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Contents:
After long months of seemingly unreasonable waiting the reassembly of K1 has begun on a grand scale. During September the K1 Gang were employed principally on preparing to rivet the pivot stretcher fabrications into the engines. First the fabrications had to be lifted into the engines for positioning and marking out. This was quite an easy lift for four people once sleeper platforms had been erected on each side of the engine. Once the fabrications were positioned correctly, involving some very careful measuring and double-checking, the newly purchased mag- drill came into its own as each rivet hole was drilled through into the fabrication. There are several different sizes of rivet and bolt to be accommodated and each had to be correctly sized. The fabrications were then lifted out of the engines again for further fitting work including the finishing of the drilling, grinding out of some weld fillets to accommodate bolt heads, fitting of brake hangers, the countersinking of several rivet holes, de-burring all holes and the completion of several jobs omitted by the supplier. The lower centre castings for the pivots had already been fitted to the fabrications but now it was possible to bore the holes for their hold- down bolts. The pivot castings then went off to Tyseley's main works for remachining of the inner wearing faces. Wear of the pivots has resulted in increased play and this will be taken up by the fitting of liners made of long-life Devlon plastic. This will reduce wear of the metal parts of the loco thus conserving them and necessitating only the replacement of the liner when it eventually wears. Finally the fabrications were lifted into the engines once more and temporarily bolted into position ready for hot riveting by Tyseley Loco Works. A number of other riveting jobs have also been lined up to be undertaken at the same time. These include the replacement of a number of rivets in the cab pieces which had been drilled out to enable the removal of rust scale and the consequent pushing out of cab plates. Once the scale was removed the platework could be beaten back into shape and temporarily bolted down ready for riveting. The cab back sheet has also been replaced because the old one had rusted through below footplate level. A new profile-cut plate was ordered and delivered and rivet holes were drilled using the mag-drill. Tyseley have also replaced the firebox stretcher of the boiler frame because the original had corroded to wafer thickness. All these parts are now temporarily bolted in position and await the arrival of hot rivets which work has been sub-contracted to Tyseley Loco Works.
At July the K1 Restoration Fund reached an amazing £95,000. Good though this situation is, we still have to raise another £25,000 in order to reach our target so please keep that money rolling in. The big push on the boiler in early 1999 will need all the finds you can provide.
The boiler seems to be a frequent bringer of bad news as so often boilers are. Earlier this year we were faced with a difficult decision regarding progress and design of the boiler and this was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the supplier and ourselves by a joint decision to recind the contract. All is not totally gloomy however, as all the components for the new boiler have now been made and it now only remains for the design to be revised and submitted for approval by the suppliers before construction can begin. We now have a clear vision of the way forward for the boiler and can say with some certainty that it will not hold up a return to steam for K1 in time for the Millennium. In particular Tuesday August 17th 1999 will see the 90th anniversary of the first raising of steam in K1, so we plan for that date to be celebrated in an appropriate manner.
New platework for the smokebox front plate and other parts has now arrived at Tyseley and work is in progress on a number of other items. Dr Richard Hills has been hard at work making the new whistle and it is all but complete, requiring only the valve thread to be cut. It will soon be ready to blow for the first time. Geof Cox is also at work on the patterns for numerous bits and pieces including brake blocks, the change valve operating cylinder and the regulator housing. The piston heads have had their ring recesses machined to standard dimensions at Tyseley and new piston rings have been ordered. The valve heads will receive the same treatment soon. The pivot lower centre castings are also in the machine shop to have the pivot cups machined ready to take new Devlon bearing liners. The slide bars are about to go out for surface grinding and the crossheads can then be sorted out. As soon as the pivot fabrications are back in place we can refit the motion brackets and start building up the crosshead guides and motion. It will then be time to lower the engines onto the wheelsets and the thing will then start to look like a locomotive again.
With all this going on there is no better time to come to Tyseley to join in the fun as the locomotive goes back together. Those who were there through the hard slog of cleaning gunge off all the bits are now having their work amply rewarded by the joy of seeing this very special locomotive going back together at long last. Likewise those who have had the vision to support the project financially can gain the same satisfaction. All your contributions to date have enabled us to get this far and none of what has been achieved so far would have been possible without them. We still have some hard work ahead of us and if anything the pace will quicken as all the various parts now being made come together for reassembly. That means the project will need additional support at all levels, practical and financial to achieve completion. Please keep up that support and help to bring this project to the spectacular completion it deserves.
Editor's note:
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