail vehicles, water transport and air
transport. The winner of each category receives a cheque for £500 and a
brass plaque mounted on a wooden backboard. The Bluebell Railway, being a well
known historic transport centre, has received a number of awards from the
scheme over the years, and indeed we of the Maunsell Locomotive Society won a
Highly Commended plaque in 1993 for the restoration of S15 Class locomotive No.
847. Each year, all winners of the five categories go forward to the Overall
Award which is selected by members of the EHVC, rather than the judges which is
the case with the individual category winners. Last year the Overall Award went
to the Bluebell based Stroudley first class carriage No. 661. 
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