8 January 2024

End of Year Engineering Report

Progress

At the end of September Wadebridge’s frames were moved into the Works at Heywood and good progress has been made in NDT testing, repairs to cracks and removal and repair where required to cross members and frame stretchers.

The wheels sets had been set up in the Wheel Lath for re-profiling, and as reported earlier, found to have excessive runout of over 3mm which is out of tolerance even for heritage railway use.  As it was not possible to machine out this level of discrepancy a request was made by Email to the Board to authorise the replacement of the tyres.  The additional cost is in the order of £12.2k for removal and machining and upwards of £25k for the tyres.  Having spoken to Riley’s on 8^th January, they confirm that they will be ordering tyres from South Africa and they should arrive in the UK in about 12 weeks time. The old tyres have been removed and machining of journals and rims has started.

The Middle Cylinder Valve Liner pattern and casting have been ordered and three new couplings have been delivered.

After a long delay the Outside Cylinders have been tested and this has shown up a number of cracks.  All three cylinders have been delivered to Cast Iron Welding in Coalville and Mark will be visiting on Wednesday 10^th January.  I’m hopeful that I can update the Board on the 11^th January on cost and timeframes.  As good progress has been made on the Frames, Riley’s are keen to get the Cylinders returned to Heywood asap despite the long delay in getting the NDT testing completed.

Riley’s have started a system of record keeping that should put us in a good position when we submit are documents to Ricardo for assessment.

David Ford

Project Manager

19 December 2023

24 October 2023

25th September 2023

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