Last working day of the year and despite only being allowed on site for six hours, a tremendous effort was put in by the 13 Volunteers who attended and it was great to see so many people being there, enjoying themselves and working together.
Firstly I had the pleasure of handing over the documents of a ‘cherished car reg plate’ T111YAR as advertised in the last Deltic Deadline, to the successful bidder Dave Greenwood. Thank you very much to Ralf Tilley for this kind donation of which the proceeds have gone to the Society.
55009. The Perspex cab side windows were given a good clean by one of the team, a labour of love he called it.
55015. As the loco is now only requiring electrical work the opportunity is being taken to complete the internal cab painting with two volunteers working independently in each cab. Primer was applied to the required parts in No. 1 cab and top coat green in No. 2 cab. The two volunteers then had a quick tidy around the engine room. Another one of the team finished off smoothing the edges of the engine room doors before they were also treated to some primer. Some missing fittings to complete the sun visors were found amongst the stores items being sorted which were duly cleaned and fitted.
55019. Busy day today, the paint prep team was busy rubbing down ‘A’ side which is now complete, whilst another continued with the arduous task of rubbing back the roof grills. Painting of the grey primer is on hold until the warmer weather. All six ‘A’ side windows were removed to allow for treatment to corrosion.
Inside the loco, No. 1 nose end in particular was a very busy day with the second, No. 1 exhauster bolted in. The traction motor blower was lifted into place and completely bolted in and connected to the ducting, not easy tasks. All three items just await the electrical bods to do their bit.
STORES. Further progress with sorting the stores with a variety of people lending a hand to both identify items and sort. A start was made with one of the nine stillages from the bottom end being sorted and put onto separate pallets and the items identified for scrap were disposed of. One of the three pallets of three Davies & Metcalfe compressor bodies, minus the electrical machines was bought down. The mechanical parts are complete and in good condition. These are marked as Class 47 versions and are going up for sale. There are three more yet to be identified - watch the DPS website if you are interested.
A few of the recently organised pallets were moved around, and the plan is starting to take shape.
Many thanks today go to Beth, Bob, Dave, Darrell, Geoff, Martin, Nigel, Steve C and Steve M, Simon, Trevor and William.
Words and pictures: Mike Hallam-Rudd.
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