album:Late May 2019

One of the cabside windows acquired by Paul from Huanan Forestry Railway in Heilongjiang Province. The near edge was very badly damaged, so Paul cut it out and made a replacement piece from steel hollow section, with a reinforcing doubler plate inside to stiffen it where the catches and handles are fitted. This photo shows the new piece in position, with the old piece in front as a comparison.

Merddin Emrys at Blaenau Ffestiniog on the Friday: Paul and Jon formed an all-C2 Project crew. Colin, James and Andrew were also on the loco roster over the weekend.

Two shades of blue paint visible on part of the door droplight window frame.

One of the motion brackets, set up on the large horizontal borer, ready for boring the expansion link pivots so that they are true and parallel.

Dave 2 cleans dirt and old paint from the cab door droplight frame.

Some of the light blue paint on the cab window droplight, that we found under the top layer of silver.

The sight glasses from the lubricator bodies have the manufacturer's name moulded into them, but the characters aren't very clear. It might be 'Taiyuan Glass': 太原玻总

Dave and Colin at work, boring the expansion link pivots.

Counter-boring the recesses for the expansion link pivot bushes was a tricky job requiring a custom tool and working the machine in reverse. Dave and Colin mastered this and produced a great job.

The horizontal borer is a large and complex machine, but capable of all sorts of tricky machining jobs. Many thanks to the works staff, especially Martin, for training us to use this machine and trusting us to use it over the weekend.

Looking through the slidebar mounting hole, during the boring process.

Dave bores out the slidebar mounting hole in the bottom of the motion bracket. At first glance this looks all wrong - the motion bracket isn't mounted square. But it shouldn't be, because the cylinders and slidebar are inclined, this hole needs to be bored at an angle. Fortunately Dave thought about this when he set up the motion bracket!

Tender brake hangers, now completed. These are entirely new, replacing some pretty ropey old parts. Activities this working party included painting and pressing in the Iglidur bushes, completed by Dave 2.

Dave 2 uses the hydraulic press to insert the plastic bushes into a brake hanger. With a custom tool made by Paul, this is an easily controlled process.

The main part of the tender rear crash beam, welded together by Andrew.

A stack of cab window frames and parts awaiting Bob's attention with the TIG welder. Julian, James, Dave and Paul prepared these parts.

Bob used a TIG welded to join the thin metal sections very neatly. After this photo was taken, he also filled in all the holes in the same way. With a little rubbing down and filling, these windows will look as good as new!

A C2 at work on the Huanan Forestry Railway in April 2019. Our spare cab windows came from here. You can see more photos from Paul's trip to China here

Partially completed tender rear crash beam - Andrew Nelms, May 2019

Andrew welding up the brackets for the tender rear crash beam - Andrew Nelms, May 2019

A C2 stands at the coaling stage at Youhao Forestry Railway on 30 November 1987. The loco carries the number 04 but it is not the same as ours! This is one of the few C2s to have blue cabside windows; the blue droplight in the door is also just visible. Photo © Brian Pearce.