[Posted a couple of weeks later] With May at the very end of the goods shed siding in Corfe Castle, we are unfortunately once again without power. (Yes, there's power nearby but all sockets are in use and we don't have the right adapters...) Â So last Sygnets' session was purely Sygnet-powered! Â Nonetheless we got some good jobs done and progress made, including:
The handrail job is a small but important one. The design of the Fowler bonnet has three handrail stanchions each side, bolted from underneath. Unfortunately the nuts on the rearmost stanchion are completely inaccessible, due to the fuel tank almost entirely filling the space under the rear bonnet section. Â Now that would be OK if the handrails just slid in / through the stanchions, but because they're completely rusted in and seized, it effectively means that the rear bonnet cover and the handrails have to be assembled before fitting to the loco, making the whole thing extremely heavy and unwieldy. If we can free up just the rear stanchions, they can be bolted in place before fitting the bonnet cover, then later the handrails can be slid into them and bolted onto the other covers. The stanchion on one side has now been removed, after a lot of hard work, but the other - after a promising initial twist on the handrail, refuses to budge. Next step will be the application of heat which should, in theory, release it. Watch this space! |
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