Photo © P. Hetherington 10/03/07 |
The weather was kind for a change, so plenty of painting got
done, I started, though, by wire-brushing a few areas where the primer
needed re-doing for various reasons - and then got carried away and did
this part of the underframe, where the works plate should be.
The primer is very quick drying so by the end of the day the same
section was painted in grey undercoat too. Black top coat followed on
the Sunday, but I forgot to take a photo of that! |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
The south end dragbox was already in primer, of course, so it
received a coat of grey undercoat on the Saturday and then black top
coat on Sunday. It looks good! |
Photo © P. Hetherington 18/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
Also on Saturday I re-did those annoying bits of underframe which
had got missed for whatever reason (rain, usually). They're seen here
in grey undercoat but were up to top coat by the end of Sunday.
The north end dragbox is lagging behind somewhat, as it got dark on
Saturday before I could finish the undercoat - and then again on
Sunday after I'd got a bit further, but not finished the adjacent
underframe. Still, I always plan to run out of time, not out of work! I
also painted the brake shoe holder (whatever it's called) into grey. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
The vacuum cylinder, you may recall, had received a soaking just
after I'd applied top coat last time, so the finish was ruined. I
rubbed it down again somewhat patchily, then touched up where necessary
with primer (Saturday) and undercoat (Sunday).
Last, but not least, various parts on the 'washing line' went from
primer to undercoat, or undercoat to top coat, as applicable. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 11/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 16/03/07 |
Friday seemed like a good day for painting, so I got the wire brush
out and prepared the next section on the side of the underframe, and also
that annoying bit on the north end which I'd missed previously, including
the buffer. By the end of the day they were in grey undercoat. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 18/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 18/03/07
I also did a bit of an 'archeological dig' and uncovered the original
six-pointed star on the solebar; this denotes the position of the
vacuum release string. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 18/03/07
I then decided to paint the vacuum cylinder with black gloss. This
is, of course, the Palbrick equivalent to a rain dance, so I was a
bit nervous, but I seem to have got away with it this time! |
Photo © P. Hetherington 18/03/07
On Saturday I touched up Friday's undercoat where necessary,
wire-brushed and primed a couple of loose bits, and started to
undercoat the last couple of underframe sections in the north-east
corner of the wagon. However, this area has been in primer for rather
too long, and really needs some re-work in places, so I've only been
able to apply undercoat patchily. |
| Saturday (which was supposed to be sunny) was a cold, miserable
and ultimately damp day, so not much got done. I did, however, manage
to wire-brush a couple more of these brake rigging brackets and paint
them in primer, |
Photo © P. Hetherington 24/03/07 |
| I also wire-brushed this area of the north end underframe, where I
hadn't been happy with the previous paint finish, and re-painted the
area in primer, and then later in undercoat - all under the shelter of
a hastily-lashed-up plastic sheet! |
Photo © P. Hetherington 24/03/07 |
| Sunday (which was supposed to be wet) was a lovely day, but I
only had half a day free. I started by painting the next 'outer'
section of underframe in black gloss. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 25/03/07 |
Next I painted a few loose bits on the 'washing line', and then
carried on by starting on the north end dragbox and adjacent underframe
areas. Of course, I ended up painting in the dark again so I'll probably
find that it needs patching up next time.
