News, 5 September 2026
News, 5 September 2026
The trial fit of the first sandbox is seen below. Copied from the original EECo drawings they couldn't not fit but it was worth the effort trying regardless. Once the loco is lifted again later this year, the threaded mounting blocks will be welded to the bogie and then the sandboxes fitted permanently.
The rear brackets which locate and retain the sandbox are tacked into position for the trial fit, again, copied from the EECo drawing its installation was pretty much guaranteed to be correct.
The bottom brackets seen during assembly, two left-hand and two right-hand seen here after being tacked together to check the alignment and squareness.
Then checked once again with the plate which secures the brackets to the sandbox tacked on.
Meanwhile, this anomaly was found during the strip and clean of the Battery Isolation Switch. One of the moving contacts had been replaced with a piece of copper pipe hammered flat and (sort of curved) to match the original contact. Who knows when this was done, could have been years ago! We'll replace it with a proper contact during reassembly.
The slider below shows the work on the Battery Isolating Switch case. From 'as found' to fully cleaned and into primer. It's upside down in the photos, don't write in...
Spot the difference. The nose end doors in the left hand position are ex-Class 37 and the assembly which retains the door when it's open is in a different position to a Baby Deltic (of course it is...) so we've had to fill the original mounting holes and drill new. Looks good.
