Work on Sherwood has been paused for the last two weeks while Barrow Hill was turned upside down for the steam gala. The team helped tidy up our area and covered over the roof of the loco to protect it from the inevitable volcanic ash falling out of the atmosphere from the steam locos. However, we were reminded why diesel locos did not mix with steam traction on BR, when we returned to find that a fine layer of rust had developed on any exposed steel surface including some of our polished cylinder heads. Our neighbours on 58016 were similarly dismayed to find several of their restored components afflicted by the acid rain.
Work resumed on the nose end, with completion of wiring in the instrument box and a quick test by Carl. The cover over the engine block was pulled back, and the top cleaned of oily gunge by Nathan and Matt – once the studs have been cleaned, the area will be primed before the liners are extracted, to minimise the amount of dirt falling into the crankcase.
Jacob has set up a production line in our workshop to clean various small engine components and got through six of the rockers. Cylinder head No 8 was prepared for valve lapping.
Rockers after cleaning
Engine block after cleaning