Incidently, if you look closely you'll see that the north end of the
wagon has now acquired an 'appendage' in the form of a vacuum dummy
bracket. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 25/03/07 |
| Lastly (but actually firstly) I assembled the south end coupling
hook into the rebuilt dragbox. As the depth of the dragbox is less than
on the Freightliner-modified version, I've needed to add some extra pads
to make up the difference; I acquired these with the wagon, for this
purpose. The pieces are in fact alternate 'rubber-metal-rubber'
sandwich pieces, and plain metal discs. I needed two extra of each, but
also had to leave out a thick washer which the Freightliner-modified
version had used. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 25/03/07 |
Photo © P. Hetherington 06/04/07
Five days of brilliant painting weather! On Thursday I wire brushed
and primed the two underframe sections to the left of the dragbox
at the south end of the wagon, then on Friday I did the two sections
to the right to match. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 06/04/07
Prior to that, though, I did a little investigation of some of the
livery details on the various 'fiddly bits'. I think I now have
everything worked out - basically, none of the interesting bits
seem to have been picked out in contrasting colours originally, so
that's how it shall be. There is, however, a slight query about the
rings provided for tying down sheets. I think they were probably
bauxite originally, but there is also a hint of black as well as
Freightliner blue and, eventually, white. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 07/04/07
On Saturday the area to the left of the south end dragbox was
painted into undercoat. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 07/04/07
The main job on Saturday, however, was the wire brushing and
priming of the various bits of brake rigging from the north end of
the wagon. This was harder than it sounds as they were covered in
grease, which is not conducive to painting. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/04/07
By Sunday, however, the brake rigging parts were in undercoat. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/04/07
The main focus of attention on Sunday was
the wire brushing and priming of two more sections of underframe.
This only leaves three 'boxes', although the middle one is going to
be particularly awkward. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/04/07
The grey primer started to spread to the right of the south end
dragbox late on Sunday, until bad light eventually stopped
play.
Incidently, you'll notice that I've temporarily 'boxed in' the
dragbox; this is simply to keep out the worst of the dust generated
by the wire brushing. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 09/04/07
On Monday I re-fitted the north end coupling hook, but apart from
that I mainly concentrated on painting. The remaining grey areas
at the north end finally went into black top-coat - including the
two brake-shoe frames. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 09/04/07
I then carried on with the black paint at the south end, but was
ultimately thwarted by running out of paint! So I got out the
undercoat and painted all of the remaining yellow areas into
grey.
Incidently, the photo isn't too clear but I fitted the vacuum dummy
bracket at the south end. It isn't such a good fit as the north end
bracket as the twist goes slightly further up and this means it
doesn't sit quite flat against the headstock. It hardly matters and
nobody will notice but it's something to beware of next time I make
some of these brackets! |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/07/07 |
The small matter of my MSc dissertation has meant no wagon work for
three months. I'm also in the middle of rebuilding the front suspension
on the Standard, but I don't yet have
all of the parts so I found myself with a free day. This also turned out
to be the first just-about-sunny weekend for ages - well, apart from the
thunderstorm that came over at about 7 o'clock!
So, I decided that the vacuum cylinder had been sitting on the ground
next to the wagon for long enough, and it was time to fit it. I started
by wire-brushing and priming a small section of underframe which was going
to be more awkward once the trunions were bolted on, then I wire-brushed
the pivot points on the cylinder and the corresponding holes in the
trunions (the latter have been indoors so weren't too bad). |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/07/07 |
Next I drilled split pin holes in the eight new bolts - genuine
Whitworth threaded articles, but unfortunately about 1/8" longer than the
originals, which might be significant. I then fitted the 'inner' trunion;
it must be possible to fit the cylinder with this in place since the
wagon arrived with this trunion still in situ.
Now for the difficult bit. Shawn arrived to offer welcome assistance at
this point, and we moved the wagon over the adjacent foot crossing to
give a level surface to work from. The cylinder was manoeuvred into
position and we spent the next several hours jacking and packing it to
the correct height. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/07/07 |
Ultimately we found that, using this method, the 'inner' trunion had
to come off again as we found it easiest to keep the cylinder level
while lifting it. Liberal doses of grease were applied to
the trunions and pins, and we also found that the two lower bolts on each
side had to be installed with the nut inwards, as the bolts were slightly
too long to fit between the cylinder and trunion. To be fair, most other
wagons seem to have the lower bolt (usually singular; the Palbrick is of
course different) installed the opposide way around too. |
Photo © P. Hetherington 08/07/07 |
So that's it - the cylinder is on, it pivots nicely on the pins and
the single heaviest remaining job is now done! Work will resume in
earnest once the dissertation and the Standard are both finished,
probably towards the end of July. |
