Work is ongoing on the tender chassis with some good progress being made with the machining of the axleboxes and their covers, as well as the fabrication of a new brake shaft. We are also refurbishing the tender brake hangers to take them from ‘very worn’ to ‘as new’ condition.
The best place to check up on the latest news on the restoration is on our social media feeds which are updated regularly and have lots of information and pictures of the restoration:
These are updated much more regularly than this website, so why not check them out.
Here are a few pictures of recent work:
Test setup of the newly refurbished intermediate brake shaft bearings. New tender brake shaft setup, with arms tack welded on prior to full welding.First root runs for attaching the brake shaft arms to the shaft being welded.One of the tender brake hangers during weld buildup to restore the badly worn surfaces.A ‘before’ and ‘after’ showing a refurbished brake hanger on the left, and a partially weld repaired version on the right. Each one of these consumes around 100 welding rods to bring it back up to the correct size, giving an indication of just how badly worn they are.A newly made 1 5/8″ British Standard Whitworth nut to replace a missing one on the original brake gear.One of the new tender axleboxes during maching of the front face where the cover sits. The hole on the left is for a 3/4″ stud, the one on the right suits a 3/4″ bolt which tightens the cover onto the axlebox.A new tender axlebox cover casting mounted on a rotary table on a vertical milling machine – to allow the protruding hexagon to be machined to remove the draft angle (which is a necessary part of the casting process).A new tender axlebox cover set up in the lathe (being held by the hexagon on the front face in the three jaw chuck) having the mating face skimmed flat.Trial fit up of the overhauled steam brake cylinder on the chassis.
The London Midland Society Webpage 