Boscastle Locomotive Limited
June 2017
Recent work has mainly concentrated in two areas: The locomotive's cab and, no doubt this will come as no surprise to regular readers, the firebox area of the boiler!
Work in the cab has included renewal of missing steel floor plating and rectification work to the cab floor supports. During its original restoration at the Great Central some extensive patch repairs to the badly corroded cab underframe had unwittingly caused the cab floor to become uneven. All is now once again on an "even keel."
Electrical conduit in the cab area has also been attended to, as has work on the fuse box. The fuse box "pocket" in which the fuse box should reside under the cab floor was found to be of insufficient depth for the correct pattern fuse box, this too has been rectified and a new pocket has been produced from the original drawing.
What appears to be an almost never ending saga of stay removal from the area of the locomotive's firebox does in fact have an end in sight, as the only remaining stays which need to be removed prior to the boiler being sent to the South Devon Railway are around three quarters of the roof stays, which as the name suggests are to be found above the crown sheet of the inner firebox.
The task of removing the old stays, and indeed fitting the new stays when the time comes, is by far the most labour intensive element of the job, which of course means it would be a very expensive job were it to be undertaken on a commercial basis. For this reason we are most grateful to Michael Playle, Malcolm Prosser, Keith Devereux and Nigel Prosser, the stalwart volunteers who have undertaken this task, a considerable amount of which has been done in the cold winter months. The value of their contribution to the overhaul of the locomotive should not be
underestimated.
28th April 2017
Shown here is the new fuse box pocket on the left hand side of the cab underframe above the turbo generator. The new fuse box
body can be seen trial-fitted inside, and is at the point which the main electrical feed from the generator is split and directed to different areas on the loco.
28th April 2017
The rear of the new fuse box pocket seen from inside the cab can be seen below floor level. The conduit arrangement has been
changed to the correct layout with three separate feeds, to the front lights, cab lights and tender lights. This avoids all of the cables being squeezed through one small conduit as previously fitted.
28th April 2017
The main floor area was lower at the front than the side support bosses which it was supposed to align with, so the supports have
been modified and lifted. This shows two of the four main floor supports, which have had inserts welded in to enable the front bolt hole positions to be adjusted and the supports to be raised.
25th May 2017
This shows the repositioned floor supports with the fishing line pulled tight across from the cab side bosses, to ensure the floor
heights are the same.
25th May 2017
This shows the floor side plate bosses reattached to the cab framework. This could not be done when the cab was overhauled as they had to align with the existing floor supports and platework, which couldn't be checked until the cab was back on the loco. As so often happens, other work took precedence at the time and this task was left unfinished.
25th May 2017
Pictured are the new floor plates on the right hand side of the cab. The original narrow plates towards the front of the cab had
disappeared and weren't replaced at the original restoration. The original larger plate with the curved cut out was badly corroded
and didn't fit well, so has been replaced.
30th May 2017
This shows some of the remaining crown stays on the top of the right hand side of the firebox looking towards the rear. Approximately 50 from the front rows have been removed. The hole seen at the rear of the picture is where the regulator rod passes through.
30th May 2017
This shows the left hand side of the firebox top, looking towards the rear. You can see where the crown stays have been cut from the inner and outer firebox and cut stays ready to be removed. The bars running across the firebox are the transverse stays which will remain in place.
30th May 2017
This shows just some of the stays already removed, the pile of long stays next to the pallet are all crown stays. There are almost as many stays again, piled near the front of the boiler.
Images on this page are copyright A.J.Morgan