January 2026 Update

By Pete Maddicks & Tony Howard

First, I am most grateful to the boys for keeping me up to date with the progress on the loco as I have not been able to attend much again this month. Work has continued on fitting parts. The boys have also been retrieving the parts from the van as they are required. 

Sat. 10th January.
On site today: Dave Mc, Kevin S, Peter M, Simon B, Tony H. 
First working Saturday of the new year. 
Earlier in the week the full-time staff had been busy with installing copper pipework to both injectors,  and fitting the regulator rod, along with the regulator handle, and the lubricator. They had left us a list of jobs for us to do. One of these jobs was to get the lubricator to sit level. As there was quite a lot of metal around the holes we elongated two of the holes and eventually got the lubricator sitting level. Another job was to finish the lagging around the backhead and finish off the corners of the backhead cladding. Once this is done the cab roof can be put back on. Another job was to move the operating lever for the back damper the other side of the steam pipe for the 8mm injector.

Monday 12th January. 
On site today: Bob L, Charles L, Dave L, Dave Mc, Peter D, Peter M, Phil H, Steve T, Tony H.
With the loco on the pit the front Balance Pipe was bolted up completely. The operating mechanism was then refitted to the front sandboxes. Quite a lot of work was done fettling the backhead cladding, including painting and changing the 1/4" screws to 5/16" diameter. A decision was made on how to proceed with the right-hand tank overflow pipe which has caused us some headaches over the last few weeks.

Saturday 17th January. 
On site today: Alex E, Dave Mc, Kevin S, Nathan L,  Peter M, Phil H, Simon B, Tony H.
Today's job was to fit the cab roof to the loco. Dave Mc came in early to assist with the shunt that was needed to get the wagon, with the cab roof and the loco in the correct position. Slings were attached to the cab roof and it was lifted onto the loco using the JCB. The cab roof was bolted back down with just three or four bolts needing further work to fit correctly.

Monday 19th January. 
On site today: Bob L, Charles L, Dave L, Dave Mc, Steve T, Tony H. 
The three or four bolts needing work on, following the fitting of the cab roof, turned out to be a few more. Our mistake was we did not remove three pieces of angle iron that were supposedly fitted to the front of the cab roof although only two were actually fitted.  
When the cab roof is finally fitted the bolts that hold the angle iron will also fix the top of the backhead cladding. Most of the day was refitting the three pieces of angle iron making sure the bolts were long enough to go through the backhead cladding. 
More work was done on the drop grate operating mechanism. With a lot of parts fitted to the loco, the workbench in the fruit D looks quite empty.

Saturday 24th January. 
On site today: Alex E, Dave Mc, Kevin S, Nathan L, Steve M  Tony H.
We received a list earlier in the week of jobs the full-time staff would like us to do. First job was fitting the reversing lever quadrant, then the drain cock operating lever. When fitted it was noticed that the top of the lever was close to the bottom of the lubricator. Most of the bolts were replaced in the floor plate. The vent pipe was fitted in the bunker. And finally the window frames were fitted in the cab, again a little fettling on the one screw.

Monday 26th January. 
On site today: Bryn T, Charles L, Dave L, Dave Mc, Phil H, Steve T Tony H .
The bracket that we couldn't find that fits the bunker vent pipe at the back of the cab roof was found and given a good clean and a coat of undercoat. Also the wooden backs for the gauges in the cab were found and fitted ready for the full-time staff to start the small copper pipework. The safety valve bonnet needed a fair bit of fettling to get it to sit correctly on the profile of the Boiler. It had trial fitted before but this is the first time all the copper water feed pipework has been fitted.  Eventually, it fitted perfectly. The nuts and washers were fitted to each end of the tie bar, and also the nuts on the fixing bolts for the cab roof to the water tanks.  This meant someone had to climb into each water tank to fit the various nuts. The final few bolts were fitted to secure the cab roof to the bunker.