Un-Official Work Day Report For
14th, 15th, 16th March 2012
During these three days Kit and Mel worked on the draw bar ends of E train.
The whole of
March 14th 2011 was spent working on the pin joint casting on the
south end of TC1. The original situation is shown below, but has been
complicated now by the positioning
of the TC1
access platform immediately over the top of the casting itself.
As further
work would be worthless unless the four casting bolts could be removed it was
decided to attempt this first, removing the bolts one a time and replacing each
bolt before removing the next. As the vehicle end is supported by the wooden
block seen above, immediately under the casting itself, removal of all the bolts
would have resulted in the vehicle end collapsing onto the steering beam.
Each bolt
was subjected to a 2-3 hour soak in Plusgas and the specially bought 5/8” ah hex
driver was used to remove the first, top right hand bolt. It required two 10”
1/2” drive socket extensions to generate enough torque to remove the bolt, but
this was eventually carried out successfully. The use of an offset 1/2” drive
ratchet wrench was found to be very useful in the confined space available.
The threads
of the bolt were greased and it was replaced using enough torque as was possible
with the twin socket extensions.
The lower
right hand block proved to be much more difficult to remove as with the hex
driver in place it proved to be impossible to attach the 1/2” square socket
drive extensions and the ratchet was not long enough to produce enough torque to
loosen the bolt. Richard produced a 'special tool' in the shape of a 4' length
of scaffolding pole which, when slid over the end of the ratchet proved to me
more than adequate for the job. This bolt in turn was greased and replaced.
The two left
hand bolts were also removed, greased and replaced in similar fashion but with
more difficulty due to having to work underneath the access platform. Since the
original report was written the
wooden support block has been crushed somewhat, presumably due to the increase
in loading caused by the restoration work inside the vehicle, and this should be
replaced once we jack this end of TC1 when it comes to removing the casting in
the near future.
It should be
noted that this is the first time these bolts have been removed since their
original assembly in 1971!
APT-E
Support Group.
March 20112
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March 15th
and 16th were spent in attempts to remove the similar casting from
the south end of PC2. Theoretically this one should have been easier to remove
as access was a lot easier through the hole in the middle of the joint module
floor.
This proved
to be the case and Mel and I managed to remove all four bolts, and with the aid
of the ratchet wrench and the 'Special Tool' it took less than an hour to get
them all out. However the casting remained in place and even attempts to
'assist' it to fall off using larger and larger hammers proved to be
ineffective.
Further
investigation with a torch and much gymnastic contortions showed us that there
were four more vertical nuts and bolts clamping a circular section extension to
the casting to the frame of the body, thus explaining it's reluctance to fall
off...
The vertical
nuts proved to be larger than any of the available ring spanners or sockets at
the Museum and measured 1.5 “ AF but this is almost exactly 38 mm and Mel
managed to find such a socket with the aid of her 'all singing-all dancing'
mobile phone, at a Machine Mart in Darlington, together with the required 3/4”
square drive wrench. I went there and bought these and we re-convened on the 16th
to continue the work, but access to the nuts was extremely difficult and
required even MORE contortions than we'd attempted previously!
By dint of
Mel attaching the socket and wrench from her position shown above and me using
the 'Special Tool' over the end of the wrench from trackside we managed to break
the joint on all four nuts. These were progressively loosened and removed but
only after we'd replaced the horizontal bolts we'd previously removed as we
suspected that the entire casting could drop onto the steering beam once all
eight nuts and bolts were removed.
Mel had
noticed two small jacking screws mounted near the horizontal bolts (see top
photo) and we surmised that the casting may have been dowelled in place but felt
we could not rely on that being the case and replaced the horizontal bolts
anyway.
With all
four of the vertical nuts and saddle clamps removed we then returned to the
Joint Module and progressively removed the horizontal bolts once more, but we'd
taken the precaution to block up the casting with pieces of scrap wood
beforehand. When the upper left hand bolt was being removed it became apparent
that there were no dowels as the casting could be seen to be dropping, and once
the last bolt was removed the casting fell onto the packing pieces with a
satisfactory 'THUMP!'
Using the
'Special Tool' we levered the packing pieces from beneath and the casting was
left lying in on top of the steering beam to be removed at a later date.
As a result
of this work and the future complications it will entail, a revised method of
Stage 2 of this work will be produced in the near future.
Kit Spackman
APT-E
Support Group.
March 20112