We have trial fitted one of the buffer shanks, over the years all 4 have been bent where they bolt on to the buffer beam creating a dished effect. Since we straightened the beam none of the buffers will sit nicely on it now, Andy has spent a few hours turning them so the backs are flat, the down side to this is the thickness has been reduced. To overcome this problem we are going to fit some packers to the backs so they are to the correct length.

 

 

We are planning to have another riveting session next week hopefully this will see the veranda end finished.

 

With the assistance of Jon and Marcus, over the last 2 months we have been concentrating on riveting the toad together, so far the entire cabin end has been completed and 80% of the veranda end. 

 

A month ago we experimented in steam bending a 2x2” ash roof hoop.  The 1^st attempt was 90% successful but after a few modifications to the jig and constructing a steam box today we successfully bent another,  2 down 5 to go. 

 

The cabin end ballast and sand box holders have been constructed and waiting riveting.  We are currently building the veranda end sand boxes but since the previous owner striped them most parts have been lost over the years before reaching Bitton.  Luckily a visit to the SVR and Didcot for a few measurements and photographs have helped

All 4 new springs have been fitted, we are aiming to get the wheels back under during February at some point hopefully.



Over the last few weeks we have been setting up for riveting all the new plate work into place, this has included making some long series 1/2 and 5/8 rivet snaps to get into the tight spots on the frames. To date after 1,  1/4 days of riveting we have put in about 200 rivets along the cabin sides and veranda bottom.

 

The dust seals for the rear of the axles boxes are in the process of being made, the old method used to be a sheet of ply wood with some leather attached around it to try and keep dirt out and as much oil as possible in, when we restored the Midland Open we decided to use some engineering plastic instead of the ply as an experiment this proved successful and is now being tried on the toad.  Now the hole for the journal has been cut the next process is to mill them to the correct thickness so they fit in the back of the axle box castings and radius the corners.

 

 

The springs are now ready for collection to be overhauled this week, hopefully most of them can be repaired

 

Over the last few weeks between working on the toad a few of us have been cleaning up the buffer beams on the BR Std brake van, the draw hook, the screw coupling have been taken off inspected, cleaned and painted. The 2 photos below show the Bath end completed and the bottom shows the Oldand end equipment in the work shop being painted

 

 

This week we have drilled and fitted the hand brake plate. All holes were marked and counter sunk using M16 bolts a 4" hole has also been drilled for the hand brake shaft, I have fitted the cast hand brake column temporally, eventually it will be bolted to the timber floor not the steal base. The veranda sand box floor has been drilled to allow the vacuum cylinder brackets to be fitted temporally. With this completed I have started marking out the 2 holes for the piston and cylinder hose. 

 

The new sanctions have been fitted temporally to drill the veranda sand box floor

 

The new sand box floor constructed, this will have more holes drilled next time for the vacuum cylinder and sand box supports

 

The cabin end sand / ballast box floor completed, a few more holes will need to be drilled in this for the sand pipes and fixing brackets

 

 

Everything in red primer is new

Showing the old and new plates, the old hand brake plate will be replaced within the next few weeks after both sand box plates are fixed down

 

2 pictures showing the general view of the new side sheets compare one to when the toad arrived

 

 

July 2013

We have started fitting all the new side panels now to the toad, here is a few pictures showing one side completed