Amongst the plethora of workshop projects and repairs, Samson forges ahead, largely through volunteer input but also with some assistance from the team in the RHEC.  The great side benefit of the project is that the workshops are being set up and equipped to carry out work on the engine, thus ensuring they are set up and equipped for other works, be they planned or reactive repairs.  Work has focussed on those items already seen on the blog, so here is an update on their progress.

Below: The two crankshaft pedestals have now been more or less machined in readiness for a trial mounting on the boiler.  David has also machined the bearing brasses and caps to fit these – the big day when work starts on the crankshaft itself is not far off now!

Below: The smokebox door ring is under construction – the ring has been rolled that mates with the inside diameter of the boiler shell, and seen below is the front ring, with the aperture cut out and the ring ready to press out.  A plasma cutter is used for this work, with final dressing off by hand.

Below: Chris tack welded the front ring to the inner ring, thus creating the angle as seen here.  He then welded the inside and outside joints, before grinding the overlap to create a neat finish and accurate right angle – time consuming but relatively rapid and cheaper than finding and having rolled the correct gauge and size of angle strip.  The smokebox door is a simple disc, to which the handle and locating pins can be fitted once it is cut out and dressed off.  The spare disc from the middle of the ring will be used as a baffle, to reinforce the lower half of the door.  No.18 had a similar arrangement but it proved too heavy to lift off (not being a hinged door) so was removed.  It was later confirmed it never had one fitted at Seaham so we were on course historically, even if by accident!

Below: The front ring, trial fitted into the boiler shell.

Below: Having machined the bearing area, David turned his attention to the left hand bracket which is fitted with the means to mount the intermediate gear wheel.  This had to be faced, bored and then back-bored to enable the axle stub to be held captive.  This is what is seen in the photos below.  Note the jig on which the casting is mounted – this is machined for squareness and ensures a datum for mounting accurately and machining.

Next week the forgings for the footplate will be fitted, David is making patterns for various items of valve gear and the crank pedestals may even be trial fitted to the boiler barrel.  I am working on the wheelsets and a means of achieving a rolling chassis in not too long a time-scale.  Graham Morris has been commissioned to carry out the boiler design, which is greatly assisted by the remarkable similarity to the Heywood 15 inch gauge locomotives, of which Ursula (a replica of which was built by James Waterfield and runs on the Perrygrove Railway in the Forest of Dean) is almost identical in dimensions to Samson.  A Jonathan Clay painting, which was commissioned for this project, has also arrived and gives us an idea of how Samson will look, from the front, and in colour!