The Rebuilding of #24

This article appeared in issue #11 (April 2001) of Grand Scale Quarterly magazine.
Some of you may remember my report in an earlier issue telling the sad tale of how #24 was un-ceremoniously deposited in the middle of the road, halfway up a Cumbrian hill on her way to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway gala weekend [see GSQ Issue #5, pg. 20]. At the time, we carried out enough repairs to get her steaming again and keep her in service back at the CCLR for the remainder of the 1998 season. She actually did remarkably well and I even used her for a series of `driver experience' classes.
She was however showing distinct signs of general wear following years of hard work with little in the way of tender loving care. Add to this the damage sustained in the accident and some basic design faults that needed sorting, so it was something of a relief when in late November of 1998, about a month later than originally planned, I finally set too with the strip down.
It had become very clear over the previous months, that the only course of action was to literally strip her down to bare frames and replace or repair as she went back together as ther'e was so much to do. All the motion/valve gear had been clanking and knocking since we bought her, so all of this was taken to the Roundhouse factory in Doncaster (where I work) for re-bushing etc.
The suspension on the three coupled axles, which consisted of a sandwich of several rubber blocks and steel plates above conventional axle boxes, was looking overdue for replacement. Also, on one side of the front axle, the blocks had started to displace after the accident and needed investigation.
Once the wheel sets were dropped out, it was discovered that on this particular axle box, the two steel guide pins that retain the suspension had both broken thus allowing the rubber blocks to move sideways.

'Driver Stubbins' in his 'ass fitter' role, paints the stripped chassis.

When everything had been removed from the chassis, the rear drag beam, which had been bent when it hit the road, was straightened. Now this in itself was no easy task as the whole frame is constructed from 1" steel plate with several cross stretchers and braces, bolted or welded in, in some places double thickness. The whole assembly looks perhaps a little over-engineered but that's just great, as it most certainly saved the loco from severe damage. It took the best part of a day to accomplish, using a large hydraulic ram, an oxy-acetylene burner with a BIG nozzle and various other sundry items of heavy equipment. The frames were then de-greased, primed and painted black.
Both front and rear pony tucks had also suffered minor bending or twisting and these were also straightened and painted. On rebuilding, all new suspension was fitted to both the coupled axles and the pony trucks.
Coupling rods, connecting rods and valve gear were fitted with new bushes and thrust washers where necessary. The oil supply for the six main axle boxes was also improved. Previously, this had consisted of six rather small oil pots, one for each box and required frequent attention. Two new oil boxes were made which hold about half a pint and mount on either side of the loco beneath the running boards. Each box feeds via wicks and copper pipe to three axle boxes.
The engine brakes also came in for attention with the fitting of new shoes and a couple of hanger pins. More importantly, the steam operated cylinder mounted between the frames, which had been leaking for a long time, could now be fixed. Now the brakes did work, but a good deal of steam would leak from around the front end of the cylinder due to loose cover bolts and a blown gasket between the end cover and the cylinder. Easy you might think, just remove the cylinder and fit a new gasket and tighten the bolts up correctly. Unfortunately, as we discovered last year when the leak first appeared, someone had made the decision to attach the cylinder by welding its front cover to the stretcher. Now the cover was attached to the cylinder with about eight, recessed socket cap screws who's heads were now hidden between the frame stretcher and the cylinder end cover. With all areas of the frames now fully accessible, the stretcher in question, which is quite a hefty I" steel plate structure and incorporates brake hanger mountings, was unbolted and removed complete with cylinder. The welding was carefully ground away to free the cylinder which was duly repaired and modified so that it now attaches by bolts.

The boiler replaced on the frames.

New cab mountings were fabricated from profile cut 5mm steel plate to replace the rather flimsy items that had, until now, tried to keep this singularly heavy structuec in place. At first glance, the cab looks like a conventional timber framed and paneled affair as found on many older US engines. Appearances can be deceptive however, as the whole thing is made from steel bar and plate and must weigh about half a ton on it's own.

Yours truely replaces the cab on it's new mountings.

