Tuesday 5.3.2013

As some of you are unaware of what A6071 looked like before we started, here is a photo taken in 2011, just after I had started working on it. This is looking at the east side.

Copyright Tommy Lees 2013

The start of the day was misty, bitter and we were wondering where the sun was. Luckily it did come out later in the day and it was glorious to work in the sun.

The morning was spent attacking the barrel once again. Keith, on Saturday, had attacked the top of the south end barrel and today he attacked the north end, cleaning all the way to the weld line.

Meanwhile, I attacked the remaining areas of the west face that had yet to be cleaned and primed. These areas were as follows: behind the ladder at the top, a patch just right of the ladder, the remainder of the right side of the walk way and then attacked some of top barrel. The top is proving to be time consuming, seems to be a thicker paint. Either that or the elements have taken their toll.

Copy right Tommy Lees 2013

The picture above shows the south end of A6071. As you can see, the top is now in red primer. Keith was priming the north end when this was taken.

Towards mid afternoon we were in the process of tidying up, when I checked emails to see I had one from Phil, stating he was going to order wood for the brake supports that are missing, and asked if we could see the quality of the two we currently have. Me and Keith set about taking the bolts out that hold the wood, and checked the quality of the wood. Conclusion...wood is solid and does not need replacing. Brilliant. However before we got the email we discussed that the next time we are down we should take apart the west brake pins to make sure they are useable. Reason for this is that we have had an offer for pins to be made for the east brake set, and if we need west pins replacing now would be the time to put it in the same order.

copyright Tommy Lees 2013

We also discussed that if the pins are in a suitable condition, we will re-construct the east rigging using the west pins, allowing us to work on the remaining two wheels, axle boxes, and brake components. 

I have also taken a nut and bolt home so that I can get some exact ones on order. These are brake support bracket bolts, four of which are missing, mainly on the east side. 

Next tasks:

Take apart pipe wheel at top of barrel, (pictures and tags of parts will be made)

Take apart west side brakes, check pins

Undercoat barrel in grey

Clean under left side of west walk way

Take bolt of west ladder, get duplicates made for east ladder

The above tasks should take a couple of weeks to complete, depending on weather and free time.

If you are liking what you read, or we have inspired you to help us then do please get in touch. I can be contacted on thomas_lees_21@hotmail.com.