During a lull in the rain, I managed to get up to the loco and swap one of these for the suspect AWS F.C.O.V. in No.1 cab that I had previously been unable to dismantle.
When I can get air in the loco again, I will test to see if this has cured the problem with the drivers auto brake valve whereby it would not charge the train pipe to more than about 10psi.
The removed valve was then also successfully stripped down on the bench but not without the attention of the "super human" power of Simon P and a large pair of Stillsons! I could not shift either of the end caps myself.
On Sunday (which was dry), attention turned to the brake fittings on No.1 bogie. I removed the four brake cylinder pins, cleaned, greased and re-fitted them. See picture. This is in anticipation of re-fitting of the brake cylinders.
Removal of the No.1 bogie hand brake linkage has commenced and the left hand side pull rod was successfully removed (pictured). Almost got the right hand side one removed as well but ran out of time, light and patience! The hand brake linkage was affected by the underframe fire and needs to be overhauled.
Paul B has been grinding away the last remnants of the former cable duct in No.2 cab. Jon has painted a replacement section of cable duct to be installed in this location and a section of replacement rainwater duct has also been similarly treated.
The loco may be moving away from the WSR temporarily for repairs to the bodywork and other jobs to be performed by external contractors. Please watch this space!
I confirmed that the repairs to the Auxiliary Generator Relay have been successful as you can now select the master controller to off and the engine does not shut down!
Also put in the Generator Field MCB and tried for power. First found that the ammeter went backwards, 50-50 chance and got it wrong! Swapped the wires over on the meter and over 1000A was registered. First time power has been put down from No.1 cab for many a year!
Also had another look at the No.1 Drivers Automatic Brake Valve problem.
The spare unit that previously did not work at all was dismantled on the bench on Saturday, cleaned and checked for satisfactory static operation. On Sunday I "borrowed" the missing Sealing Valve from the other unit and installed it into position. It partly worked this time but still only gave about 15psi air train pipe pressure, same as the other unit! So seems the problem may be further down line and next thing will be to investigate the Feed Cut-Off Valves.
The new metal sections have been delivered from a company near Tiverton and today Paul B, myself and Leroy moved them down to our end of the yard for storage. These include the new internal rain gutters, cable/pipe duct and other cab structure sections. Offered an example of each type up inside the loco to confirm they were what was ordered and all seems well.
But I finally got the remains of the old start button switch in No.2 cab out.
Brute force and ignorance won in the end!
An estimate for the bodywork repairs has been received and is under consideration.
Quite a contrast with the earlier pictures taken in the area!
I did some further investigation into the problem whereby the No.1 cab Drivers Auto Air Brake Valve will only give a maximum train pipe pressure of about 20psi.
Another spare valve was fitted but proved not to work at all. Inspection revealed a piece of it to be missing! So further work on this is required.
I took the opportunity to repair the Auxiliary Generator Relay (AGR) which has been persistently sticking despite receiving volumous amounts of WD40.
Having previous experience of this type of relay I guessed it would be a very fiddly job and was not disappointed!
I managed to get the contact block out and dismantled it on the bench. Managed to retain the spring on this occasion rather than it going into orbit and then hiding somewhere upon landing!
All the seized parts were freed and the block was re-assembled.
The block was re-fitted to the relay assembly and will be tested next time the loco is started. Hopefully will now be able to change ends without the engine shutting down.
The cables are then re-joined by the use of heavy duty crimp terminals and a bolt.
The pictures show the finished result loose assembled and is deemed to be satisfactory. The other three cables will now be dealt with similarly and the cable duct will also be cleaned and painted.
The worst of the damage was confined to the cabling between the brush boxes and this can easily be replaced. The brush lengths are virtually "as new"!
The pictures show the situation immediately after dismantling and the much improved scenario following cleaning the brushgear in the wash tank and cleaning the commutator with a commutator cleaning stick.
There is some damage to one of the brush box springs which may or may not have been caused by the fire but enquiries will be made to try and acquire a new set of springs.
The insulation of the armature and stator windings was measured and found to be exceptionally good. All moving parts rotate freely so it is considered that the exhauster should be repairable!
The other picture shows the key in for the first time in No.1 cab with engine running as I have now freed off the lock mechanism. The FV3 Drivers Auto Brake Valve in that cab does not give more than 25psi Air Train Pipe pressure. This is an item that was missing when the loco originally arrived and was replaced with a spare valve of unknown serviceability. A second spare is available and this will be fitted to see how it performs.