Once the boiler and cab were back on the frames, new clading was made to replace the sections damaged in the accident. At the same time, new sections were fitted round the firebox and throat plate to cover the gaps that had been there since I982 when the boiler and cab were raised on the frames about six inches. but the cladding wasn't altered to suit.
I had also discovered two previously hidden wash out plugs, so access holes were provided in the new cladding for these. At the front end, it had always been impossible to get to a group of about five flue tubes for cleaning and another wash out plug, due to the bad routing of the main steam pipe in the smoke box. It had long been a plan to re-route it, but when this and the blast pipe were removed and found to be very badly corroded in places, the whole lot was replaced. This was another of those jobs that looks so straight forward that you just know it's all going to go wrong. Several hours were spent trying to remove the chimney and petticoat pipe to gain access to the steam pipe header behind it.
The petticoat pipe fitted up inside the chimney with a very close fitting sleeve several inches long that had probably never been disturbed since the boiler was fitted, and was now fused immovably by years of corrosive fumes, water, soot and general rust. I finally ran out of patience, energy and swear words and turned to my old friend the `gas axe' (oxy-acetylene cutting torch) and within minutes had the two offending items on the floor albeit with the chimney still holding firmly on to the top bit of the petticoat pipe.
It sounds barbaric, but it only required a little plastic surgery with the MIG welder, etc and all was well again. Needless to say, a better way of fitting the two items was used when they were refitted as I'm pretty sure we will want them off again in years to come.
Two new steam operated cylinder drain cocks were made to complement the two still fitted to the other side. These would replace the `temporary' manual stop cocks that had heen fitted the previous year at `Ratty' and would mean no more running to the front of the loco every time you wanted to open or close them.
The original plan had been to have the loco back in service during May 1999, but time was now running out and there was still loads to do. Work on the actual loco was only done at weekends, as Cleethorpes is 50 miles away from where I live, though machining and fabrication of parts was done at work during the week. To speed things up, I began having odd days off from work and going to Cleethorpes instead. This helped a lot, but the position was finally reached when there was just one weekend left before I went on my holidays and I was not going to be beaten. It was also a bank holiday weekend, which meant there were three days, so confidently I announced that she would be steaming by Monday and prayed.
Saturday passed reasonably well and she looked more or less complete, though a quick glance at the still large pile of pipes and fittings sitting in the tender said otherwise.
Sunday went well until a previously hidden fatigue crack in one of the bronze water gauge fittings decided to yield against the superior strength of the spanner. There was no way that that was going to stop things, however, so that evening it was straight to the factory at Doncaster to make a new one.
It was late morning on the bank holiday Monday, the last day of May, when I finally lit the fire. As she slowly warmed up, the adjustable spanner was in frequent use giving a little nip here and a quarter turn there as newly packed glands yielded their final dribble of water. The needle on the pressure gauge left the stop and soon the steam blower was cracked open, but not too much, slowly does it the first time. It was almost two hours later when the safety valves finally lifted and the gauge was showing 175 p.s.i. - it was looking good.
All the lubrication and other visual checks had been done, the injectors were working, the steam brakes cleared of condensate, let's see if she goes. Wind her into reverse, brakes off, a quick look round and whistle then crack open the regulator.
There was a pause, the steam chest pressure gauge had risen to 5Opsi, steam was shooting forward from one of the new cylinder drain cocks but we were not moving. We seemed to sit there forever before the motion slowly started to move, though it was probably only a few seconds. We shunted up and down the yard several times checking and listening all the while and everything seemed fine.
lt was a hot, sunny bank holiday, the sort you don't expect, and the holidaymakers were out in force. `Toby', 'John' and `Flower of the Forest' had been pulling full trains all day and it was time to put #24 through her paces and give one of them a rest. With a full train, and `Toby' as brake van, she set off smoothly and pulled without effort up the steady climb from Lakeside station. The beat was spot on and there was not a clank or knock to be heard.
Once round the sharp bend at the top, the speed was increased a little and we settled into a smooth and comfortable pace all the way along to Kingsway, the other terminus. We ended up doing three return trips and finally put her to bed about 6.OOpm. I had never seen her move as well and was pretty pleased if not a little relieved that generally she was OK. Sure, there were still a few jobs to do but they could wait till after my holiday, the main thing was that she could be passed fit for service and it was still May -just.
My thanks to the 'Saturday Gang' at Cleethorpes who gave valuable assistance whenever needed, and those who also helped considerably by simply staying out of the way.