Saturday the 6th of December

Once again  we enjoyed  a sunny Canberra  day working on Australia’s largest steam locomotive. Mark finalised the strip down of the old boiler by removing the last of the crinoline bands and the superheater support brackets. He then moved onto the tedious task of cutting out the last of the blanking plates out of the smoke box on the change over boiler. Howard and Barry started the assessment and preparation of the crinoline bands for the  fire box  cladding sheets. While under the firebox Alan spent all day on his back drilling out the broken off fire bar bracket studs. 38 have to be drilled out and re tapped to 7/8 BSW. When completed all the brakes can be fitted and in turn the fire grate will be installed. Further to this Bruce is machining a full set of bolts to facilitate the attachment of the ash pan to the fire box, thanks again Bruce.

Future work will now address the change over boiler and cradle. The  list of works is as follows.

 Drill and tap 3/8 x 7/8 BSW stud holes in foundation ring.

Lift boiler cradle off engine units and set up on ground.

·     Make new 2 x reach rod brackets and install.

·     Install remaining crinoline stand off’s.

·     Hand rail brackets, fit to boiler.

·     Assess and repair boiler cradle as required.

·     Repair smoke box wrapper as required.

·     Grind flush super heater bracket mounting plates.

·     Super heater mounting bolts,  make new.

·     Install smoke box floor and associated fittings.

·     Repair smoke box door hand wheel and dart bar.

·     Assess and repair super heater header and throttle  and associated  fittings as required.

·     Install main internal steam pipe.

·     Install super heater header and throttle vale.

·     Install blast pipe and nozzle.

·     Install Smoke stack.

·     Install boiler centring bracket  

·     Install all pipe work and fittings in smoke box

·     Lift boiler onto cradle.

·     Drill and fit all smoke box to cradle bolts

·     Install expansion  brackets

·     Install all boiler feed pipes and fittings.

·     Install fire grate.

·     Repair and install ash pan.

·     Steam test boiler.

We anticipate lifting the boiler cradle off before Christmas and set it up level on the ground to facilitate the assessment and subsequent repairs.

Alan Gardner