Fire iron tunnel, sandbox and blanking plates prior to match drilling
This week 18th November 2007
Iain and I trial fitted the RHS sandbox, fire iron tunnel and blanking plates then match drilled the running board and formed the opening for the sand valve.
Ian and Max continued wih the removal of the superheater header.
John removed both of the lubricators as part of the ongoing stripping and cleaning down of the engine frames.
Pages updated this week: engineering
This week 11th November 2007
Once again, apologies for the lack of updates recently.
The fireman's side running board is now complete. The front repair section has been welded in place and the rear section match drilled and bolted down. The fire iron tunnel has been dug out and repaired, and the inside painted. Once it goes back on it will be one less thing to keep tripping over.
Iain and Max have been working away over the last couple of weeks to remove the superheater header, this has involved making up a frame to support the header once it comes off, but is now at an advanced stage.
John has now needle-gunned most of the frames, and Iain has been wire mopping and priming along behind him when the weather permits.
Today Iain finished match drilling the running board, and I rubbed down the new cab side and got a coat of primer applied
Pages updated this week: gallery
Iain bolting up the running board
Robin priming part of the RHS loco frames
This week 16th September 2007
Over the past few weeks, holidays and work away have combined to restrict the amount of time spent on 46464. However, John has been down midweek and needle-gunned a fair bit of the loco frames, and Iain wire-mopped and applied a first coat of primer to the drag box. Iain also got the various sub-assemblies bolted onto the new cab side and Ian, Glen and I got them rivetted in place last week.
This week we fitted up the remainder of the RHS running board, then started dismantling it ready for wire-mopping and priming. The weather cleared up later in the day so we prepped enough of the frames to make it worth mixing a batch of primer, and got it painted, also applied a second coat to most of the drag box.
Ian and Iain also removed some more of the lubricator pipework and labelled it up for easy identification.
Pages updated this week: engineering
This week 9th September 2007
Sadly, I have to report the death of Davie Murray on 26th August, aged 59. Davie had been unwell for some months. Davie was a staunch supporter of 46464 and a valuable member of our group, but was more widely known in the steam fraternity as a long standing member of the support crew for 60009 'Union of South Africa'.
Davie was a friend of the late Ian Fraser and used to help steam the 'Flower of the Forest', which he once described as a heavy lawnmower, at Ian's private railway in his back garden in Arbroath (see opposite). Davie said that this particular steaming was eventually halted by a visit from the police following complaints from a neighbour about the over-enthusiastic use of the whistle!
Through his association with Ian he developed a close interest in 46464. In recent years, when not busy with No. 9, Davie used to regularly come up and work on 46464. His practical skills, advice and good humour were much appreciated, and we will miss him greatly.
Davie Murray, Ian Fraser and Alex Wilson, steaming 'Flower of the Forest' some time in the late 1980's
Iain and Ian putting in the last of the cab side rivets
This week 22nd July 2007
Not a terribly nice day today, but we got the rivetting on the RHS cab side finished. The really fun part is going to be putting the cab back together as the various sub-assemblies are quite heavy.
I'm off on my travels again tomorrow, so may be a few weeks before the next update.
Pages updated this week: gallery, engineering
This week 15th July 2007
This week we had a visit from several members of the St Andrews Railway and Transport Society. Thank you for your kind donation and we hope you enjoyed your visit.
Two of the visitors, Davy Grant and Jim Balnavies, friends of Smithy from Ladybank and Freuchie, stayed on for the rest of the day to give us a hand, so we managed to get most of the cab side rivetting done.
We also got the replacement cab support plate offered up and match drilled. This runs across the back of the engine and supports the footplate and holds the cab sides in position. The original was badly corroded, like much of the lower half of the cab.
Iain has had new running board sections cut and pressed to shape ,and has been working away match drilling them to accept the cab front.
Pages updated this week: engineering
Jim (L) and Dave removing bolts from the cab side in between a bout of rivetting. Thanks for your help guys.
Make up your own caption......
This week 8th July 2007
Still working in Dubai, but I managed a rare visit to Bridge of Dun this week.
Over the summer Ian and Iain have finished setting up the air receiver. They have also carried out extensive maintenance on our compressor, and the whole setup is working well.
Rivetting of the cab side has been delayed by not having enough people on site at the same time (you need three, preferably four people).
Iain has found someone in Fife to machine up new parts for the tender handbrake assembly. We could have done them ourselves but, in the present circumstances, time is against us.
Davie Muray came down today to visit us, it was really nice to see him again.
This week 15th April 2007
Still working in Dubai, and Ian is on his travels in California just now.
Ian and Iain have taken the air receiver off the Ruston 165, this is to be mounted on sleepers next to the engine and used as an accumulator for the compressor, to stop it hunting, using excess fuel and tending to overheat. It will also help to deliver drier air to the tools, which will help us to make better use of our grit blaster. Dave came down and made up some mounting brackets. We will source the valves and fittings this week to finish the job.
We had several parts which had been damaged sometime in the past by over enthusiastic use of a gas axe, probably in BR days. I got them welded up and Iain and Dave got the various parts of the cab sides primed, ready to rivet them together.
Pages updated this week: gallery
Cab side parts primed ready to be rivetted in place
Somewhere in Oman - life's a beach
This week 11th March 2007
Apologies for the infrequent updates, I've been working in Dubai recently. With some of the facilities they have over there, we could get 46464 finished in about a fortnight....
Work has been progressing on 46464 however. Dave and Ian have set up a floodlight over our working area, much better than lugging out portable lights each week.
Ian has almost finished the first cab side, it will soon be ready to start rivetting back together. John has made and fitted a blanking flange to the water scoop intake on the tender tank.
Iain, Dave and I have been removing the boiler mounting studs from the engine frames. Most of them came out ok with a bit of heat but one or two broke off and had to be drilled and picked out. Iain's mate has turned up new studs and cross-drilled them for us.
Pages updated this week: engineering
This week 28th January 2007
We had two new volunteers today, Gerry and Dave, who work in the same office as I do in Aberdeen. They got the brake cylinder stripped off the engine, not an easy job, it was well rusted in place and took a fair bit of persuasion. When the top came off it revealed the cylinder bore and piston to be in good condition, with just the piston rod needing cleaning off and polishing.
We set up the RHS cab side on top of the new steel, and, using it as a template, Ian drilled out all the holes in the new steel. Next week we will be able to start bolting up the window frames and fittings an cut the window openings, etc.
We also took advantage of the extra bodies to sort out our bolt store, which has got in a bit of a state recently.
Pages updated this week: engineering
Dave and Gerry removing the brake cylinder
John addressing the haggis
This week 21st January 2007
The high winds over the last couple of weeks had taken their toll on the tarpaulins around the site, and we had to spend most of the day fixing the tents.
We did, however, have time for a Burns supper, the haggis was supplied and most excellently cooked by John.
Last week we continued needle-gunning inside the boiler and made up some brackets for the cab floor assembly.
Smiffy is currently on holiday in New Zealand for a month, hopefully we feature an online update from our roving reporter, if he can get on a PC somewhere.