The motor will now be stripped to establish whether it can be repaired or whether a replacement unit will have to be obtained.
Following this, the loco was started up for some more tests on the re-activated controls in No.1 cab.
It has been established that it is possible to start and stop the engine, take power, reverse direction, speed up the exhauster and demand full power from that cab.
Not much more than that required, so looks like my target of being able to control the loco from No.1 cab by the end of August has been met with one week to spare!
The Air Train Pipe (ATP) and Vacuum Governors are sticking, but not really surprising after all these years. I have taken the cover off the ATP Governor and sprayed some WD40 inside (see picture) so hopefully that may help.
The new Lighting and Heating wiring will be tested in due course.
On the strength of this, I decided that it was now time for the new wiring to be tidied up.
So on Sunday, I shrank down the idents and tied up the wiring in No.1 cab as can be seen in the pictures.
Following this, I decided to do some exploratory work in the area revealed by the removed exhauster.
Attention from a hammer, cold chisel and crowbar laid waste to most of the badly corroded electrical junction box through which the original feeder cables to the triple pump, exhausters and (most importantly!) cooker ran. A hole in the floor also appeared through which daylight and No.2 Traction Motor could be seen! (see pictures).
All the original cables passing through this point were destroyed in the fire and temporary cables to the triple pump and (un-damaged) No.2 exhauster have been laid in for testing purposes but following a different route.
The fibreglass duct that carried the cables under the floor has also been terminally damaged, the burning resin likely to have added to the severity of the fire in the immediate vicinity.
Therefore, I believe the best way forward is to cut away the rest of the corroded structure then plate over the holed area and run the new cables to the exhausters etc via a different route similar to the test installation.
Following help from Neil on Saturday morning to confirm that the correct relays engaged in the cubicle when Engine Only was selected in No.1 cab and the (temporary) start button was pressed, the loco was successfully started from No.1 end for the first time since May 1996.
A significant milestone in the loco's restoration which was hopefully appreciated by Dick Holland who was married that day and passed by in his Wedding Special hauled by 33 048!
33 057 was Dick's favourite Crompton.
However, there is much still to do and the next stage will be to try for power from No.1 cab. The damaged No.1 Exhauster is scheduled to be removed from the loco for repair ASAP and there is still a small amount of wiring to be completed in the cubicle as well as the wiring for the two-way engine room lights.
But a possible means of repairing the fire damaged No.1 traction motor cabling (which passes under one of the cooler group drop tanks) has been devised and this will be tried out, possibly next weekend.
If successful, this will save a considerable amount of work as removal of the radiator panel and drop tank is definitely not a five minute job!
The individual cables still need to be connected followed by some testing prior to trying for control from No.1 cab.
On Sunday, I divided the cables into those which run forward into No.2 cab and the ones that run into the control cubicle.
The latter ones were then terminated in their appropriate locations within the cubicle(with the exception of the heating ones for the moment) as can be seen in the pictures. Wire 3A, Engine Stop (local), becoming the first one to be terminated at both ends!
Each was tested for possible earth fault or short circuit before connection.
It is hoped to continue further with the rewiring next weekend.
With the help of John Cooke and Martin Fitzjohn we managed to get the new 27 way train wire cable into the loco with surprisingly little difficulty.
We also cut and marked all the new end to end and No.1 cab to resistor bank individual cables and got them laid in also. Not bad for about three hours work!
I stripped back the 27 way cable yesterday and once I had worked out how they had number marked each core, made a start on tagging them and connecting to Cab 1 under floor terminal block. Continued today and have basically tagged and connected all new cables in that location. See pictures. Just two more cables to come into the terminal block, one from the exhauster choke valve and a CN from the AVIV. This will need the covers taken off the high level side to side conduit for access.
Once it has been checked that there are no short circuits or earth faults, the new cabling will be connected to the rest of the system.
In preparation for this, I have cleaned and painted the LT cable duct over this weekend as far as is practical to do so.
It is planned to start laying in the new wiring next weekend with the 27 way Train Wire cable first to go in. This is about 30mm in diameter, runs between the two cab under-floor terminal blocks and sits right in the bottom of the cable duct. This will need a number of people involved to feed it through the duct so hopefully there will be sufficient human resource available next Saturday!
Photos below by Jon Tooke for this weeks report
This exhauster incurred some damage during the fire suffered by the loco but looks to be repairable if the motor is stripped and cleaned.
It has also to be removed to permit future removal of the coolant drop tank for access to the traction motor cable runs.
With help from Simon Purvis, all bolts securing the flexi-mounts were removed.
