Update January 10th 2017

Mentioned in an earlier post, was the plan to move the two coaches that are in a very bad condition from the back of 8 road, cover them and park them at Boat of Garten.  The first to be dealt with is mark 1, CK, 15401, pictured here being shunted along the shed exit road.

When at the back of the shed the fork lift was used to place the tarpaulin's onto the roof.

The coach was then shunted into the repair shed to have the tarpaulin's unfolded and secured in place.  Whilst inside the shed the axle bearings were given an oil change and pad exam to ensure that nothing goes wrong on the trip along the line.

The coach all wrapped up and ready for its trip to Boat of Garten.

Back on mark 1 RU 1936
The roof vents have all been shotblasted, painted with red oxide primer and re-fitted with new rubber gaskets.

Inside another section of floor had to be lifted to renew some of the steam heat pipe work.  This picture shows the new pipe coming through the corrugated panel.  This panel is fixed to the side of the floor bearers and hold the fibre glass insulation against the underside of the plywood floor.

The steam heat pipes fixed back in place against the side.  These were tested on Saturday 31.12 when we arranged for the engine to come to the shed at lunch time.  The results of this were not very good, only one of the four pipes heated up and there were a number of leaks.  These issues will be looked into but the next test will probably have to wait for the start of the running season in March.

The corridor connection face plate was set up on some wooden boxes for the fitting of the rubber bellows and damper units.

The completed face plate standing up against the racking ready for fitting.

This is the metal hoop fixed in place at the end of the coach.  When the corridor face plate is fitted in place, the rubber bellows attach to this metal hoop.

The corridor connection face plate mounts onto these spring loaded arms.  This is the right hand one which has an original metalastic bush in place.

Unfortunately the mounting bolts do not come out of the metalastic bush easily, usually the bush gets destroyed in the process. This is what has happened to the left hand bush.  To correct this a metal bush has to be turned to take the place of the rubber section.  The metalastic bush is there to act as a shock absorber, at our slow speeds, replacing it with a solid bush makes little difference.

The replacement bush in place.

The bush in place with the mounting bolt in place for a trial fitting.

The mounting arms all ready for the fitting of the face plate.  This has been delayed owing to a visitor to the shed, blocking the fork lift truck from accessing the back of the coach.

The visitor in the way was steam loco 46512 which was in to use the lifting jacks to remove its wheels.  These are going away for tyre turning.

Look no wheels!, just the springs to remove from the floor before the slave bogies are brought in.