Its been another of those weeks which starts with Monday and seems to reach Friday without any sense of the passage of time in between, its gone so quickly!  As ever, here is a look about the department, showing something of what we have been up to this week…

Below: This is the Commer 33cwt van, which took part in the Beamish Reliability Trial but expired on the long climb out of Stanhope.  Brian has brought it in and started work to identify the source of the ‘worrying noise’ that it had emitted and resulted in its failure.  All of the pistons are present, so that at least rules out one potential catastrophe!

Below: Having completed the work on the Fordson Thames van, this departed and was replaced by the Commer, only for a clutch defect to be reported on the B-Type bus.  Brian has now lifted the bus, removed the gearbox and can start repairs next week.  Its been two and a half years since it was last attended to, so I suppose it hasn’t done too badly, but it is frustrating for all to lose this vehicle just as the busy season looms.  It will be attended to as a priority however so won’t be out of use for too long…

Below: All of the tramcars received UATs this week (Ultrasonic Axle Tests).  This work is to establish whether or not there is any fracture or cracking in the axles, either a plain break, or the more likely fracturing and cracking where the wheel interfaces with the axle.  All passed and a suitable period of time will elapse before they become due again.  We also had 16’s truck frame and repairs tested and the next visit will see the Waggonway, Colliery and Rowley stock tackled.

Below: The volunteer team is progressing work on N&G 49.  The running gear has been inspected and measured and work on body fittings is progressing along with some painting preparation, as seen here.  Once the tram is re-wheeled, painting can progress (once the body has settled), meanwhile brake blocks are being cast and attention turned to the design of the brake gear so that this can be progressed.

Below: The Showmans living van has had the roof fitted and canvassed.  Matt is seen here spreading the canvas bonding putty, with Tony doing the same on the other side.

Below: With canvas spread and bedded onto the putty, the edges are fastened and pulled taught.  This is left to set before painting and waterproofing and final fitting of beading, gutters and trim.

Below: Dave Young has kept himself occupied recently machining and fitting the axleboxes.  These require careful work to fit the hornguides, as well as work on the boxes themselves.  Here is one on the lathe after it was rough bored.  Final boring for the axles will be done off-site by a contractor with a large horizontal boring machine, to ensure that the bores of each axlebox are parallel with their neighbour and in line with their opposite number.

Below: This is the raw casting for the second shaft, intermediate gearwheel for Samson.  It is now with the gear cutters in Blaydon for machining and cutting of the teeth.

Below: Work on the car park refurbishment and surface improvements completed (in an initial phase of work), opportunity has been seized to use the plant to carry out a number of other jobs around the Museum – including widening and preparing the Colliery Railway cutting both standard and narrow gauge lines to be built.

Below: Work has included widening the existing cutting sides, removing tipped spoil in the process, re-grading the angles and improving the surfaces.  As seen here, a very neat job has resulted, and the widened junction for the narrow gauge is clearly visible here.  A new turnout has been completed and will be collected shortly, and we hope we might have this section operating in time for September’s Power from the Past working weekend (over four days).  Edward Sholto has passed its steam test and is available for operation and a visiting loco for the narrow gauge in September is under discussion…

Below: Thursday was a busy day in the Colliery area, with Edward Sholto in steam for its inspection, Coffee Pot acting as yard pilot and No.18 in steam for testing of the modified injectors.

Below: No.18 posed alongside the chalrdons with which it worked for all of its life at Seaham.  Dave Young enjoys a trip on the footplate!  Matt is compiling a (quite long!) snagging list for the loco, but its final commissioning is now actively underway, which is great to see as we had otherwise worried that we would never find time to get around to this work.

Below: Over in the RMS the repaired wheelset for the Y7 has been fitted, the engine seen here being lowered back onto all four driving wheels using wooden staging, heavy duty jacks, a happy (!) band of staff and some quite interesting language!  The timber packing pieces are (deliberately) very VERY heavy and take quite a lot of handling on a job like this.  Here Matt and John prepare their jacks, while Dave makes sure all is clear for a lift to commence.

Below: Nearly there – with the springs to be fitted to allow final adjustment and then a lot of bits to be re-fitted early next week.