Restoration diary

​Jay Hirst, Dave Rolfe, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Dave spent the day loosening the levers that actuate the brake cylinders on the bogies of Repulse, as they are all bone dry and stuck having not operated for over 30 years. Jay assisted Richard making and wiring a new terminal bar for the DSD Speed Switch in the cupboard under the ...

Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Jay Hirst, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Mark finished fitting rubber strips inside the last of the air filter frame housings, barred round the power unit and oiled the turbos. Dave carried out various jobs around the locomotive. Jay helped Richard doing an endurance test on the internal and extern...

Richard, Dave, and I were on site yesterday. Dave is continuing testing pipework and various valves in the air system of Repulse. He has also mounted the extractor fan above where the ETH generator sits. I fitted and wired the AWS sunflower & reset button in No.2 cab, while Richard finished connecting the two-core cable from the sunflower ...

Dave Rolfe has been putting air into the air system of 50030 at various points, looking for leaks, and inevitably, is finding a lot. He plans to work through the locomotive. This will reveal any more fractured, missing or broken airpipes. I added a new link wire between two terminal bars in No.1 cab as part of completing the unfinished DSD sys...

I was away at a non-railway event this weekend but my electrical restoration partner Richard Dale kindly provided this report of work undertaken in the no 2 cab of 50030:"The brass panel light lamp holder was repaired, the missing porcelain instrument lamp holder was replaced with a like for like porcelain holder, the flex from the headlight invert...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows, Richard Dale, Carl Looker and his daughter Sofy and I were on site today. Mark and Dave were working on the power unit, Carl was de-rusting in the filter compartment of 50030, Sofy was hoovering more debris from under No.1 cab floor. Richard and Jay continued investigating the DSD wirin...

Mark and Richard were on site on 18th February. Richard reports he did a couple of checks to the cab wiring problems, it appears that we did not have the second live from Cab2 at the Cab1 switch panel, this would explain only having half of the route indicator and no driver's cab light. It seems some of the cab wiring issues is eithe...

​Richard and I managed to attend for two weekends in a row and together we achieved quite a bit. The new headcode box lamp frame was fitted in No.1 cab, all the internal bulkhead lights had new lamps fitted and the instrument lights in No.1 cab. We were happy with the tests of the lighting circuits at 24v to put the full 110v into them through...

Mark Burrows, Dave Rolfe, Richard Dale, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Mark was only there a couple hours, to show a visitor around the project. Dave was continuing to overhaul valves for the braking system. Jay fitted rubber strips behind the last air filter frame, then assisted me wiring the four brake valves on the brake frame. Richard...

Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows, Richard Dale, Dave Rolfe and I were on site today. Mark was unable to stay beyond noon, so he barred round the power unit two revolutions, and oiled the turbos. Jay carried on guing rubber strips behind where the air filter frames sit opposite the electrical cubicle. Dave was fitting the last of the airpipes he had recovere...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Jay and Mark were gluing rubber strips behind where the air filters will sit around 50030 to prevent them rattling. Dave continued cleaning and test-fitting various sections of air pipes on and around the brake frame. He has also refitted the four brake valves to the brake...

Dave Rolfe, Richard Dale, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Dave had finished topcoating the area where the one exhauster and motor blower will sit, and the air filter frame opposite the electrical cubicle. As the filter frame had dried, he fitted the new filter casings we'd had made. Jay did some undercoating of the last sections of welding...

An extra day today with just Richard and myself on site. Richard brought some angle-iron and flat plates he had made, so we could create a bar for new lampholders to go behind the headcode box lenses, as both headcode boxes are missing the original lampholders and whatever framework they were attached to. We checked his original measurements, then ...

​Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Carl and Sofy Looker, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Mark was sorting out the shims for when the ETH generator is fitted into Repulse, then removed the elbows from the broken airpipes in both cabs, to allow more room for the repairs. Dave carried on sorting out the stuck radiator louvres, and assi...

Dave Rolfe and I were on site today. Dave was dismantling part of the radiator louvre system, as one side was not operating when we tested it with an air supply last week, as reported before, to try and discover why the shutter blades didn't move. Dave subsequently discovered that the seals on the two air engines for this set of louvres&n...

Dave Rolfe, Richard Wade, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows and I were on site today. Richard carried on checking the battery isolation switch and shore supply and battery charge wiring. Jay and I attempted to fit the upper internal panel that goes above the change end switch in No.1 cab, but most of the mounting holes didn't line up, so we looked ...

​Dave Rolfe, Carl and Sofy Looker, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Dave was removing pipework from the spare cab (formerly of 50037 Illustrious and purchased for this very reason), Carl and Sofy rubbed down and undercoated all four cabsides on 50030, then removed some cab handrails to de-rust and prime the difficult-...

Mark Burrows, Dave Rolfe and I were on site today. Mark brought back the 16 overhauled fuel pumps, and they were placed in store for now. Dave started pressure-testing the two air engines that operate the rad fan shutters on either side of the radiator compartment now replacement covers have been fabricated for the EP valves, as the originals ...

​Dave Rolfe, Richard Dale, Jay Hirst and I were on site yesterday. Richard finally finished drilling and tapping the fixing holes for the mounting plate for the change-end switch in No.1 cab, a difficult job because most of the holes are either at floor level, or right next to structural supports for the cab desk and the bulkhead the driver's ...

​Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Richard Wade, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. After barring round the power unit and oiling the turbos, Dave and Mark began investigating the broken air pipes I'd discovered under the floor in No.1 cab, finding virtually all those that dive through the plating under the cab floor had corroded away, on both t...