The most stubborn one requiring attention from a gas axe with great care being taken not to start another fire!
The oil tank was removed from the exhauster to improve clearances and it is hoped the unit will be removed from the loco in the next couple of weeks.
But I was at WN on Sunday and after doing a battery exam on D7017 did a bit of preparation work on 57 ahead of the Mixed Traffic Weekend.
No, it will not be making a surprise entry into service!
But it is hoped to start the engine for periods over the weekend.
The door padlocks were all oiled as they have been giving trouble lately.
Following a bit of brute force and ignorance, I finally managed to free the seized handle on one of the control cubicle doors which has been bugging me for some time.
The cubicle was examined for any dead Polyrad Cable loving rodents following laying down of the rat poison but none apparent so far!
The engine was started for the first time since Easter and also since the fire damaged L.T. cables have been removed and other miscellaneous electrical work done. The batteries were charged for about 15 minutes and following running the compressor to achieve the required 30psi main res air, the start button was pressed and the engine started without hesitation.
The engine was allowed to run for about one hour and was noted to run very smoothly with a clean exhaust.
Matt H and myself managed to remove the last of the fire damaged low tension cables that pass below the cooler group.This has included the remains of the 27 way train wire cable that finally yielded following a bit of brute force!
Paul B has removed the wooden door thresholds and aluminium kick plates from No.1 cab to reveal that the metalwork underneath is in surprisingly good condition.
Some lateral thinking has been performed as to the way forward and if anything comes of it this will be reported in due course.
A couple more of the fire damaged cables have been removed. The picture shows typical damage to one of them.
Further talks towards getting the welding contract in place have been held.
The battery cells have now been properly connected together using surplus straps left over from the other loco installations. A few of those on 57 had to be connected using temporary links when originally installed last year.
Attention then turned to correcting an attack by rodents!
The insulation of the new triple pump positive feeder cable had been gnawed by said animals over a fairly long length as can be seen in the pictures.
The irony being that they seem to prefer the modern Polyrad cable but apparently turned their nose up at the old rubber insulated cable!
The situation has been corrected by shortening the cable (it was deliberately left longer than required) and crimping on a new lug. The picture shows Matt in action with the hydraulic crimping tool.
Rat and mouse poison has been put inside the control cubicle to try and prevent any future occurrences.
Further fire damaged cables have now been pulled out from underneath the cooler group. Only a handful of the control cables have so far refused to budge and the 27 way train wire cable has also been successfully extricated. The damage to the cables is variable and it appears that the ones that were near the open top of the duct have suffered the most.
Further extractions will be done in due course.
Individual low tension cables are being tackled first before attempting to extricate the 27 way train wire.
All applicable cable ties and tape were cut to release about eight affected cables that start either from the control cubicle or No.2 cab underfloor terminal block. The engine room walkway plates were raised to reveal the cable runs and the cables were initially lifted from the duct back as far as the fire bottles, see pictures.
The ease at which this was accomplished depended on how many half-nelsons the cable had got itself in!
I then tried pulling each cable in turn and eventually got one to move freely. Wire 4F (ATP governor) thus had the honour of being the first to be pulled out from underneath the cooler group!
There was some "bubbling" of the insulation where it would have been in the vicinity of the fire but only over a length of about six inches.
But as I had hoped, this has had the effect of freeing up a couple of the other cables and it is intended that further cables will be removed next weekend.
If all goes well, we may be able to pull all of the damaged LT cabling out and even rewire without having to remove the drop tank and radiator panel. The traction motor and ETH cables might be a different story though as I have a suspicion that they may be clamped where they pass underneath the drop tank but further investigation is required. But if that proves to be the case, we will have no choice but to take out one side of the cooler group in order to complete the rewiring.
While pulling the cables from the duct, I happened to notice a cable that had been joined by a crimp splice but with about 30mm of bare conductor exposed on each side! I managed to trace both ends of it and it turned out to be the lighting negative supply between No.2 cab underfloor terminal block and the roof section connector break to the engine room lights. I reckon it was done when the engine room lead light plugs were isolated (there was a second joint further along), but a total bodge, and if it is typical of work performed, it is a wonder that more Class 33s have not caught fire!
I removed the old rubber insulated cable complete and replaced it with a new one in modern Polyrad 37/0.3, a type of cable that rodents appear to find most appetising, but that story will follow in due course! The engine room lights were checked afterwards and worked ok.
We are still actively pursuing a contract to get the bodywork welding repairs done but nothing definite to report as yet.
