16th May 2017

BR Mark 1 RU, 1936 which is an ongoing project has been brought back into the shed.  The first job was to lift it and remove the bogies.

Originally it had been fitted with Gresley bogies.  This was carried out by British Railways because the BR1 bogies it had when built were not stable enough.  The Gresley bogies were heavy duty and cured the stability problem.  The Gresley bogies unfortunately were worn out, we had planned to fit a pair of B5 bogies and had already fitted one at the kitchen end.  However lack of another B% and doubts over the brake linkage has led to a rethink and it will now have a pair of commonwealth bogies fitted.
Another picture below of the coach on the jacks.  It is being lowered down to a workable level, it will be left on the jacks with baulks of timber at each corner for stability.

After the bogies have been removed it reveals the centre casting.  The polished boss and the greasy pin below it, are the parts that locate into the bogie.  To change the bogie to a different type we have to change the casting to one that matches with the new bogie.

When the casting has been removed it leaves the mounting plate.  This will have to have new holes drilled in it, to match the new casting.

Inside, the kitchen will be completely redesigned, as a result of this we no longer need the old compressors that worked the bottle cooling unit.  The picture below shows the very heavily over engineered compressor housing after it had been removed from underneath the coach.  The space where it came from will be used to create a housing for an on board generator.

Anyone want a large steel rabbit hutch?

We have some additional visitors at the moment.  When we went to get new propane bottles for the dining car, we found a very vocal blackbird protesting at our entry into the gas store.  There is also an Oyster catcher that has laid its eggs in the gravel of the old Speyside platform.

After washing the service set, we noticed that 5057 and 5060 were both low on brake blocks.  They were both detached and shunted over to the shed exit line to have the blocks changed.  This was the nearest point to the carriage shed that we could get to.