Just Bumbling On

A quick call to the workshops this evening met with the response "just bumbling on". It's been one of those weeks when the job has moved on, but we're still in the thick of things. The bearings which allow the motion to turn are coming on nicely; two of them have now been machined and inserted into the relevant slots in the forged sections of the rods. Restoration Engineer David Pritchard (Daffy) says he still needs to do the wedges to hold them into place.

There has been some noticeable progress with new bits arriving on site. Most of the parts for the new smokebox have arrived on site, so we now have the wrapper plate, the strengthening plates for the bottom and the angle pieces to hold everything together. The bit we don’t have yet is the front plate, which still needs to be ordered.

Will post some pictures when we have them.

R

The THING!

Top of the list of jobs on Russell recently: make THING! Our Restoration Engineer David Pritchard (Daffy) has been working on machining the outsides of the bearings that enable the rods to turn. He explained that the THING! Is basically a piece of metal which enables him to get the bearings to sit in the rods correctly. The bearings are held in place by wedges, and the THING! helps Daffy to make the wedges at the right angle.

If you don’t believe that it really is called the THING! look here:
- http://whr.fotopic.net/p68087153.html
To see what it looks like, click here:
- http://whr.fotopic.net/p68087152.html
And to get an idea of why it’s needed, click here:
- http://whr.fotopic.net/p68087151.html

Daffy has been keeping some more late hours recently, working until 21:00 one evening. He’s also been working in the mess quite a lot sorting out drawings recently, though he also admitted that when he’s in there, his consumption of tea goes up!

R