Welcome to the latest T1LC update, first of all apolgoies for no update in May. We had a change freeze in place on the website while it was transferred between hosts so first of all thank you to our orginal host for helping us getting setup and for all there support over the years. Thank you to our new host for taking us on and for a smooth transfer.
On to 31463, we have been working on getting the fourth roof section bolted down which is above the electical cubicle. We had to lift the roof section to get access to the roof brace against the cab as this gave us a couple of issues. Following some modifications to the brace we got the roof down and bolted down.
We got some paint on the wall behind where the brake frame lives so this could be fitted. With the brake frame in place, it had its air connections fitted, the air system was charged using the shed compressor and some leaks could be heard so we are working our way through these. One of the panels we had to remove to access a leak was the nose end from no. 1 cab to access the dsd equipment, when was this panel last removed from the loco? While this is off it has been noted a couple of repairs need doing so we will attend to this once the remaining air leaks are fixed.
We also had some leaking brake cylinders so the first one was removed from the loco, the steps cover the crane coupling that supply air to the cylinder, so the steps had to be removed to undo this. The cylinder was opened up, cleaned and new grease applied, the piston was cleaned, a new seal fitted as the original was torn and the brake cylinder was put back together and fitted to the loco. It was decided to take off all the brake cylinders and inspect them and we no longer have air leaks on the brake cylinders. We took the opportunity while testing the brake cylinders to adjust brakes. One of the spirax valves was ticking quicker than it should be, so this has been on the bench, stripped, cleaned and rebuilt and works alot better now.
We have been donated a aws testing unit so after some checks on the bench we tried it on the loco and have had the aws sun flowers operating and aws bells ringing.
The turbos covers have been removed to inspect in there, do an oil change and one of the sight glass gaskets had failed so a new one has been made and fitted. The crank case breather pipe has been refitted. The loco had a clear out of anything that doesn’t need to be in it at the moment.
More pipe work stripped and painted in primer while the electrical conduit for the brake frame was painted in gloss.
In the electrical cubicle the top grills on b side and end have been removed and cleaned. The components in this area have been cleaned.
In the engine room the walls on A side were getting there first coat of gloss.
