Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
Say what you will about the NHS, once the wheels start moving the pace can almost be frightening: My feet have barely had a chance to touch ground since the previously mentioned " surgical procedure"!
Progress has been rather slow on the project of late, but it appears likely to be further interrupted over the next few months as the serious treatment gets under way?! I was really hoping (with an awaited and tracked Royal Mail parcel being sent to Manchester instead of Suffolk notwithstanding) to get the bogies ready for testing under the carriage during the early part of next week. Sadly, it threatens to become a case of so near, yet so far?
During a mixed up week of ins, outs, ups and downs, I did manage to do some work on the bench though:
It eventually dawned on me that the only way to deal with the problem of inaccessibility to the bottom end of the centre pins, brought about by my determination to retain continuous spring planks, could be solved by boring a large enough hole through same, and then add a removable strengthening plate in each of the beams. The problem was only a matter of how that could be achieved with the available tools:
There simply was not enough metal in the beam to cut the full size required to pass an M10 nut or bolt head through, but by shaving the flats off the latter, a 16mm hole would suffice. The problem was that I did not possess such a bit, and was not particularly inclined to go out and buy one for a single task! I did however have a 12mm... and a nice, new countersink to play with!
It was admittedly a bit of a faff using round files to chew out the remaining meat between countersunk bores on either side of each beam... but I got there in the end!
Then came more of the now familiar fun and games...
I trust that this arrangement should be sufficient to replace the missing metal in the middle?
"Take aim... steady... steady... SHOOT!"
(Note the correct naval terminology there. I may not have the sea in my blood - but if I did; some might be fully justified in saying they can see where it gets in!)
These bogies are really looking as if a heavy calibre gun of some sort should be attached anyway?!
The centre pins are slightly unusual now, in that they will remain on the bogie, and pass upward into the carriage underframe. I intend to fit a castle nut, or similar on the top where the pin extends above the timber crossbeam. Hopefully, the only time the baseplate will ever be removed is to allow the pin to be dropped out, if and when a spring needs replacing?
They do zip along quite nicely - even on the slightly bumpy steel tramlines, but it still remains to be seen how they perform under load?
Just waiting for the (much travelled) order of more springs and a set of bearings to arrive before that can happen!
Pete.
Progress has been rather slow on the project of late, but it appears likely to be further interrupted over the next few months as the serious treatment gets under way?! I was really hoping (with an awaited and tracked Royal Mail parcel being sent to Manchester instead of Suffolk notwithstanding) to get the bogies ready for testing under the carriage during the early part of next week. Sadly, it threatens to become a case of so near, yet so far?
During a mixed up week of ins, outs, ups and downs, I did manage to do some work on the bench though:
It eventually dawned on me that the only way to deal with the problem of inaccessibility to the bottom end of the centre pins, brought about by my determination to retain continuous spring planks, could be solved by boring a large enough hole through same, and then add a removable strengthening plate in each of the beams. The problem was only a matter of how that could be achieved with the available tools:
There simply was not enough metal in the beam to cut the full size required to pass an M10 nut or bolt head through, but by shaving the flats off the latter, a 16mm hole would suffice. The problem was that I did not possess such a bit, and was not particularly inclined to go out and buy one for a single task! I did however have a 12mm... and a nice, new countersink to play with!
It was admittedly a bit of a faff using round files to chew out the remaining meat between countersunk bores on either side of each beam... but I got there in the end!
Then came more of the now familiar fun and games...
I trust that this arrangement should be sufficient to replace the missing metal in the middle?
"Take aim... steady... steady... SHOOT!"
(Note the correct naval terminology there. I may not have the sea in my blood - but if I did; some might be fully justified in saying they can see where it gets in!)
These bogies are really looking as if a heavy calibre gun of some sort should be attached anyway?!
The centre pins are slightly unusual now, in that they will remain on the bogie, and pass upward into the carriage underframe. I intend to fit a castle nut, or similar on the top where the pin extends above the timber crossbeam. Hopefully, the only time the baseplate will ever be removed is to allow the pin to be dropped out, if and when a spring needs replacing?
They do zip along quite nicely - even on the slightly bumpy steel tramlines, but it still remains to be seen how they perform under load?
Just waiting for the (much travelled) order of more springs and a set of bearings to arrive before that can happen!
Pete.
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