Tag: Danny

  • 14/07/19 – Cheerio Matey

    37637_10150218267700103_1261953_nUnfortunately Tuesday we learned of the passing of one of the GCR’s most notable characters. Peter Haylock was instrumental within the Operations Department and was formerly the railway’s Operations Manager, he always had a kind word to say or a story to share.  Personally, he was there on my very first day as a TTI and encouraged me to become a Guard, we shared many a conversation at many an event.  Unfortunately, our exchanges reduced as I moved away from Operating to Wagon Maintenance but I am glad to have had that last wave as we passed on the 37 last Friday. He will be sadly missed by the team and our thoughts are with his family.  “Cheerio Matey”

    We move to Saturday and continue work on Test Car 2. Nick progressed the roof scrape throughout the day.  Whilst Dave removed all of the vinyls.

    Once all were removed Daves attention turned to the doors.  Inspecting each and making repairs as necessary. Filling, sanding, and priming.

    Unfortunately, the Generator door was beyond repair and the decision was taken to replace it with one of our spares.  This door previously being from a South West Trains EMU.

    Whilst this was going on I cleaned up all of the door hinges and handles, removing the decades of paint.

    All of our attention then turned to the replacement of the door.  Removing the hinge pins, fitting the new door and making adjustments to the other door, budget lock, and main lock positions.

    Ross also continued with a few items on our Dumper Danny

    On to Sunday and more of the same for Nick as he continued scrapping the roof.
    With the new door being of fiberglass construction when it was trimmed to fit in the luggage door location it left a large hole in the bottom of the door. My first task was to manufacture a cover plate that seals the door bottom.

    Ross started to set up an airline and air powered sander and once I had finished with the door and it could be shut he struck up the test cars generator and compressor.

    During the sanding, Ross noticed a number of loose window frames and using some of my old RAF riveting skills I replaced the loose and sheared rivets.

    Ross continued with the sanding and as we know this is not a quick task20190714_172643

    I moved on to the other side and refitted the securing chain for the reducing valve. 20190714_125841.jpg

    I then faced the essay that is the legend on the southend of the vehicle.  I also painted out the weight and seat number as these items were not picked out on the data plaque.  Mr Bower providing a clear image of the plaque. THE details are for a standard BSK, not Test Car 2.

    That concludes this weeks update. More of cause next week as we continue on “2 Car”.

  • 07/07/19 – Dumper Doctor

    This weekend has been one of hospital jobs, but before we get to that we have some week work to catch up on. Those of you that are following our Facebook page will know that several things has happened this week. Firstly, Matt bought and fetched a fibreglass container with Nick. Secondly, Matt completed the signwriting on the Centre Shock van, thereby releasing the vehicle to traffic. It can now join the rest of the van train. Lastly, courtesy of the Heavy Tractor Group, the Test Car has been turned so that we can start work on the other side.

     

    On to this weekend. Saturday and Sunday has been one of small jobs, tidying up the workshops and storage vehicles. We have been hard at it on various project over the past few weeks, so we’ve taken the time to stop and have a sort out. I played doctor to our Winget site dumper, Danny. As the skips have moved down the yard, and with the vans hopefully coming back for attention to the vacuum system, we have decided to get Dnny back up and running. Danny has been out of use for some time for various reasons, the biggest of which is the lack of fuel getting to the injector. I ordered a rebuild kit for the fuel pump in the week, and armed with a certain amount of naivety I set upon the dumper. I removed the fuel pump from the engine to find the cam follower seized, which would explain the lack of injection. I freed of the cam follower with a mixture of penetrant and diesel. I disassembled the fuel pump and rebuilt it, following the manufacturer’s instructions from the workshop manual. I then reattached it to the engine and bled the fuel system. after a few false starts, the little Petter engine popped into life.

     

    With the engine of the dumper up and running, we decide to sort the steering which had gone stiff with standing. First the oil was topped up. this worked up to a point. Sadly something had become amiss in the steering box, as it started to only turn in one direction. Turning the steering wheel the opposite way had no bearing on which way the wheels pointed. The footplate was removed, and the steering box eventually came free. I will be contacting the OEM (who are surprisingly still going!) to try and get a quote for its rebuild.

     

    Matt was at work Saturday, but came down after work, and made a board so that we could stick our QWW magnet to something other than the newly painted Test Car. Matt also got out his signwriting brushes and picked out some details on the underframe of ‘2 car’ now that it has been turned.

     

    Sunday saw Matt showing us his green thumb by strimming the dock area. This should cut en on insects landing on the fresh paint (when we get around to it). Matt then went on the roof of ‘2 car’ to repair the periscope blanking off plates. These had lifted due to the pop rivets failing. In drilling through the roof, Matt broke all of our 3.5mm drill bits. New plates were cut, and riveted over the holes using new rivets, and plenty of sealant!

     

    Nick continued the task of scrapping down the roof of the Test Car, in preparation of the roof repaint. I continued tinkering with Danny, and freed off the rod brakes. one then promptly snapped. Win some, loose some I suppose. Hopefully, it can be welded, if not a new set from Winget probably wouldn’t hurt. I also removed and refitted on to the mudguard to some out some rust that had built up between the mudguard and chassis.

    I think that covers everything this week. Join us again next week, when we begin the process of repainting the other side of the Test Car.

    Thanks for reading!