As the work to complete Lewin accelerates towards its conclusion (I hope!) in the late spring, I thought I would cover the progress on the restoration on a searchable thread within the blog, titled ‘Lewin Latests (date)’. Hoepfully this will assist those wishing to follow this project specifically and who can use the search facility on this blog to more quickly locate what they are looking for. So, what happened on Lewin last week…

Below: Davy Sheen has repaired the original ashpan for No.18 (to give the Lewin it’s more correct identification), which has included extensive patching of the front end as well as straightening the ashpan door and providing a more suitable location for the damper lever to locate onto. It is seen here pending painting (which will smarten it up but inevitably burn off in time – I can’t think of many ashpans that aren’t a red rust shade after a few years work).

Below: Meanwhile, over at Hetton, the first coats of NER (well, LNER!) apple green colour have been applied to the wheels, disguising the rather vivid high build undercoat shades. The frames should receive their first colour, ‘Morrocco Marroon’ next week.

Below: Vince has made replacement cylinder cladding as the original was pretty bent and battered and had been affixed to the loco using some very rough and ready welding (this probably dates to the 1977 ‘restoration’ but may reflect later ‘keep it running’ practice at Seaham Docks). These will be removed, probably home, for painting and application of at least the first stages of the quite elaborate lining on these items.

Below: Dave has been busy in his workshop, trial fitting the rather lovely lubricating pots which he made, and discovering that they were something of a ‘rattling’ fit! Hal Weetman, Lewin’s former driver, recalls requesting the oil pots be replaced by grease lubricators during the loco’s last few years at work (so late 1960s). He admits that he realised that this wasn’t a progressive move and that within days he regretted asking as the grease would not follow the oil ways and so he had to still apply oil anyway! He also adds that he hadn’t the heart to ask for the oil pots to be refitted and so Lewin ran with grease ‘stauffers’, something it retained in the 1977 restoration. Thanks to Dave’s skill at making the patterns and machining a full set of oil pots (of Black Hawthorn design, from a drawing by Graham Redfern who re-equipped Black Hawthorn ‘Wellington’ at the Tanfield Railway with a set) Lewin now has not only better looking and more accurate lubrication, but will also have a better supply of oil for these important moving parts.
Dave has approached the fitting of these parts in two ways. In some cases he is able to make a bush that has an oversize outside thread to fit into the worn threaded holes in the rods. This has an internal thread of correct proportion for the oil pot:

Below: Dave’s second approach to the problem has been to silver solder the pots into place where this is possible. This example is shown below (in fact this is the other end of the coupling rod also shown above).

So, much still to do and a narrowing window to do it in! On Monday I will be visiting the boiler and hopefully shortly afterwards the superstructure fabrication will be agreed and work on that will commence at Hunslet’s works at Statfold Barn. The foundry has the patterns for the injectors and our new Regional Heritage Engineer will produce the timber buffer beams. Once the boiler arrives at Vince’s then reassembly of the engine can make much more progress and the myriad parts already prepared can be fitted. Next Friday afternoon is earmarked for another painting session, so I will report next weekend on another week of Lewin restoration progress…

(Note – I prepare these notes on my laptop at home, which seems to have a fundamental disagreement with Blogger resulting in numerous additional spaces and rather wide gaps between text and photos – I have tried to edit these out but, as in so many other aspects of our lives, apparently computers know better than us and we are but their servants…!!!)