9.4.2013 behind the axle boxes

This will be a short piece this week, even though for us, a lot was accomplished taking in the consideration of working areas.

A lot of activity was happening in the yard today, with the GCR PW being in attendance for ballasting of the Mountsorrel Branch, it is nice to see a 37 appear hauling dogfish and a shark.

Keith has previously cleaned the lid at the top, this was re-cleaned (mainly due to not being primed at the time, light surface weathering needed taking off) and primed. This proved interesting as the inside had to be rested upon the lock to stop water gathering. This will be touched up, and under coated in due course.

With the west brakes being off, it has now become possible to clean behind the axle boxes. It is easier without the brakes being assembled, however the accessibility is still not brilliant. A drill with wire brush accessories was mainly used. This area was then primed. The axles will be tackled next before undercoating will begin. Each wheel takes about a day to clean, and about half a day to paint. So we are looking at possibly a month before these will be finished in gloss.

The parts that were cleaned last week have now been put in store. I'm still considering the best approach for painting these. It may well be constructed and painted in stages instead of painting before re-assembly. I have now taken the wheel and the main support home to clean, these will be with the other parts hopefully next week. Mean while the area in which they have come from needs to be cleaned.

Areas to be worked on:
Top of Barrel (Cleaned and painted)
Lid components (taken off, cleaned, painted)
Brake Components (cleaned, Painted)
West side axles (cleaned, Painted)
West side axle box (Cleaned, Painted)
East Barrel face (cleaned, Painted)
Axle tie bars to be re-attached

Once again we seem to have created many jobs, each at different stages. Determining which is more beneficial at the time, weather depending, is key to making sure its done, however each job can be done quicker if we had more support so please do get in touch.